Machine Maintenance, Make the Most of Your Crank Grinder: Maintain It
Your crankshaft grinder probably represents one of the single biggest investments you’ve made for your shop. Most of you purchased your grinder to ensure quality, delivery and to enhance your shop’s ability to be self-sufficient. Hopefully you and your employees are taking good care of this sophisticated and expensive machine. To help you out, here
Coretalk: Recon Automotive Founder Armand J. Mancini Dies
He leaves behind his wife of 42 years, Carole, and three sons and a daughter – Armand, Vincent, Daniel and Carrie Mancini Young. He is also survived by three brothers, a sister and six grandchildren. Mancini was an icon of the automotive remanufacturing industry, having founded Recon in 1973 and building it into one of
Coretalk: NAPA Awards Crank Biz To Hi-Tech’s New Venture
The Hi-Tech Blueprint series crankshaft is restored to the original factory blueprint specifications. Blueprint Series crankshafts are delivered directly to NAPA stores in the U.S. on an overnight basis, including a program for Alaska and Hawaii. The company offers application coverage for more than 1,000 part numbers for auto, truck and marine. “NAPA chose this
Gen III GM Small Block Engine, LS1 Motor for Cars, Trucks
The first generation small block was revised to create the second generation LT1/LT4 that was used for some applications from ’92 to ’97, but the results didn’t satisfy the people at GM Powertrain, so they started all over in ’91 and designed a brand new small block. It’s officially called the “Gen III” motor, but
Coretalk: PERA Promotes Profit At Tech/Marketing Meeting
The following is the agenda for the meeting: Friday, April 29 7:00 – 10:00 a.m. – Registration. 7:00 – 8:00 a.m. – PERA Continental Breakfast. 8:00 a.m. – Opening Remarks & Introductions. 8:15 a.m. – “Performance Market,” Scooter Brothers of Comp Cams. 9:00 a.m. – “Performance Market,” Ed Keibler. 9:45 a.m. – Refreshment Break. 10:00
PERA’s Core Corner: Learn To Read The Bumps On GM Gen III Heads
Back a couple of hundred years ago, some brilliant thinkers believed that the bumps on your head could be used to diagnose your health or predict personality traits. Using the psuedo-science “Phrenology,” advocates would feel your scalp and tell you if you were a genius or a criminal (please, no amateur diagnoses based on the
PERA’s Core Corner: Solving The Riddle Of The V10 Chrysler Cylinder Head
In this month’s Core Corner, we ask the question: “When is something you know not what you think you know?” Sounds like a mystery, doesn’t it? For example, when is a car not a car? When it turns into a parking lot! I know, I know – don’t quit my day job. But that really
Blast Cleaning Technology
The future, they promised us, would be full of amazing things. We would be commuting in flying cars, we would be using robots to do most of our manual chores and space travel would be fairly routine. First, the future was 1984 – then it was 2001. Now, in 2005 we do have highly exotic
Crank And Cam Polishing: Are You Smooth Enough?
Manufacturers are designing today’s engines with tighter tolerances and less room for error. They make more power, live longer, produce less noise, vibration and friction, burn less fuel and produce lower emissions. So in light of all this, it is more important than ever for engine builders to be as perfect, or near perfect, as
PERAs Core Corner
It seems that the thirst for knowledge on the Gen III GM engine applications is growing almost as aggressively as the information for the 4.6L Fords. I addressed the subject of Gen III long and short crankshafts in a recent column (See September 2004 Engine Builder Core Corner). But based upon the number of responses
Not So Stock: NASCAR Motors and Their Street Counterparts
The engines in NASCAR’s newly introduced Strictly Stock class of stock car racing in 1949 were literally stock, right off the dealer’s showroom floor. Today, they’re anything but. So what happened? Evolution. Like any sport or industry, evolution has moved NASCAR racing to where it is today, a multi-million dollar business. The engines, called ‘motors’
Rebuilding The Ford 3.0L V6
The 3.0L Ford pushrod motor has been around for nearly 20 years. It was originally introduced back in 1986 and millions of them have been installed in a wide variety of front and rear wheel drive cars and trucks since then. It’s been used in several FWD applications including the Taurus/Sable, the Tempo/Topaz and the
New Technology:Advances in Engine Building Equipment
How has racing changed your engine building business? No, it’s not a hypothetical, industry-generic question; in this case, it’s directed at every reader of this magazine. A strange question? It may seem to be. If you race – or build motors for racers – it’s probably an easy one to answer. But if you stay
PERA’s Core Corner
In this month’s “Core Corner” I am addressing a potpourri of different issues – some old, some new, but all of them offer something that will keep you out of the “Do Over” column and, of course, profitable. I got the idea from my wife some weeks ago while accompanying her (being dragged) to a
Sprint Car Motors
While the World of Outlaws, the All Stars, and USAC are the most well known of the sprint car racing organizations in this country, there are nearly fifty organizations that sanction sprint car racing. In addition, that doesn’t take into account the racetracks throughout the country that have their own division of sprint cars. Although
Putting the ‘Power’ in Powersports
Performing rebuilds and other machine services on ATVs, personal watercraft (PWC) and snowmobile engines may provide your shop with a little added boost during a down period without having to retool your entire shop. However, to make the most of the opportunity, you should know what type of market you can serve best – ATV,
Preacher, Teacher, Fighter, Friend
Warning: The Surgeon General has determined that reading this article may be hazardous to a negative attitude, and acting on the recommendations contained herein may result in increased job satisfaction and a more productive business atmosphere. If enthusiasm for his job were a virus, Dave Deegan would have one of the most serious infections the
Cylinder liner adjustment and compression ring gasket thickness for Detroit Diesel Corporation (DDC) 71 Series diesel engines
Engine Builders: The following information regards cylinder liner adjustment and compression ring gasket thickness for Detroit Diesel Corporation (DDC) 71 Series diesel engines. This information should be considered any time liners are replaced. AERA previously published TB 206 concerning compression ring gaskets. This supplements that information. The correct position of the liner top flange is
PERA’s Core Corner
Have you ever had a tune get stuck in your head and it seems to follow you everywhere? No matter what you do, or where you go, it continues to go around in your head over and over again. For me, that is what it feels like with this month’s subject, the 4.6L SOHC Ford
High Performance Piston Options
Ask the kid on the street what performance is and he’ll raise the hood of his Honda. Ask the Funny Car drag racer about performance and he’ll take you to the starting line to breathe the nitromethane. Ask the mother on vacation and she’ll tell you about driving to California from Indiana pulling a car