THE MOST PROFITABLE TOOL IN YOUR SHOP Ask yourself, what is the most profitable tool in your shop? The answers vary! A lot of machine shop owners will quickly say their flywheel grinder or their guide and seat machine. But the most profitable tool isn’t a machine you...
Piston Ring Squaring Tool I made a quick and accurate piston ring aligner for checking end gaps out of a .030 over, 454 Chevy flat top piston. Just chuck the piston in a lathe and turn the ring lands down to a little under 4.000 ̋. (Mine is 3.995 ̋.) The bottom of the...
Thinking Outside the Book Is your business up to date on your Yellow Pages listing? I hope not! In the good ol’ days if someone in your area needed machine work they would turn to the yellow pages. How do DIYers find your shop today? - According to Yelp, 85 percent of...
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...
Easy Oil Pump Screen Install I just clamp the screen in my brass jaw vise and use a plastic dead-blow hammer to drive the pump onto the screen, being careful to keep them in alignment. This method started when I did not have a driver for an oddball engine. Now I do...
Understanding Standard and Reverse Rotation Marine Boats with twin engines usually have them turning in opposite directions so the torque reactions of the engines cancel each other out. This can create some rather unique problems for the rebuilder. The following four...