2018 Editions Archives - Engine Builder Magazine
Engine Builder Team Is a Well-Oiled Machine

This time of year, the pressure is incredible. Put up or shut up. Leave it all out on the field. Insert your own dramatic cliche here.  No, I’m not talking about football, racing or any other sport – I’m talking about the pressure on a magazine editor to write the perfect end-of-the-year column. The stuff

In Engine Building, Predictions Don’t Always Meet Reality

Here we go again. The fax machine will kill the mail system… TV will kill the radio… Movie rentals and streaming videos will kill the movie theaters… The above three statements were cited many times over the years, but strangely, none have them have even been remotely close to coming true. Every year the U.S.

Engine Builds Often Start With Radiator Resoration

Keeping Your Cool About This Hot Topic Engine builders who work on older collector cars are always interested in sources of vintage radiators – after all, you can’t run a liquid-cooled engine for any length of time without a good radiator. Of course, There have always been shops that fix radiators, but the judging standards

Line Hone Solutions

When It Comes To Line Honing, Creativity Can Help Maximize Mandrel Magic Sometimes the best solutions are to problems you didn’t even know you have. Luckily, in this industry there’s no shortage of opportunities to be creative and develop the next great thing. Every month in this magazine and online, Engine Builder showcases some of

Don’s Auto Named Vintage Engine Builder of the Year

Does it make good business sense to leave a lucrative career as an expert craftsman to take over an aging business serving cars and trucks built long before fuel injection was invented? If you’re Tony Pontillo, owner of Don’s Auto Parts & Machine Shop, it’s not only logical, it provides a great opportunity to give

Freedom Racing Engines Named Diesel Engine Builder of the Year

As so many of the best things do, a good-natured competition between brothers has developed into a successful growing business serving customers across the country. What started in a coal barn in “the middle of nowhere, IN” has grown in a short period of time into one of the most respected performance diesel engine building

Borowski Wins Race Engine Builder of the Year

How Ken and Joe McCaul Reinvigorated Rockdale, IL’s Borowski Race Engines When opportunity knocks, you answer the door. At least if you’re Ken and Joe McCaul you do, and you’re glad that you did. Joe and Ken are a father and son team who purchased Borowski Race Engines in Rockdale, IL, a suburb of Joliet,

Things That Go Bump in the Night – Demolition Derby Engine Tips

I grew up in a small town of 5,000 people. Each year on Saturday night at the county fair they would have a demolition derby. The local salvage yard would always hold cars back during the year that were good derby car candidates, knowing that two months before the fair, the locals would come shopping for

Engine Pro December Shop Solutions

PASS THE ROAST SLEEVES We do quite a few re-bore and power hone jobs on small, single-cylinder engines in our shop. Usually, going to the next available oversize is all that is needed. However, when cylinders are badly damaged or have already been re-bored to the limit, we install an aftermarket sleeve to save the

How and Why Engine Builders Buy Engine Brands

The parts you put into your engines and keep on your shelves for resale are far more than just generic automotive components. You need them to be what you need, where you need, when you need. They’re not just plastic and metal inanimate objects – they’re your reputation. Maintaining that reputation for excellence means you

Engine Pro November Shop Solutions

RTV REMOVAL TOOL If you have ever had to clean RTV off of a gasketless oil pan, timing cover or other parts, you know how hard and time consuming this task can be. We have found that running a round ball end Allen wrench, where the ball fits the groove in those parts, does the

Street Rod Market

The street rod market has for many years been considered to comprise cars built before 1949 – around the time that hot rods were initially created by soldiers returning from World War II. As many of you know the story, a handful of these war heroes took the innovation they applied in the Armed Services