PRI Offers Race Engine Builders Opportunities to Increase Efficiencies, Profit in 2012
The PRI Trade Show is being held December 1-3, 2011, in the North/South Building of the Orange County Convention Center, in Orlando, Fla. It is open to the racing trade only. You must be part of a racing business or professional race team to gain admission. “The PRI Trade Show is where you go when
Engine Builder Shop Solutions: September 2011
Editors note: The first two Shop Solutions are responses to Larry Carley’s article “Cleaning Heads and Blocks” in the July 2011 issue of Engine Builder. Cleaning Vintage Mercedes Parts I enjoyed the July 2011 article “Cleaning Heads and Blocks” and wish to include a tech tip about the use of caustic cleaning on vintage Mercedes
Engine Builder Shop Solutions: August 2011
Securing Cam Gears Years ago it came to my attention that the replacement aluminum cam gear used on 4- and 6-cylinder GM inline engines has a tendency to walk off the camshaft. I wanted an easy way to resolve the problem, and here is what I came up with. I grind a notch about 5/16?
Engine Builder Shop Solutions: July 2011
Editor’s Note: Over the past few months we have published several views on engine pre-oiling. This month is no exception. Here is an idea on how to save money on a priming tank. Low Cost Priming Tank I prime the oil system in every engine I build. It’s cheap and easy insurance against a dry
Engine Builder Shop Solutions: June 2011
Editor’s Note: In the March issue we printed a Shop Solution from Melling Engine Parts titled “Oil Pump and Engine Priming” In the May issue we printed a different view on the subject from Timm Jurinche titled “Pre-Oiling.” This month we have a still different viewpoint on the subject. A Better Way to Pre-Oil New
Engine Builder Shop Solutions: May 2011
Editor’s Note: In March we printed a Shop Solution titled, “Oil Pump and Engine Priming” supplied by Melling. Here is another opinion suggesting an alternative method of pre-oiling a newly rebuilt engine. Alternative Method to Pre-Oiling Tip I respectfully disagree with the published tip on how to properly prime a new engine’s oiling
Engine Builder Shop Solutions: April 2011
Keeping Chevy 4-Bolt Mains From ‘Walking’ All four-bolt small block Chevy main caps “walk” when used with either studs or bolts. The factory cap or a splayed cap relies on the register to locate itself because bolts and studs don’t fit well enough to keep the cap from walking. What I have decided to do
Joe Mondello, Cylinder?Head Legend, Engine Builder Columnist, Dies
A regular contributor to Engine Builder magazine for several years, Mondello is one of the few automotive aftermarket legends to not only set benchmarks in the industry in every decade since the 1950s, but to eagerly share his knowledge with students. Until very recently, Mondello continued to hold regular classes at the Mondello Technical Center
Engine Builder Shop Solutions: March 2011
Inspection: Vacuum Check That Engine With the advent of foreign castings, some less than stellar, it is important to be more critical than before during inspection. I have a large vacuum pump that I use to vacuum check every engine’s water jacket before it leaves my shop. My pump pulls around 22 inches of vacuum.
Engine Builder Shop Solutions: February 2011
Making the Most of Every Job Quote Often times when my people are quoting a job, I will ask if the customer wanted gaskets, to which the reply is typically, “uh, I don’t know.” That’s just a lost sale every time the phone hangs up if you ask me – it’s only selling part of
2011 Engine Builder Tech Solutions Guide
Provides technical tips/solutions broken out by engine family – Ford, GM Chrysler, Performance and Shop Tips. (Use the links below to view a PDF of each section or click here for entire supplement) FORD GM CHRYSLER SHOP TIPS PERFORMANCE Sponsored by:
Engine Builder Shop Solutions: January 2011
Keeping Gaskets In Their Place Can’t get a hard to reach gasket to stay in place even using various types of sealers? Try this trick that worked for me. Simply tie the gasket in place with sewing thread through available bolt holes/studs and/or any area that can be used for a temporary tie off. Once the gasket has
Getting Into The Niche: Engine Builders Corner Their Markets
In our industry, specialty niche markets can also be the key to steadily growing your business. Motorsports is a very broad market but when you drill down into the various categories of racing, there are many smaller markets that make up the sport. Drag racing and circle track markets may be among the most recognized
Engine Builder Shop Solutions: December 2010
Your Best Salesman “Ring, ring”… Another interruption – Will somebody grab that @%#& phone!? Too often we look at the phone as an interruption to a busy day. Leroy, the owner of a 3 man shop in Missouri, says he “hates the phone.” He says it’s a waste of valuable shop labor to answer the barrage
MAHLE Clevite Inc. Awards 2010 MAHLE Engine Builders of the Year
The Engine Builder of the Year award is presented to the top engine builder in each of the NASCAR series who has accumulated the most MAHLE Clevite points based on qualifying, laps led and finishing position. Earl Wheeler of Hendrick Motorsports was awarded the 2010 MAHLE Engine Builder of the Year title for the Sprint
Engine Builder Shop Solutions: November 2010
Cleaning Up Cam Bearings After Installation Once in a while you may get an engine block that has an imperfect or misaligned cam bore. Rather than taking the time to scrape the newly installed cam bearings to fit by hand I took old cam cores and made cutter cams. Verifying the cores are straight, I
Marock Takes Record Win In 9th Annual Randy Dorton Hendrick Engine Builder Showdown
Out of 12 Hendrick Certified Master Technicians, Marock and Vester finished their engine build with a record breaking time of 21:19, beating the 2009 record time by a 1:38. The Randy Dorton Hendrick Engine Builder Showdown is a competition in which 12 Hendrick Certified Master Technicians team up to compete against each other to build
Engine Builder Shop Solutions: October 2010
GM Castech Cylinder Heads I’m sure most of you know by now about GM’s 4.8L and 5.3L Vortec Gen III and Gen IV V8 engines with Castech cylinder head castings. GM has sent a Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) for Castech specific cylinder heads that are prone to cracking. GM’s TSB #06-06-01-019B covers 4.8L and 5.3L
Engine Builder Shop Solutions: September 2010
Mounting 2.3L Ford Heads on Serdi-Style Machines Many Serdi-style seat and valve guide machines mount off of the valve cover side of the head. Some heads, such as the one on the Ford 2.3L OHC engine, do not have a valve cover rail on one of its sides. This makes it difficult to mount the
Engine Builder Shop Solutions: August 2010
Head and Block Surface Prep Most cast iron V8 heads and/or blocks usually don’t require anything more than a good cleaning. They are not as likely to warp as straight-six or aluminum heads or blocks. But it is unusual to have all the old gasket material wash away in your hot tank. Minimal surface prep