KEEPING THE FLUIDS OUT If you’re honing a block without a torque plate for any reason, use clear packing tape and cover all the water holes in the deck. This will reduce the drain time and you’ll see much less "walk off" of your honing oil as well. Saves money and...

GROOVY CAM BEARINGS When boring cam tunnels for repair or index correction that have oil grooves behind the bearing, you will lose a little area in that feed. Instead of the hassle of grooving them deeper, I just make up what’s removed by grooving the backside of the...

SUBARU CASE CLAMP The Subaru opposed 4-cylinder has a split case or block. I came up with this solution to hold down Subaru blocks so we can surface them. It works real well and holds the block firmly in place. Its a metal bar cut to fit inside of the cylinder. I...

CAM BEARING INSTALLATION Nothing worse than having to fit a camshaft after installing new cam bearings, because they are too tight. I dial-bore gauge check all cam bores of the “known offenders”. I also use a Sunnen Jr. Hone to hone cam bores to the correct size...

PARTICLE TRAY In my hone, I keep a large cookie tray under the block I am processing. This creates a settling pond for most of the material that is removed during the honing process. Without the cookie tray, most of the heavy material settles in the hone sump and only...

I buy these inexpensive moving dollies and cover them with Marine plywood. Instead of having blocks on the floor and having to use a 2 wheeler all the time to move them around, all the blocks are on dollies. If you put a piece of cardboard down, it soaks up oil going...