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The Angle On Valve Seats

Valve seats seem to be a fairly simple engine component but they play a critical role in sealing compression and cooling the valves. When a seat becomes worn, it may leak compression and allow the valve to run hotter than normal. The same thing can happen if the seat is out-of-round or has lost its

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

Valves, Retainers & Springs

New materials, improved designs and lower prices (at least for some valves). That pretty much sums up what’s going on with valves, retainers and springs today. These are extremely important parts in every engine because of their impact on engine performance, durability and cost. Satisfying demand is the key. Rick Simko of Elgin Industries, Elgin,

Get Your Shop Together To Be More Efficient, Profitable

Let’s face it; the hardest part about starting each day is being ready to work when the start bell rings. The worst way to start your day is to spend time searching for where you left off the day before. The best way to be ready is to get your shop together. This means that

Researching the Rebuilding Market for Multi-Valve Cylinder Heads

Cylinder head work has provided a good income for many of our readers over the years. All engines eventually need a valve job and guide work if they accumulate enough miles. Head work may also be needed if an engine overheats and blows a head gasket, if the head develops a crack, or an OHC

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

Cylinder Bore Refinishing with Honing Tools

By ring friendly, we mean a finish that provides good support for the rings, retains oil and does not require a lengthy break-in period. For most engines today, a ring-friendly finish means a plateau finish. A plateau bore finish is what all types of rings eventually produce when they are fully seated, so the closer

Rebuilding The Chrysler 2.7L

It was rated at 200 HP and it was originally used as the base motor in the Intrepid and Concorde, but it’s been the optional engine in the Stratus and Sebring since 2001 and it will be the standard engine in Chrysler’s new 300 sedan that’s coming out later this year. So, while there are

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

Maintenance Means You’re Set For Honing, Not Moaning

Let’s start with one of the main ingredients of honing: the honing oil. Automotive type transmission fluid is NOT honing oil. Period! Don’t let me catch you using tranny fluid in your honing machine! Honing oils are not all alike either. Always use the highest quality honing oil from a supplier you can trust. It

Spray Washer Maintenance Tips

In the 2003 Engine Builder Machine Shop Market Profile (Engine Builder, June 2003), shop owners said cleaning/disassembly were their most time consuming parts of the rebuild process. Survey respondents said that 13.8 percent of an average rebuild is spent in this area, down 2 percent from the previous year. In the same survey, 80 percent

In Search Of New Markets, Mike Jeffries

Looking for new markets is one of the toughest things we do, so every time the phone rings we listen for an opportunity. Most of what we find is suspect, but over the past 12 months we have rebuilt a number of compact diesels and sold a number of rebuild kits. As a result we

Getting Aluminum Clean: There’s More Than One Way

Cleaning aluminum creates special challenges for engine builders because of its corrosiveness and soft metal properties. There are several effective ways to clean this non-ferrous metal but there is no magic solution. You will more than likely have to combine several processes to get the kind of clean that you demand. The methods that will

Valve Guide Reconditioning

A valve loses about 15 to 30 percent of its heat through the stem. On the exhaust side where there is no cooling effect from the incoming air/fuel mixture, the guides are critical, because cooling through the stem is especially important for valve longevity. Worn intake guides or ones with too much clearance can also

Is there a new oil filter for BMWs with extended mile oil change interval engines?

Is there a new oil filter for BMWs with extended mile oil change interval engines? According to the AERA technical committee, BMW has revised oil filters for its extended oil change interval engines. M52TU, M54, M62 and M73. BMW has approved a 15,000-mile service interval for certain high performance vehicles when service is performed by

Valve Seat Installation Procedures

If a valve seat is damaged, cracked, loose, receded or too badly worn to be recut or reground, it can cause a variety of problems: loss of compression, valve burning, valve failure, valvetrain wear and breakage, even head and valve damage if the seat comes loose. For that reason, replacing valve seats is often necessary

Incoming AERA Chairman Mike Schaefer, Southern Illinois Crankshaft

Ask Mike Schaefer, incoming chairman of the Engine Rebuilders Association (AERA) what the association means to him and he’ll have an immediate and impactful answer: "Without AERA, we wouldn’t have survived." When he opened the doors to Southern Illinois Crankshaft, Red Bud, IL, in November of 1985, and bought his first crank grinder, the salesman

Dodge City’s Finest; Harry’s Machine Works

No history of the American West would be complete without extensive recollections of Dodge City, KS. Formed as a convenient railroad stop to serve the new Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad, Dodge City offered something for everyone. That is, if your tastes ran to buffalo hunting, gambling or gunfighting. In its early days, Dodge

The Smooth Science of Cylinder Honing

  The basics of honing cylinder blocks hasn’t changed much in recent years, but what has changed are the type of abrasives being used by many engine builders. Silicon carbide and aluminum oxide honing stones of various grits have long been used in power honing machines and portable hones to finish cylinder bores. These types

The Cost of Clean

When we asked the simple question "What are your cleaning costs?" we uncovered a complex answer. For many Engine Builder readers, getting and keeping parts clean is a difficult, expensive proposition