ORIGINAL: Sport_Pilot
It should be noted that some of the best engines were produced by machinist's not engineers. Fox, Veco, and the K&B lines all had engines which were originally designed by machinists not engineers. Although I suppose engineers have helped improve designs, I don't think it normally is a lot of fancy engineer design going into most engines. Engineers are probably spending more time figuring our how to produce them cheaper and improving manufacturing techniques than the actual design.
Duke Fox was not only a machinist. He had lots of other expertise. I met Duke and chewed the rag with him at the Nats several times. Fox Manufacturing is not just a machine shop. It's also a foundry & did lots of government work. Duke made runs of engines when the manufacturing equipment wasn't tied up on other contracts. Also, Duke didn't operate in a vacuum.
As to K&B/Veco, I don't know what Clarence Lee's educational background is. I guess you could ask him. I did know the late Bill Wizniewski of K&B. He was an educated man
AFAIK.
But the whole act of building an engine rests on the work of engineers and physicists who developed the metallurgy and designed the components and production machinery to make the components. Sure there's empirical expertise, but not without the engineering base.
CR