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 is…
Jim Wolfrum Jims Automotive Machine Shop Gill, CO
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…
Greg Avrett Cal’s Engine & Machine Shop Oakdale, CA
When I’m struggling to see the valve keeper groves on an overhead cam head, with “bucket style” lifters, I attach a small flash light to shine thru the top of my air operated spring clamp. This puts the light directly in the area needed. This…
Darrin Anderson Sterling Bearing Inc Kansas City, MO
I’ve heard many shops complain about the finish and quality of some of the new bare cylinder head castings that are imported into the U.S. No one ever complains about the price, just the finish. In my shop, I look at these new castings as “a good core”.…
Tom Prodahl Cylinder Head Service Minneapolis, MN
Trying to setup Serdi seat facing cutters with valves that have undercut stems can be difficult. Use a valve guide the same size as your valve stem and clamp the setup pointer on it. That way it will bridge the undercut stem. And it will slide…
Randy Torvinen Torvinen’s Machine Menahga, MN
Most aluminum OHC heads have some oil galley plugs. Remove these plugs when rebuilding and blasting the heads with glass bead. When you remove the plugs after glass beading you will find that the glass bead will be clumped up behind the plug in the oil…
Ronnie Myers MAR Automotive, INC Philadelphia PA
A Volkswagon 1.8L turbo 20-valve cylinder head can be found in most shops across the country. Due to broken timing belts, new valves are often needed. If a valve tip breaks off at the keeper groove, after re-installation, it is not the fault of the valve. If the…
Patrick Paulsen Laughlin Machine Laughlin, NV
Guide to Tipping I keep about 15 different valve guides next to my valve-refacer to use when “tipping” the valve stems. By clamping the guide into the machine instead of the stem of the valve, I can easily insert the valve and use two fingers on the head of the…
Randy Torvinen Torvinen’s Machine Menahga, MN
Making Impact on Head Disassembly Here is a fast way to disassemble cylinder heads. Take a 1/2” impact driver (the type that you twist and hit with a hammer) and place an impact socket that is just a little smaller than your valve retainer onto the impact driver. Next place…
Dave Matton D and D auto Machine Bloomington, MN
Stud Installation Secret We all know head studs and main studs give better clamping force for our fasteners. Did you know that bottoming out the stud is a bad thing and the stud should never hit the bottom of the hole? Studs should never be torqued into place and should…
Roy A. Maloney Engine & Performance Warehouse Houston, TX