SSSSSnake Bit!
In 1974, America watched 93 cars get destroyed in a 34-minute car chase. “Gone In 60 Seconds,” an independent film written, produced and directed by and starring Toby Halicki was an otherwise forgettable ’70s movie. The plot revolved around Mandrian Pace (Halicki) and his car thief cronies and 48 cars that they needed to steal
Egge Announces Del Austin as New Sales Director
Egge Machine and Speed Shop is proud to introduce Del Austin as its new Sales Director. Del has many years of automotive aftermarket industry experience at the Jobber, WD, and Manufacturer levels. He has owned and operated both Jobber stores and Machine Shops, and is a hands-on enthusiast. Del has a collection of both pre-war
Flat or Tapered Cams and Flat or Crowned Lifters
It never occurred to me to even ASK whether the cam I recently had re-ground for a Buick Nailhead engine was ground with flat or tapered lobes. Like a great many others, I’d forgotten that some vintage engines had flat lobe surfaces because I’d gotten so used to everything having tapered lobes. This, unfortunately, can
Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Engine Rebuilding
The book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance demonstrates that working on motorcycles may be either dull and tedious drudgery or an enjoyable and pleasurable pastime; it all depends on the inner attitude, or lack thereof. Looking deeper into Zen and the Art, the narrator seems to point out that there are two different
Brad Penn Lubricants Renames Racing Oil Brand to Penn Grade 1 High Performance Oil
First introduced in 2001, the Penn Grade 1® line has enjoyed remarkable growth within the racing segment. With the reduction of zinc and phosphorous in a majority of oils, the Penn Grade 1® Oils have realized tremendous growth within the classic, historic, vintage, muscle car and hot rod markets, which led to the name change,
Piston Options and Opportunities
The sport compact market, it was thought, was going to breathe new life into the performance engine market, and for many years, the rapid growth of the market seemed to indicate that there was no limit to how big those little engines could get. Then something happened: to quote Engine Builder columnist and performance expert
Chasing the Restoration Engine Market
We’ve all heard the stories and urban legends about old classic cars being found in someone’s garage or estate. Typically, the story goes, the owner just passed away, and his widow had no idea what was in the barn. Sounds too good to be true but it happens. One such story that recently grabbed headlines
Rat Rods
While the economy stalls – enthusiasts are building “Rat Rods” in record numbers. Right in the middle of the economic slowdown and our government’s bailout of Wall Street, a little West Coast car event called the Primer Nationals was taking place in Ventura, California. Did the hard times affect the turnout or enthusiasm for this
Shop Solutions: August 2008
Top 10 Machine Shop Business Tips We recently held a series of 8 focus meetings in the Midwest. Each meeting consisted of 8 to 10 machine shop owners and a moderator. Three questions were asked during the meeting: 1) What’s working? 2) What’s not working? and 3) What do you need most to help you
Carburetor Tuning: A/F Mixture, Air/Fuel Equation
Now that the ignition spark timing advance curves are optimized for the blend of reformulated and/or oxygenated gasoline your customers are using we will now show you how we use tools such as a 5-gas exhaust analyzer and wideband Lambda air/fuel (A/F) meter to tune the mixture. The Air/Fuel Mixture A lean fuel mixture can
Shop Solutions: May 2008
Installing Cam Bearings In Vintage Engines I have found that building vintage engines can be fun and also challenging, especially the very early engines where assembly information was somewhat limited. Here is a suggestion that may be helpful when installing cam bearings in vintage engines: Save the old cam bearings, especially if the engine will
Old Iron: Tuning A Carbureted Engine
Even if you build the perfect engine all your hard work means very little if the customer is not satisfied with how their engine performs. So like it or not, you will have to become involved in engine tuning or at the least provide your customer with tuning guidelines if you want to have a
Stovebolt Chevy Engine Sealing
Machine shop staff tend to forget their capabilities. They get into a groove that works and then resist change. This not only precludes improvement, but fails to address problems with new solutions that actually work. Case in point: Leaking rear main seals on vintage engines with rope seals. The Stovebolt Chevys (inline sixes – 235
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
Riding the Powersport Wave
If you just look at the number of engines being built year after year – a steady downward trend – it may seem like there is no way to survive in this industry by building production automotive engines. However, most shops that are thriving have found something that gives them an edge. You have to
Performance Notes: EFI Now ‘Doable’ For Every Hot Rodder And Engine Builder
[email protected] It is rare that a new product comes along that redefines a category and a market. Take Apple’s iPod for example. Digital downloading and music file sharing was becoming popular, but a portable device to take your downloaded music with you was needed. Apple’s iPod did just that. Now it’s nearly impossible to go
Coretalk: Jasper Engines Unveils ‘Authentic Custom Drivetrains’ Program
Alex Ernst, Jasper Authentic Group Leader, says the division expects to produce approximately 1,300 engines in 2007. He says the number of drivetrain components that fit the profile of a Jasper Authentic built product will increase as the company begins to establish itself as “one of the premier custom remanufacturers in this market. With traditional
Marine Engine Building, Is It For You?
Engine builders who do passenger car and light truck engines, diesel engines and performance engines, are often looking for new market niches where they can expand their business and add new customers. For some, marine engine building may seem like a tempting niche. The marine engine market is relatively healthy, though highly competitive. Some rebuilders
PERA President Mark Fellanto
On the surface, you might suppose that Mark Fellanto, incoming president of the Production Engine Remanufacturers Association (PERA) is a pretty simple fellow. You can set your watch by his daily routine. Even he admits that if someone was looking to do him in, he wouldn’t be hard to track down. Fellanto rarely veers from
Pistons and Pins: What’s New
Asking piston manufacturers “what’s new” reveals a number of trends that are reshaping the piston business today. One is that there’s no longer a time lag of three or four years for aftermarket piston suppliers to tool up for the latest piston applications. Production engine remanufacturers (PERs) and custom engine rebuilders (CERs) are asking for