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Cheers for Engineers: The World's Smallest V12 Engine

261 hand-built pieces, 1,200 man-hours of work, 1 amazing (and very tiny) working machine.

By Joshua Condon Nov 29, 2011 10:54AM
This is truly amazing: A Spanish engineer named Patelo has crafted what he calls "probably" the world's smallest V12 engine -- a labor of love built from 261 aluminum, bronze and stainless-steel pieces that the engineer designed, turned, milled and drilled himself to the tune of 1,200 hours of work. In context, that's equivalent to 50 straight 24-hour days. (The machine is not for sale, and is dedicated to his grandchildren.)

The engine, with its 12-cubic-centimeter displacement (from twelve 11.3-millimeter-diam​eter pistons) runs on compressed air injection. Check out the video, below; the Spanish-to-English translations for the Spanish-language vid are after the jump and are from Gizmag, where we originally discovered the video.


  • Construimos el ciguenal: Building the crankshaft
  • Comenzamos el montaje: Begin the installation
  • Montamos el ciguenal en el bloque: Fit the crankshaft in the block
  • Cojinete de apoyo del ciguenal: Crankshaft bearing support
  • Taques: Tappets
  • Arbol de levas: Camshaft
  • Cojinete de apoyo del arbol de levas: Camshaft support bearing
  • Engranajes de la distribucion: Timing gear
  • Volante: Flywheel
  • Cilindros: Cylinders
  • Pistones: Pistons
  • Comprobamos con un taladro que todo esta en orden: Check with a drill that everything is in order
  • Culatas: Cylinder heads
  • Balancines: Rockers
  • Varillas de balancines: Rocker shafts
  • Colectores de admision: Intake manifolds
  • Colectores de escape: Exhaust manifolds
  • Tapa de distribucion: Distribution cover
  • Bombas de refrigeracion: Cooling pumps
  • Enfriador de agua dulce: Fresh water cooler
  • Filtro de admision: Inlet filter
  • Pruebas de funcionamiento: Function tests
  • Camara lenta: Slow motion
  • Numero de piezas/tornillos: Number of pieces/screws
  • Horas de trabajo: Hours of work
[Source: yesuswilder10 on YouTube.]
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3Comments
Dana Alexander (DMoney1009)
Dec 1, 2011 10:17PM
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I want one of these for my desk.... bad ****
fairfireman21
Nov 30, 2011 3:09PM
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I knew a man that was 90 years old and built a 1/8 scale working model of a Chevy 350 ci v-8.

It was very impressive.

Jay Murph
Nov 29, 2011 2:49PM
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That is very, very, very cool.
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