Meditate While Watching A AMG 63 Engine Being Built…No Music

"soto" (soto)
11/13/2013 at 00:23 • Filed to: None

Sit back and relax for the next 13 minutes. No bullshit commentary, and no stupid music. Just men building an engine.

DISCUSSION (10)

Singhjr96 > soto
11/13/2013 at 03:48

Car heaven must look something like this.

Bruno Martini > soto
11/13/2013 at 10:42

Seeing this video makes me realize that the guy assembling it is not doing much more than a machine would do. Not to mention the engine must bee engineered to pretty wide space standards as that thing is gigantic, it must weigh a ton to boot. The personal touch was not there, he never checked tolerances, never did any real work than a trained monkey could replicate. I guess the thought process is simple, we can say it was asembled by someone, then its hand built. MY balls. The bearings were not numbered either.. What is this 1995? In contrast every cayote built has a machine verify the tolerances and chose a wide array of crank bearings and package them for assembly. They are numbered so these monkeys can put the right one in the right place. The engine looks unnecessarily large to me. No space concerns I see. Makes me appreciate the small block chevy that probably weighs in 1/3 the weight and puts out the same amount of hp per displacement if not more than the AMG lump of aluminum seen here but takes up probably 1/2 the space.

John > soto
11/13/2013 at 11:13

That was incredible. The engine did look a bit on the large side. The guy building it looked really happy at the end when he attached his name to it.

soto > Bruno Martini
11/13/2013 at 12:14

"The personal touch was not there"

Did you want him to draw a portrait on it somewhere? What personal touch other than..you know putting his name on an engine that will be there forever. His name…on an engine. Is your name on an engine?

"he never checked tolerances"

You do realize that it doesn't take 13 minutes (the length of this video) to build an engine right? Also, you realize that the tools he uses ARE calibrated to an exact torque right?

"never did any real work than a trained monkey could replicate."

Still shaking my head for that comment.

"The engine looks unnecessarily large to me."

Are you quite sure you are on the correct forum?

"Makes me appreciate the small block chevy that probably weighs in 1/3 the weight and puts out the same amount of hp per displacement if not more than the AMG lump of aluminum seen here but takes up probably 1/2 the space. "

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Sigh.

This is what I got from your post:

Something, something Murica!

-Bruno Martini

Bruno Martini > soto
11/13/2013 at 12:22

IM curious at your coment here. What I was pointing at is that, this is a glorified assembly line, nothing ground breaking. Not a bespoke engine as they tout, a bespoke engine is built to tolerances in usually a clean room by a tech who chosses the right part combination (read tolerances) for any engine built.

I am in the right forum btw, large chunk of metal being unnecessarily large means heavier cars. Add lightness comes to mind. Nothing here ground breaking, nor is there anything noteworthy about this process. Also I am sure 13 minutes is not the entire build. They probably churn out around 2 engines an hour though.

soto > Bruno Martini
11/13/2013 at 12:37

Unfortunately you are wrong on each point you made.

-Selecting parts

-Tolerances

-How many they make in an hour.

Read this, It explains everything right from the horses mouth. I will past the link at the very end if you want to read the rest, but the important stuff I have here.

"We have the best mechanics on the planet," Webber says proudly. "It takes a lot to become qualified as an AMG mechanic; they go through a sophisticated training programme and only at the very end are they allowed to work on customer engines. And this is when they get their own metal plate; we won't give that away lighthearted."

The metal plate is on every engine; it holds a signature of the mechanic that assembled the engine. Normally, it takes about three hours for a V8 assembly; the V12s can take up to a whole working day. With about 1,000 employees in total, the plant produces about 20,000 high-performance engines every year.

You might have to change your idea of what an engine factory would be like if you stepped inside AMG's shop. Instead of grease and grime, you're met with white floors and walls. The mechanics are dressed in smart - and clean - black work uniforms, and all are intently focussed on their jobs. There are sporadic noises of power tools and machinery that play a lulling symphony to those who like to turn a spanner themselves.

The engine building process is an 11-step affair; each mechanic starts with the basic block, which is bolted to a wheeled trolley, and they move around a U-shaped work shop, stopping at each station for various jobs.

"If you build by hand, you've got two different ways to build an engine," says Webber. "Like at Ferrari, they have one engine bay where the parts are all brought to it. Here, it's like a supermarket: the mechanics go shopping for parts with the engine from station to station.

If only grocery shopping was this interesting.

But here's the ingenious part of the whole process: being a typical German company, focused on quality and engineering, AMG isn't about to leave everything up to its mechanics, no matter how good they are. Coupled with the hands-on know-how of the skilled technicians, the company has implemented an ingenious computer system to ensure quality standards are met day in and day out.

"Something you will notice is that every part contains a bar code. And every time a mechanic puts on these parts, they scan them into our system, called AMG Trace.

"Every time a mechanic starts building an engine, he downloads the parts list and work instructions and the sequence and the tooling, because we have different versions depending on the vehicle."

The system tracks every single detail surrounding the building of every single engine; even down to the tools used to put it together. As I follow the train around the shop, I stop at a mechanic installing the cylinder heads with a tool that engages every bolt at once. It is calibrated not only to the proper torques, but also the proper sequence of which bolt gets tightened first. All the separate torques are displayed on a computer monitor; if there is a problem, that section goes red, and the problem is dealt with immediately. For anyone with some experience crawling around a car on the dirty floor of a home garage, it's fascinating how precise the whole process is.

"At the end, we know everything about the engine; we know what piston is in what cylinder, and what the connecting rods were torqued to exactly. We even know what tools were used, so if there is a problem we can replace it. The tools won't run unless they are scanned in.

"In fact, we can also run statistics on different tools. If we see after a week or two that the tolerance levels are off, we know we have to adjust that machine. Nothing goes undetected here."

The engines eventually make it around to the end, where they are put through first a pressure test to ensure everything is sealed properly. Then they move to what AMG calls a "cold test": the engines are hooked up to a test bench and rotated as if they are being run.

"The engine is not started, it's propelled by the test bench. And by the torque required to turn the engine, we can tell whether it is mechanically healthy. It only takes a couple of minutes, but we check everything: the electrics, hydraulics, etc. But we don't find problems here because the system won't let the engine advance from any stage until it's perfect, so it comes here perfect."

Occasionally, an engine is selected for a live test bench, a separate room with a viewing portal that houses a dynomometer, where the engine is fired up under its own power. The whole setup costs about €2 million (Dh10.4m), and AMG has two of them, for production engine testing as well as prototype testing. Our photographer had to be warned to turn his flash off for photos; a fire sensor inside the test room will think the flash is an explosion and activate the fire suppression systems.

"It takes two days to clean up; I don't think you want to see that," laughs Webber nervously. Maybe, but it certainly would make for a good picture.

Once the engines are finished their tests, they are packaged up and sent off to the Mercedes production plants, where they will be used right on the regular production lines for customer's orders of AMG cars. It's an enthralling process; OK, admittedly, not everyone might be taken by it as much as I was. But it explains why AMG engines are so revered in the performance world.

"For AMG, with our racing technology, we have always built engines by hand, with no exception," says Webber. "And this may sound like yesterday's technology; but our scanning system is tomorrow's technology. It's there to reduce problems and tolerances.

"But the quality is always coming from the mechanics; there is no way you can invent any system that can fully replace them."

Bruno Martini > soto
11/13/2013 at 13:14

Blah blah blah. AMG press release. Yah yah, greasy mechanics room.. Blah blah supermarket shopping cart. THe guy is not a mechanic, he is an assembly line worker. He relies as per your article to have everything checked by a computer. Yay.... NOT BESPOKE... AMG tries to sell that, again NOT bespoke. Want to see bespoke? Go to a race shop.

soto > Bruno Martini
11/13/2013 at 16:35

Wow, I just can't.

Kinja'd!!!

Bruno Martini > soto
11/13/2013 at 16:46

Kinja'd!!!

soto > Bruno Martini
11/13/2013 at 17:18

Kinja'd!!!