Don’t Put the Cart Before the Horse
Happy New Year everyone! I trust you all enjoyed the holiday season and are hitting the gas full throttle now that we’re in a new year and January is already flying by. Personally, I’m not generally big on making resolutions – at least not ones that require tons of effort or ones I know I
Summer Vibes and a Dream Engine Giveaway
How can you not love summer? Sure, it gets hot, but it definitely beats the cold, and there’s so much going on to occupy your time. Here at Engine Builder, our team has stayed extremely busy attending racing events, shows, visiting manufacturers and engine shops, as well as our usual content work.
PRI 2021: What a Show
First things first – Happy New Year to you all. I sincerely hope you got to be with friends and family during the holidays and that you all had a safe and fun end to 2021. We’ve now officially welcomed 2022, and as the holidays have quickly come and gone, as they always do, I
Not Your Father’s Engine Builder
I’ve actually lost track of how long it’s been since people started claiming print was dead. It’s been a while! Now, I understand the ‘print is dead’ claim might be different for newspapers than it is for magazines, but I can tell you this – the content landscape has certainly been shifting. When I look
Experience Always Wins
Formula 1 racing often tells smaller stories within each individual race; the final stretches of the Russian Grand Prix proved in my eyes that experience always wins.
Male or Female – Passion Fuels Our Industry
Whether you’re a man or a woman, you can relate to that feeling this industry gives you and you want to immerse yourself in it. That’s what makes this industry great.
In Engine Building, Predictions Don’t Always Meet Reality
Here we go again. The fax machine will kill the mail system… TV will kill the radio… Movie rentals and streaming videos will kill the movie theaters… The above three statements were cited many times over the years, but strangely, none have them have even been remotely close to coming true. Every year the U.S.

If You’re Not Measuring, You’re Guessing
Today’s tolerances are much closer than they have ever been and that is why exact measurement is necessary. Way back when, we mostly had to deal with three decimal places. Today we’re going out to four decimal places. Why? What has changed?

How Did We Get Here?
Today, I am going to take you on a journey back in time to see what started this whole industry of rebuilding engines and what events made us who we are for what we do today.

The Other Machines in Your Shop
In the last couple of years we have discussed the various maintenance requirements for your big machines – surface grinders, crank grinders, cleaning machines, etc. Let’s not forget those other devices that play a pretty important part in your continued effort to build the best engines you and your employees can offer to your valued customers.
The Valve Refacer
Let’s talk about the valve refacer. I mean you all have one. Some of you have two. My question today, is what is the program in your shop to maintain that piece of equipment?

The Daily Grind – Grinding valve seats with different abrasives
Grinding valve seats with abrasive stones has been aound about as long as the internal combustion engine. In the early days of grinding seats, there were only two abrasive materials to choose from – General Purpose and Finishing – because seats were mostly made of a single material, cast iron. Today, seats are made of