by Donnie Hurt | Oct 1, 2021 | TOOLING
CHAMFER REMOVAL Shallow head fasteners like flywheel bolts can be a challenge to remove without rounding the head off. I place a socket in my metal lathe and face it flat to eliminate the chamfer. I get full contact with the fastener and fewer stripped heads. Dave...
by Donnie Hurt | Oct 1, 2021 | DISASSEMBLY & CLEANING
KEEPING THE WASTE OIL OUT When I disassemble an engine, I always leave it upright until I’ve removed and dropped the oil pan. The rest of the disassembly will be much cleaner as the parts won’t be dripping with the remaining tramp oil that doesn’t all get fully...
by Donnie Hurt | Sep 1, 2021 | CYLINDER HEADS
SET-UP STEMS When checking in heads, it’s nice to just use “Set-up Stems” instead of having a box of miscellaneous valves for testing. They can at least tell you if the valve guides are useable or worn. I have the common sizes, the ones I use a lot and plan to...
by Donnie Hurt | Sep 1, 2021 | OTHER SHOP WORK
PLUG AND FITTING HOLDERS We keep NPT unions by the lathe for drilling pipe plugs for restrictors. We can screw the fitting in, chuck it up and use the lathe to drill the fitting. We use a split nut on conventional thread fittings. Adam Cofer Don Ott Racing Engines...
by Donnie Hurt | Sep 1, 2021 | OTHER SHOP WORK
EMERGENCY FITTINGS In the event you come up missing a set screw or oil galley plug, and need to finish a job, one can be quickly made by threading the head of a stainless-steel hex-socket head cap screw. Then cut off and file the smaller original threaded portion of...
