The Latest in TIG Welding Techniques & Equipment
Like the swallows coming back to Capistrano, the monarch butterflies finding the same wintering site in Mexico generation after generation or the buzzards returning faithfully to Hinckley, OH, in my neck of the woods, I am back with an annual March update on TIG welding in general and welding aluminum cylinder heads and other engine
Has Hot Honing Cooled Off?
No matter how perfectly straight and round it may be when it is machined, a cylinder bore will change shape when cylinder heads are installed and when the engine reaches normal operating temperatures. During a presentation at the 2002 PRI Show, the subject of “Hot Honing” caused a tremendous stir of excitement among performance engine
Gessford Machine, 2004 Machine Shop of the Year
If you asked a roomful of people to make a list of the 20 most exciting cities in the world, you would probably find New York, London, Paris, Rome and Beijing on every list. While the exact order and final tally of cities might vary, it’s unlikely that Hastings, NE, would even be mentioned. But
Coretalk: AERA EXPO 2005 Set For Las Vegas Hilton In April
The EXPO will showcase leading edge technology with live, operating demonstrations of equipment, tools, supplies, parts and services. Exhibits will be open on Thursday, April 28, from 10:30 am-6 pm; Friday, April 29, from 10:30 am- 6:30 pm; and Saturday, April 30, from 10:30 am- 2:30 pm. EXPO will include a keynote address from NASCAR
Tech Notes
Engine Builders: The AERA Technical Committee offers the following information regarding harmonic damper loosening, key shear and crankshaft damage on 1992-2002 GM 6.5L diesel engines. This condition has been reported on engines that have been in service a long time as well as engines shortly after re-installation of the harmonic damper. In some instances, over
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
Fast Lane: Boundless Opportunities Await You in 2005
By now you have all made your New Year’s resolutions, and hopefully, at least one of those goals tions is to look for new opportunities that will help your business become even more successful. This month’s column should give you some help in keeping that resolution. The elections are finally over and the economy is
Making Horsepower and Horse Sense From Your Dyno
A dyno can give an engine builder an enormous wealth of information and even separate the truth from lies. It’s one thing for a builder to have an idea of what the engine he or she is building is capable of and quite another to know exactly what’s been created. That’s because a dyno, more
Surfacing Equipment Options
On older cast iron engines with conventional soft-faced head gaskets, as long as the surface finish on the cylinder head and block deck is roughly 60 to 100 microinches Ra (roughness average), the head gasket should cold seal and remain leak-free for the life of the engine. But on late model bimetal (aluminum head/cast iron
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
Shop Line
I have found differing torque values published for the 1.8L Toyota engine. What are the correct torque values? The AERA Technical Committee offers the following information regarding main bearing bolt torque specifications for 1998-2003 Toyota 1.8L 1ZZFE and 2ZZEGE engines. There has been some confusion as to the correct torque value for these engines. Some
Tech Notes
Engine Builders: The AERA Technical Committee offers the following information regarding engine failure on 1998-2004 Chrysler 2.7L VIN R, U & V engines. There have been reports of premature engine failure on these engines, failures that may include tensioner failures, oil consumption and engine bearing failure. It has been suggested that many of these failures
Machine Maintenance
Is your shop a safe place to work? Good question, isn’t it? What do I mean when I say is your shop safe? Let’s put everything into perspective. One injury could potentially cost you everything. Lest you think I’m being overly dramatic, consider this … while working on an important job your top machinist gets
Washington Way: Battle Over Heavy Duty OBD Repair Info Continues
In early 2003, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) decided to extend to heavy-duty vehicles the on-board-diagnostics information access rules then applicable only to automobiles and light duty vehicles. These access rules specify the information which the vehicle manufacturers have to make accessible from within the OBD system on their vehicles and from outside the
PERA’s Core Corner: Trying To Make Sense Out Of Detonation Sensors
Here it is the New Year and I’m sure many of us have gone through the challenge of making resolutions to lose weight, quit smoking and so on and so on. We’ll look back 3 months from now and try to make sense of how our resolutions got lost in the shuffle. This month we
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
Piston Ring Technology: Stock and Performance
Piston rings have one of the toughest jobs inside an engine. They’re slammed up and down between the ring lands thousands of times a minute; they’re subjected to searing temperatures and extreme pressures; and they’re constantly scraping back and forth against the cylinder walls. In spite of all of this, the rings are expected to
Installing a cam timing gear on a 1.8L Toyota
I’ve been having trouble installing a cam timing gear on a 1.8L Toyota. Any advice? The AERA Technical Committee offers the following information regarding the camshaft timing gear installation for 1998-2003 Toyota 1.8L 1ZZFE engines. Some difficulty has been expressed while installing this gear as the gear rotates within its hub. A new camshaft timing
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
What A Year It’s Been…What!? It’s Been A Year?
As I sit here pondering the many topics I could choose to write about for my last column of 2004, I’m suddenly struck by the unbelievable fact that it is December already! Of 2004! Where did 2003 go? What happened to April, for crying out loud? Of course, the holiday shopping days always seem to