Measuring Concave Objects If you need to measure a concave object such as a lifter or push rod and don’t have a ball mike, or don’t have one large enough, you can use a bearing ball in the concave part and subtract the diameter of the ball from the overall...
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...
CURRENTLY TRENDING As I visit machine shops around the state, I notice some common trends. Shops have downsized to some extent over the years. Many of the shops no longer want to assemble engines. They claim that they don’t want the liability of assembling engines...
DIESEL HEAD STUD RETORQUE In our shop we do a variety of cylinder heads for late model diesel trucks. On jobs like 6.0 Fords, 5.9 Cummins, or 6.6 Dura- max our customers often install ARP studs as in improved fastener. ARP highly suggests that the studs be retorqued...
MOCK LIFTERS For hydraulic lifter applications, I speed up the process for checking pushrod length, pre- load and geometry by using “solid” lifters. I disassemble a lifter and load it up with either epoxy or Plaster of Paris to position the plunger in a permanent...