Making Dollars and Sense Cleaning Blocks, Heads
Unless you’re starting with all new parts, cleaning is as important to your engine build as disassembly, inspection, machining and reassembly. Without taking the cylinder heads and engine blocks down to bare metal, you can’t properly inspect the castings for cracks, wear and other defects. For something so important, proper cleaning technique is often misunderstood, overlooked
Cylinder Bores-Machining To Sleeving
The function of a cylinder bore is fairly simple yet quite demanding. The bore is nothing more than a cylindrical void which contains the engine’s air/fuel mixture as it undergoes compression and combustion. The walls of the cylinder have to be strong enough and rigid enough to withstand high combustion pressures and temperatures
Waste Not, Want Not: Waste Oil Heaters Can Drastically Cut Costly Shop Heating Bills
The heater burned the waste oil that accumulated from oil changes and other jobs to produce heat for the shop. It was a great way of getting around the highcosts of natural gas used in conventional heaters, plus it got rid of all the used oil that the shop produced. So, if your shop creates
How to Tune Standalone ECUs for Smooth Idle
The idle control settings are not the most important thing to adjust to get a smooth idle. This may seem counter-intuitive, but consider this: If the engine is idling at constant load with the throttle held at a constant opening, shouldn’t you have a constant idle speed? If your idle surges or hunts under these
DEI/Ny-Trex Named Official Nitrous of 2012 Diesel Motorsports Race and Pull Season
NADM/DIESEL Motorsports offers multiple competitive events including drag racing, sled pulling and dyno-pulls that put the finest diesel engineering to the maximum test. The season begins in early spring with affiliate events before it begins in earnest at the Missouri State Fairgrounds on May 5. “The timing for a sponsorship of NADM could not
F-M Technical Education Center Announces Training Workshop, Webinar Schedule
The Federal Mogul Technical Education Center (TEC) in St. Louis this year is offering more than 40 in-depth, hands-on training workshops and 20 free online webinar sessions covering a variety of engine repair, undercar and underhood topics. Federal-MogulTEC offers one of the industry’s most comprehensive training programs, with hands-on instruction in modern classrooms and 12
Champion Oil and Diesel Motorsports Announce 2012 Drag Racing Schedule
Diesel Motorsports has announced the following seven race schedule for the 2012 season: May 5, 2012 – Bungart Motorsport’s Sled Pulling Tune-up /Sled Pulling /Dyno Missouri State Fairgrounds, Sedalia, MO June 23, 2012 – Pure Diesel Power’s Thunder in Muncie /Drags /Pulls Gaston Lion’s Club, Muncie, IN July 20 -21, 2012 – 1-800Autoparts East Coast
A Conversation with the MAHLE Clevite Champion Technician Winner Dave Arce
Dave is the owner of Arce Engines in El Cajon, CA. He remanufactures engines, performs general installation and repair, does engine rebalancing and has quite a resume when it comes to high performance racing engines. Dave’s daughter Hollee nominated him for the contest and wrote an excellent essay about all of her dad’s accomplishments throughout
Designing and Building a World-Record Beating Porsche V8
We would build for the Blown Gas Modified Sports (BGMS) class where the record is currently 231.5 mph. Another record we were after was the Porsche marquee record for the 928 of 205.6 mph. Our math told us that – because we knew our final drive ratio, tire diameters and engine redline; and if our
A Million Here, A Million There
First, Fisher’s a former winning sprint car driver running with the top-gun World of Outlaws and All-Star groups. Then, there’s the fact that he’s got the mind of a skilled surgeon when he probes the innards of his engines looking for more performance. The guy is a graduate engineer (Ohio State 1975), but his
Cold Weather Caution: Crank No Start, Rough Idle or Misfire due to Compression Loss
Models affected: 2000-2009 All GM Passenger Cars with Gasoline Engines 2000-2009 All GM Light Duty Trucks with Gasoline Engines Condition/Concern: Crank no start when cold. The engine may crank over very fast, as if there is low/no compression. It may also run rough for up to 5 minutes after starting the engine and may exhibit
Cracked Cylinder Head Repair
It seems as if many cylinder heads are doomed to crack from the very start because of their lightweight construction and design. Aluminum overhead cam (OHC) heads, in particular, are often found to be warped as well as cracked. But so too are many pushrod cast iron heads. Cracks are often blamed as the cause
Hydraulic Camshafts and Lifters 101
Closing up the gap between the tip of the rocker arm and the top of the valve stem reduces the pounding effect that can accelerate valve and rocker wear. Because of this, most of the push rod engines that have been built for the last 60 years have come factory-equipped with hydraulic camshafts and lifters.
Mast Motorsports Expands Manufacturing Capacity with New Powertrain Division
Mast is gearing up its capacity and capabilities at the company’s headquarters to provide state-of-the-art engineering, design, testing, and manufacturing of powertrain products for multiple markets, including automotive, marine, motorcycle and industrial. The addition of Mast Powertrain coincides with the company’s rapid expansion. Groundbreaking recently took place on a new 10,000 square foot facility that
API Announces Industry
“API is proud of its standards for motor oils and its Engine Oil Licensing and Certification System (EOLCS), and today we take a more dramatic step to ensure the integrity of motor oils by proposing a chain-of-custody system for bulk motor oils,” said Kevin Ferrick, EOLCS manager at API. Pennzoil-Quaker State Company (PQS) first launched
Booth Visits Remind Us Why We
There’s something to be said for stability and as we come to the last issue of 2011, I’d like to thank all of our long-time readers and advertisers for their continued support of Engine Builder magazine. Since we can’t physically come to each of your shops to do it, I’m instead sending out a virtual
Besides Octane, What Else Should You Consider When Selecting a Race Fuel?
It’s entirely possible to generate more horsepower with a lower octane fuel if it’s designed properly with respect to its other key properties. It’s also possible for two fuels to have the same octane rating, but perform very differently due to their other key properties.?? 1. OCTANE: Octane is simply a rating of a fuel’s ability to
Gasket Surface Machining is Critical to Cylinder Head Repair
According to this representative, the relatively short production life of modern engines also shortens the time that an aftermarket gasket company needs to remedy application-specific cylinder head sealing problems. Another issue is that, if the company develops a superior gasket sealing design for specific applications, the engine might disappear from the market before the company’s
Understanding The Differences, Challenges Between Crankshaft Position Sensors
I have suggested to you to watch for this and make sure that you have that, and encouraged you to be certain that it is indexed to this position and so on. But I don’t believe that I have ever written about watching out for damaged as-cast reluctor rings, spark triggers or whatever other name
Mike Pulk Retires from Goodson, Roque Named President
Pulk joined Goodson in 1996 when he took on the role of senior manager for operations, and in 2008 he was promoted to company president. During his tenure, Pulk oversaw the purchase and integration of Mach-B Grinding Wheel Shaping and Resizing as a division of Goodson. He also attended many industry trade shows and says