KEEPING THE WASTE OIL OUT When I disassemble an engine, I always leave it upright until I’ve removed and dropped the oil pan. The rest of the disassembly will be much cleaner as the parts won’t be dripping with the remaining tramp oil that doesn’t all get fully...
SET-UP STEMS When checking in heads, it's nice to just use “Set-up Stems” instead of having a box of miscellaneous valves for testing. They can at least tell you if the valve guides are useable or worn. I have the common sizes, the ones I use a lot and plan to add...
PLUG AND FITTING HOLDERS We keep NPT unions by the lathe for drilling pipe plugs for restrictors. We can screw the fitting in, chuck it up and use the lathe to drill the fitting. We use a split nut on conventional thread fittings. Adam Cofer Don Ott Racing Engines...
EMERGENCY FITTINGS In the event you come up missing a set screw or oil galley plug, and need to finish a job, one can be quickly made by threading the head of a stainless-steel hex-socket head cap screw. Then cut off and file the smaller original threaded portion of...
USED CRANK SPROCKET When balancing an externally balanced crankshaft, the harmonic damper needs to be installed at the correct location against the timing gear to maintain proper balance. Sometimes you might get a balance job and the timing gear is not on the crank....
THE GROOVY SPOT When I cut the oil groove in lifter bores, I put ink on the top of the cutting tool with a metal marker. It makes it easier to see which side the carbide cutter is on to be sure to cut the grooves on the passenger side of the lifter bores. Then I touch...