RELUCTOR WHEEL INSTALLATION TOOL We made our own reluctor wheel installation tool for LS engines, and it works like a charm. We used junk materials from around the shop, including an old valve stem, and have about 2 hours of labor into making it. A chunk of 1/2" plate...
NARROWING BEARINGS When I need to narrow a set of rod bearings, I have bucks that I’ve turned to the size of the crank pin. Then, I wrap a single layer of masking tape around them to protect the bearing. I hold the bearing to the spud with a couple hose clamps,...
MODIFY AS NEEDED Many times, the flange diameter of the rod nuts will contact the radius around the nut seat on some rods. Some jobs may not warrant the expense of spot facing the nut seat on the connecting rods. In that case, it can be quicker and effective to just...
END PLAY Setting crankshaft end play on engines that you do frequently can be made easy and save time. If you do enough engines, you will always find yourself lapping thrust bearings to get desired end play. Start recording the width of thrust bearings after you have...
ROD BOLT INSTALLATION When installing aftermarket rod bolts, in addition to checking the under-head radius clearance, if the nuts are flanged, always check for clearance on the cap where it seats. On some rods, the O.D. of the flanged nut will hit before the face...
V10 BALANCING ACT When balancing V-10 cranks, I use my four V8 bobweights and then two V6 bobweights on the fifth journal. I’ve double checked this by moving them around after the crank is balanced, and there is no change. It works great and eliminates the need to...