Three-Angle Valve Seat Cutting Tips
1) Use new carbide pilots for precise and high-quality valve seat and bowl work. • Carbide pilots help keep tooling cutting true. When cutting 3-angle seats,counterboring for seat rings or using bowl hogs to enlarge valve bowls,the resistance of the workpiece against the tool tries to deflect thepilot. Goodson Carbide Pilots resist this deflection five
Respect Between Shops and Stores Strengthens Both
I have been lucky enough to make sales calls on hundreds of machine shops over the past 30-plus years. Some are still here today and sadly, some are not. In that time I have met a few machine shop owners who were hard working and quite successful. They put in their years, formed an exit
A Closer Look at BBC Bracket Racing Cylinder Heads
However, it proved to be just the opposite – sportsman racers loved it and it allowed local drag racing to thrive and grow. Back in its infancy, I covered weekly bracket racing in Southern California at the now defunct Irwindale and Orange County International Raceways. The action was hot and heavy with full fields of
Street Performance Valvetrains
Street performance requires everyday driveability and reliability. A good street performance engine should have a broad torque curve, plenty of low end power and a reasonable amount of intake vacuum at idle, especially if the engine is backed with an automatic transmission. A street engine also has to be capable of lasting tens of thousands
Understanding Port Swirl In Diesel Engines
What is port swirl? Actually this is a little contradictive. The port doesn’t actually swirl, it is the design of the port that causes air to swirl! Swirl is what is taking place when the intake charge exits the intake valve and enters the combustion chamber. As the air enters the combustion chamber and the
Pre-War Engines: Vintage Technology, Modern Products
How have the changes in the market and the changes in vehicles affected shops specializing in vintage engines as well as those shops thinking about adding vintage to their list of services? The automotive enthusiast and collector market is a funny creature. While the actual mechanical evolution may sometimes run in opposite directions, the eras
AFR Adds Lifetime Warranty To Its Aluminum Cylinder Head Castings
Additionally, AFR announced, valves, guides, valve seats, valve springs, valve job, retainers, locks, studs, guide plates and valve seals will be covered under warranty for two years. AFR will repair at no charge and reimburse UPS ground freight and return UPS ground freight all warrantable defects in workmanship, materials or an undetermined cause (mystery failure).
EngineQuest Renews Sponsorship of IMCA Wild West Modified Tour
EngineQuest (EQ), a leading supplier of stock and performance cylinder heads and engine components, has renewed as the title sponsor of the IMCA Wild West Modified Tour for 2010. In addition, EQ continues as a general sponsor of IMCA racing. EQ is the exclusive supplier of the Spec Chevy 350 cylinder head in the IMCA
Dick Morgan Retires as John Washbish Takes Presidency of Aftermarket Auto Parts Alliance
For more than 15 years, Richard (Dick) Morgan has served as presidentand CEO of Aftermarket Auto Parts Alliance (Alliance). On hisretirement, effective Dec. 31, 2009, Morgan culminated a 48-year careerof successes in the industry. “I’ve been fortunate to have spent the final years of my career at theAlliance,” said Morgan. “This is the best group
Street Performance Cylinder Heads
Where I grew up in Connecticut wasn’t the hotbed of street racing like Woodward was in Detroit, but we had the Berlin Turnpike, River Road in Middletown, plus a few local small-town hotspots. It was during this period that I got my first education about the importance of cylinder heads. A local rich kid got
Scoping Out the Sport Compact Market
At first it was known as the Import Tuner Market which later morphed into what is currently known as Sport Compact. However, the market could be changing again and may soon be called something else. Last year, the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) changed the name of its Sport Compact Council to Street Performance Council
Gala Event to Kick Off IMIS Show
Attendees Pre-registration has been strong, according to show officials. In it’s first year, IMIS estimates over 10,000 trade professional attendees. However, there is still room for more, and IMIS registration staff is signing new people up every day. Waiting List The IMIS office has a waiting list of exhibitors for 2010. Knowing that the floor space
Valve and Guide Material, Selection Update
Today’s engines are being designed with more valves per cylinder with smaller valves to reduce valve train weight and increase intake volume. Cylinder heads typically require valve guide and seat work to restore compression and oil control if you are rebuilding the heads. For the valve to seat properly and to gain the most power
Boosting Performance – Nitrous, Superchargers and Turbochargers
From the budget six-cylinders that get 300 hp and 28 mpg for less than $25,000 to the 600 hp Viper V10 to the 630 hp Corvette ZR1 for just over $100,000, the performance market is deep and wide. “It’s amazing, the horsepower potential that these cars are coming with off the factory floor,” says Frank
Take Care of Your Tooling and It
Let’s face it, when you invest in new state-of-the-art equipment, some or most of that investment is in the tooling. That tooling needs proper care – especially if you want your new machine to perform according to the manufacturer’s specs. These newer machines don’t have a clue that your tooling is dull, bent, nicked, burred,
LPG Cylinder Head Conversions
The recent move to clean up inner city exhaust emissions has resulted in renewed interest in the use of LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) as a motor fuel. Tax incentives are being offered to encourage fleet operators to convert to gaseous fuels and more vehicles are being offered by the OEMs that are already converted. What
Valve Seat Selection and Machining
When rebuilding a cylinder head for a stock automotive application, a performance engine, or a heavy-duty diesel, what kind of replacement seats should you use if the original valve seats need to be replaced? Should you install new seats that are the same as the original seats, or should you use a different type of
Choosing Aftermarket BBC Cylinder Heads for Street/Strip Applications
In 1958, Chevrolet released the first big block for use in its trucks and heavier passenger cars. It was called the “W” engine and it came in three engine displacements until 1965: 348 cid, 409 cid and 427 cid. After Chevy introduced its “mystery engine” to NASCAR in 1962 with a combustion chamber and canted
Engine Builder Shop Solutions: August 2009
Gasket Surface Cleaning Caution Cleaning gasket surfaces can be a terrible thing to do! Many of today’s cylinder heads, and various parts are made of aluminum. The use of cleaning discs can damage the surface being cleaned by actually removing some of the surface being cleaned. There are also dangers of getting fibers from the
TIG Welding Aluminum Heads
To survive in the current economic climate, you must look for opportunities to become more profitable and still maintain control of your profits. You must always look for ways to keep more of what you do “in-house” and keep as much of the revenue you generate in the business. Whenever you can control what goes