Dead Lifters and Cylinders We had an interesting issue with Cadillac Northstar heads. We did a normal blast, dye check, valve job, stem height adjustment, and surface as requested. We also did our normal vacuum test before sending the heads back. We were then...

Rubber Bands to the Rescue Don’t have enough hands to drop a cam shaft rocker assembly on a VTech and other overhead cam motors? Try using rubber bands to hold the rocker arms together on the shaft assembly to help prevent the shifting of the rocker arms and the pivot...

SPRING TESTER STAND Make your daily life easier with fixtures and setups. An ugly back prompted me to build this stand for my valve spring tester years ago. No more bending over to check valve springs. This is comfortable and efficient. Randy Torvinen Torvinen’s...

TOOLING PARADISE I work on everything from large HD agricultural to motorcycle engines. My excessive amount of seat and guide tooling had to find a home. I built this rotating tool holder out of 3 pieces of heavy wall PVC. The inner tube is attached to a pipe, which...

OLD SCHOOL HEAD BENCH This is very basic and has been in our shop for over 30 years. It’s been rebuilt twice, which means new carpet was installed on the V-blocks. The weight of the head, or gravity and the carpet on the V-blocks works to hold the head snugly in...

GOOD HEADS I’ve heard many shops complain about the finish and quality of some of the new bare cylinder head castings that are imported into the U.S. No one ever complains about the price, just the finish. In my shop, I look at these new castings as “a good core”. I...