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...
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...
PLASTIC PISTON PACKER I recycle the thick plastic trays used to store and ship 1-liter soda bottles. They work really well for keeping piston and rod assemblies in order, and protected from damage as you move them about the shop. Trays are very stable when you set...
HONING-CUTTING OIL This helps save me money, time and storage space. Honing oil is not just for honing, it is a cutting fluid. I use it on taps and dies, for cutting lifter bushing and machining on my lathe. I also use it for surfacing aluminum heads on my CBN...
QUICK CHANGE HOLDER Many of our company’s jobs are short runs, with setups that needed to be changed sometimes every two to four hours. Work holding setup time was something that became necessary to improve as our volume of work increased. By investing in a...
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...