When baking and shot peening cylinder blocks, I leave the main bearing shells and the cam bearings in the block to protect surfaces and maintain concentricity. Anthony Rotella Anthonys Marine & Service St Petersburg, FL NOVEMBER, 2021
Anthony Rotella Anthonys Marine & Service St Petersburg, FL
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 drained. More…
Ron Flood Cedar Machine North Branch, MN
We all heat our oil plugs, studs and bolts to free them up. I found another heat solution, removing stubborn valve seals. I just warm them up with a propane torch to soften the rubber and they pull right off. This works great! Randy Torvinen Torvinen's…
Randy Torvinen Torvinen's Machine Shop Menahga MN
Disassembling an old stuck engine can be challenging. When valves are stuck in the valve guides, try welding a nut to the face of the valve. Now you can rotate it to help free it from the guide. Dave Matton D and D Auto Machine Bloomington,…
Dave Matton D and D Auto Machine Bloomington, MN
On many spray-wash machines, the "parts tree" will scuff up a freshly surfaced cylinder head if it is allowed to touch it. I simply slide some Convoluted Wire Tube over the branches of the tree and the heads are safe. Sometimes it can be difficult to get them…
Ron Flood Cedar Machine North Branch, MN
If you use an ultrasonic cleaner you can use smaller containers with various cleaning solutions in them within the water-filled ultrasonic cleaner. It will clean various materials simultaneously and reduce cleanup mess, time, and expense. Colin Eddy Garage & Customs Dallas, TX January, 2021
Colin Eddy Garage & Customs Dallas, TX
Here’s a couple of tips regarding soda blasting. Soda is very fine and it can become very cloudy and difficult to observe your work. I have drilled fresh air intake holes around the periphery of the viewing window, which helps keep the area clear. I also created a…
Archie Frangoudis Archies Racing Service Nashua, NH
Some core plugs are notoriously tricky to remove. One example, that I see a lot of, is the deep plugs used in the back two positions of big block Chryslers where the cylinder wall is close to the plug hole. I simply tack weld a nut to…
Joe DeGraw Grawmondbecks Engine Rebuilding Mason City, IA
I made a few of these simple scrapers to leave around the shop. They're really great for getting after rusty surfaces. An aluminum handle with used carbide tooling bolted on. They are simple to make. Repurpose your bits! Randy Torvinen Torvinen's Machine Shop Menahga, MN December, 2019
Randy Torvinen Torvinen's Machine Shop Menahga, MN
Some of the late model Gen 3 hemi engines have plastic plugs in place where the MDS solenoids locate in the valley. They need to come out for block cleaning. They can be stubborn or even break when trying to remove. There is a small oil port…
Nick Jones Automotive Machine Fraser, MI