Miniature IC engines

[rustybucket]

Hi Guys,

I have noticed on this forum and the many and various 'Youtube' clips of the wonderful models being produced that they are all powered by electric motors which I presume are connected to battery power. I have no experience with these kind of RC models so wondered if anybody had actually built or is building a scale truck powered by it's own IC engine. It would present an interesting challenge. To start with the scale of the model would have to be considered in relation to the available power output from the IC unit.
I see that many miniature engines have been built in various straight and vee form configurations but nearly all or most of them only run on stands for demonstration purposes and do not actually drive anything mobile. I would guess that putting a model engine under load to actually drive something mobile would neccesitate at least a solid crankshaft and maybe a few other considerations not least of which would be camshaft design. OOOOOH Boy!! I am floating the subject among the brains trust -you guys- because at some stage I am going to have to build one for my 'Limaron' project which is to 1/8 scale. I would be most interested to hear if anybody has tackled the subject of miniature IC powered scale model trucks.