NUMBER YOUR STONES When changing stones on your line hone from cast iron blocks to aluminum blocks with billet caps, I take an engraving tool and engrave a #1 on my mandrels to mark where to start and engraved the stone position and mandrel size into each stone. It...
GIVE IT SOME BODY Some cam lubes are thin and drip off the cam lobes. I take thin lube and add gel capabilities to hold on to the cam lobe until start up. To do this, I add a small amount of petroleum jelly to thin cam lubes. It gives them more body so they’ll stay in...
ANOTHER ARBOR To cut down the flange on 12-point nuts for clearance, we built this simple arbor which allows us to cut 12 at a time. Simply a piece of all-thread cut on one end to clamp in the jaws and drilled for a pilot hole on the other for the lathe tail stock....
SLEEVE LOCKS When boring and honing engines with sleeves that have only a light press fit, we have found that the torque from the honing operation may cause the sleeve to slip in the engine case. We use 4 old 4-sided carbide inserts and some clamp bolts and nuts from...
CARTRIDGE ROLL LIFE When doing port work, one way to get much more life out of your cartridge rolls is to cut the glue at the end and unroll and cut the sandpaper back to a fresh surface. This will also reduce the diameter for hard to reach places. I found that the...
STICKY SITUATION Most of us know that magnetism on parts such as connecting rods is a very bad thing. Heat and friction can cause used rods to become magnetized. Today we can download Gauss/Magnetometer apps for our phones. They use the phone’s internal compass to...