Engine Builders Buyers Guide 2008
Engine Builders Buyers Guide ’08 Performance Buyers Guide ’08
How Wegner Automotive Reverse Engineers Cylinder Head Porting
Casey Wegner, head of the CNC department at Wegner Automotive, Markesan, WI, can still picture this scene from his childhood: His father Carl meticulously hand porting a cylinder head, which took several days to finish an entire set of ports for an eight-cylinder engine. Fast-forward 30 years: Casey Wegner has become an expert head porter,
Fast Lane: Building A Reputation At The Track Will Build Business At The Shop
In the February 2007 issue of Engine Builder we discussed the importance of seeking out new market for your business (Fast Lane: “New Markets Could Give Your Business Hope For Survival,” page 18). In the May 2007 Issue we discussed the importance of getting out to the racetrack to help build your performance business (Fast
Drag Racing Cylinder Head Selection
Experts say that the key ingredient is high velocity matched with good flow. But the high flow numbers may blind your customers from seeing the whole picture, so it is up to you to explain. Some cylinder head experts compare flow numbers to horsepower numbers on a dyno – but guess what? They’re not all
Marine Motors: Challenges & Opportunities
On the popular British automotive television program “Top Gear,” the hosts were interested in discovering how hard it could possibly be to build a vehicle that was capable of both being driven on the road and sailed in water. Various types of such vehicles have been dreamed about, designed and even occasionally produced over the
Engintel: Learning Not To Feel Like A Sucker
I recently encountered an interesting situation that initially had me wondering if all hope for installation and general repair technicians was gone; and that perhaps some of the bum rap that they seem to get may be justified. Instead, I got a healthy meal of "crow" wrapped in a tortilla of humility. Imagine getting a
High Performance Diesels: ‘Black Smoke’ Tractor Pulling Market
If you’re a lover of horsepower, dirt and "black smoke," you may also have a passion for building engines in the thriving diesel tractor pulling market. These engines aren’t just for working in the fields anymore – they’re full blown, smoke billowing, brute force racing machines – and building them can lead to a bountiful
The Shermanator 347: A 530HP Gas Stroker You Can Build
A while ago Engine Builder ran a story on the popularity and basic dos and don’ts of stroker engines ( March 2007 Engine Builder). It received such great response that we are following up with a “real world” stroker engine buildup. In this case, it is an engine combination that is so popular that it
Scratching The Niche
If you have been a reader of this magazine for any length of time, you’ll know that one thing is certain: this isn’t the same industry it was even just a few years ago. Not so long ago, a car or truck that was more than six years old would have been considered a junker,
The 2006 Machine Shop of the Year
Turning 40 used to be a bad thing… On that tragic day, the black balloons, the wacky "Over The Hill" gag gifts and the general air of sympathy that your best years had all come and gone were about the only things you could hope for. That is, if you view 40 as old. But
Green Energy Opportunities to Keep the Internal Combustion Engine Alive and Well!
It is August 2007 and Iowa has the eye of the entire nation. Presidential candidates, their staff and reporters are popping up around the state in numbers that rival the cornstalks standing proudly along every road. With all this political activity, there is no doubt that “Green Energy” is going to be an accelerating trend,
Old Iron, Times (and Technology) Change!
For the past 15 years or so I’ve abused the automotive media and the English language with series after series of vintage engine build-ups. These are opus-length ordeals that consume somewhere between 150 and 250 pages and a lot of photos aimed at doing what I can to re-discover and re-invent various vintage engines for