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Engine

• Extended Drain

  Talking about motor oil is about as exciting as watching paint dry. But as a car owner, there is likely no subject that poses greater importance in the long-term operation of your automobile.... Read More

• Tough-Driving Oil

  Proper nutrition is an essential element to every athlete's training regimen to stay ahead, or at least keep up with the competition. Nutrition, however, changes depending on the athlete and sport.... Read More

• Synthetic Oil

  Today's highly sophisticated engines are overriding one of the longest standing paradigms of automotive design by offering increased power along with increased fuel efficiency. Pumping out as much as... Read More

• All Choked Up

  Every problem is an opportunity, they say, but the best way of dealing with the problem of a faulty automatic choke is to take the opportunity to throw it in the bin. If you run an older car, you may... Read More

• Carburetor Classics: The Humble SU

  Ask many former owners of 1960s British sports cars about problem areas on their steeds, and they will likely digress into horror stories concerning the dreaded SU carburetors. In most cases though,... Read More

• Carburetor Classics: The Notorious Stromberg 97

  From the dawn of hot rodding to the present day, one carburetor has always been synonymous with traditional hot rods—the Stromberg Model 97. Although the Stromberg Company built millions of... Read More

• Carburetor Classics: The Racy Rochesters

  Rochester Products Division (RPD) of General Motors has built millions of carburetors over the years, but only a few have been popular with high-performance fans. The 2G series (in 3X2 setups), the... Read More

• Exhaust System Insulation

  It can get pretty warm under the hood of a car. The engine gets plenty hot, and the radiator gives off heat as well. If you have performance equipment like a supercharger or a turbo, you're in for... Read More

• Carburetor Classics: The Hailed Holley 4150

  Although Holley has churned out millions of carburetors to fit everything from the Ford Model T to DC-3 airliners, the one that became a hot rod legend and has been installed on untold numbers of... Read More

• Carb-e Diem

  It's pretty common for those of us building project cars to wind up rebuilding a used engine as well. And many of the engines come with a Holly four-barrel carburetor, so it pays to know how to work... Read More

• Decongestion

  Nearly every performance car guy has made an intake swap in the quest for better breathing and improved performance. The problem is that after spending a couple of hours making the swap, sometimes... Read More

• Engine Rebuild and Refurbish

  Anybody who's done a comprehensive resto project knows that it doesn't always follow a straight line, nor a precise timetable. You might thrash on it for several weekends in a row and then let it sit... Read More

• High-Carb Diet

  So why should we care about a low-tech item that no one uses anymore? Well, one reason is that there are a lot of cars running today that still use this old technology. Most collectible and resto... Read More

• Mopar Muscle

  When Chrysler Corporation fans think about power, the first thing that comes to mind is the Hemi. Which is a pity, really, since Chrysler has made dozens of great engines without those famed... Read More

• Mustang GT350 Restomod 3

  As mentioned in our initial installment, the Shelby GT350 wasn't named for its engine size, as is typical for many cars. Instead, back in 1965 Carroll Shelby had grown weary in a lengthy meeting... Read More

• Corvette Restoration: The Engine

  When it comes to restoring a classic Corvette, making it "better than new" is not always the best approach, at least if you plan on entering a competition for the NCRS (National Corvette Restoration... Read More

• Engine Rebuilding: The Camshaft

  In spite of all the talk these days about engine management of the electronic kind, the camshaft is still calling most of the shots. Virtually every parameter such as peak torque, a usable power... Read More

• Carburetor Refinishing

  You may have been rebuilding your own carburetors for years, and while they may function perfectly, they just don't have the look of a new or professionally refinished carb. Now, thanks to some... Read More

• Engine Rebuilding: Cylinder Heads

  Most engine rebuilds for restoration projects fall short when it comes to cylinder head preparation. That's okay if you don't plan to put on many miles and peak engine performance is not important.... Read More

• Engine Rebuilding: Rods & Pistons

  Think about it: At 6,000 rpm, a piston accelerates, comes to a complete stop, and repeats the cycle more than a 100 times per second! We're not talking about an electrical process here where a sensor... Read More

• Diagnostic Tool Tips

  Your engine is like your body: it usually tells you when something is going wrong. We get aches and pains; your engine starts making funny noises. Squeaking, grinding, pinging, chirping and the... Read More

• Anatomy of a Tri-Power

  If four-barrel carbs were good, then six barrels should be better! That was the thinking of automotive performance gurus in the late Fifties and Sixties. Manufacturers such as Pontiac, Chrysler,... Read More

• Engine Compartment Detailing

  Many times during an engine rebuild the attention is only on the motor and not on where it lives. While the powerplant is on the engine stand, you have a golden opportunity to renovate areas you... Read More

• Easy Metal Cleaning

  Internal engine parts that are constantly exposed to hot oil develop a burned-on brown patina during years of use. Trying to clean this coating with solvent is useless—the surface remains hard... Read More

• Engine Rebuilding: The Preparation

  Rebuilding the engine in your restoration project is a big commitment of time, energy and money. It can also be one of the most satisfying parts of the restoration process. Nothing beats knowing that... Read More

• Engine Rebuilding: The Crankshaft

  In Engine Rebuilding: The Preparation, we discussed various ways to rebuild your engine and how to find a competent machine shop to help you in the process. Part 2 will deal with the first step in... Read More

• Compression Check-Up

  At some point in the restoration process, the engine will come into question—to rebuild or not to rebuild. An engine rebuild is a lot of work, and to do it right costs a lot of money. You... Read More

• Quadra-Jet Restoration And Modification

  Most people, even gearheads, would rather fly a copper kite in an electrical storm than tackle the innards of their carburetor. Not to worry. There are alternatives to doing it yourself. Not only can... Read More

• Checking Compression Ratio

  Car magazines throw around compression ratio numbers like 9.0:1 and 12.5:1 as though everyone knew what they were talking about. For those who don't understand what compression ratio is, it's simply... Read More

• Checking Valve-To-Piston Clearance

  Building a high-performance engine with various speed parts is tricky business. If you follow the basic engine building rules (measuring every part to ensure they meet specs, trial-assembling the... Read More

• Supercharging Your Engine

  What hot rodders learned from the big bad wolf: If you huff and you puff, you'll produce more horsepower. Well, maybe not quite, but you get the idea. Think of your engine's pistons and cylinders as... Read More

• Mustang Engine Swap

  Engine swaps have always been a favorite trick of hot-rodders, but plugging in a 16-valve Cobra engine, Ford's 4.6-liter dual-overhead-cam modular engine, presents a whole new type of challenge.... Read More

• Performance Pushrods

  In most engines, pushrods are pushrods. But in a high-performance application, hidden power could be lurking in the valvetrain. To find out how much power, we discussed pushrods with a few "name"... Read More

• Aftermarket Airflow Sensors

  The laws of physics concerning engine performance are constant—stuff more air and fuel into the engine and draw more exhaust out and you'll increase power. Years ago, hot rodders would simply... Read More

• Holley Power-Valve Blowout Protection

  Holley carburetors have been the mainstay of high-performance engines for more than 40 years. In fact, they're still standard equipment for Winston Cup cars as well as for the most powerful... Read More

• Guide To Rocker Arms

  Rocker arms can cost power, lots of it in some cases. Typically, a factory rocker arm's ratio is less than advertised. For example, many stock Chevy small-block rockers "check" at between 1.4:1 and... Read More

• Building The Ultimate 750 Holley 3310

  Over the past 25 years, Holley has probably sold millions of 750 cfm vacuum secondary (#3310) carburetors. I know because I've personally purchased more than twenty 3310s for various cars over the... Read More

• Valvespring Selection

  The pattern is almost always the same: You're in the pits and fire up the engine. It sounds fine. You wing the throttle. It still sounds fine. It's time to idle over to the staging lanes and wait... Read More

• Holley Tuning

  One of the most botched, most misunderstood and most befuddling parts of the Holley carburetor is the accelerator pump circuit. Performance is a game of winners and losers; and, if your car dies,... Read More

• Top Ten Easy Performance Projects

  You want to modify your ride. There are tons of easy performance enhancements you can make that will take up just a small part of your time. Think about it-only two or three hours after work or a... Read More

• Timing is Everything

  Real world experience: A mini-truck was cruising a rural road. The engine died mid-shift. One minute it was purring right along, the next minute the only sound was the wind whistling in the open... Read More

• Engines of Change

  Over more than a century, the automobile has presented itself as a fascinating microcosm of technological evolution at work, with humble beginnings that embraced bicycle wheels, a tiller to steer,... Read More

• Variable Valve Timing

  In an internal combustion engine, optimizing the airflow in and out of each combustion chamber is a key to just about every aspect of performance. Power, emissions, fuel economy and other critical... Read More

• How Hybrids Work

  It's no secret that hybrid electric vehicles get pretty incredible fuel economy. In fact, the top three vehicles in EPA fuel economy ratings these days are hybrids, topped by the Honda Insight with... Read More

• Truck Engines: Gas vs. Diesel

  Pickup truck diesel engines of a decade ago were noisy, smelly and shook like a washing machine with an out-of-balance load. Today's pickup truck diesel engines are much more civilized, but are they... Read More

• A Diesel in Your VIN?

  It's the 8th digit. No, we don't mean some new movie, starring actor Vin Diesel, or the name of a new line of designer clothing. We're talking about cars, and the VIN is an acronym for Vehicle... Read More

• Motor Oil Specifications

  To many consumers, motor oil seems like the most over-certified product on the market. Some bottles of motor oil bear certification from the American Petroleum Institute (API), the European... Read More

• Motor Oil Myths

  Misunderstanding, misinterpretation, and some downright myths surround motor oil. This is largely because motor oil is an extremely complex, heavily researched, continuously improved and extensively... Read More

• Oil Change for Novices

  Changing your vehicle’s oil is easy, useful, saves money, and is extremely rewarding when measured by the number of interior household projects avoided.... Read More

• Replacing a Freeze Plug

  A freeze or expansion plug is a small, metal, circular plug that lives in various places on an engine block. These plugs have a valuable function and an equally interesting origin. An engine block... Read More

• Head Gasket Basics

  Understanding why a relatively inexpensive head gasket costs so much to replace means first realizing what it sits between. In the engine block are pistons that travel up and down in cylinder bores.... Read More

• The Speed of Light

  There are those happy to go through life letting the planetary gears, lockup clutches, vacuum modulators, and associated computers of an automatic transmission do the gear shifting for them. And... Read More

• Vintage Diesels, Part 2

  Part one of these articles about evaluating diesel engines ended by discussing the principles and the importance of performing an informal compression test. Let's now move on to how that's actually... Read More

• Replacing Engine Mounts

  Next time you put your foot to the floor to accelerate away from a stop, or motor on up an on-ramp, take a second to fully appreciate what's happening. All the power created by the miracle of... Read More

• Vintage Diesels, Part 1

  All the recent attention given to alternative fuel vehicles has piqued interest in diesel-powered passenger vehicles. Their higher fuel efficiency has rekindled a desire in many drivers to join the... Read More

• Turbocharger Basics

  There are proven ways to generate more horsepower with any given engine. One way is to make the engine bigger. While this is the most obvious path, it also has its disadvantages, painfully evident... Read More

• Synthetic or Conventional Oil?

  Traditional wisdom tells us that a synthetic creation is usually not quite as good as the original it strives to emulate. (The difference between clothing made of polyester versus silk comes to... Read More

• Remanufactured Engine Basics

  No engine, despite what often-repeated tall tales and infomercials would have us believe, runs forever. Even the best of engines will eventually wear out. The engine under your hood is comprised of a... Read More

• Sensitive Position

  Although there are literally dozens of sensors that provide critical data to the engine management computer of a modern, fuel-injected engine, few are actually adjustable, or can be affected by... Read More

• High Mileage Lubricants

  When the odometer on your vehicle hits the 75,000-mile mark, it's time to start using a different type of motor oil. If you want to keep your car, truck or SUV running smoothly for another 75,000... Read More

• The Weighting Game

  Anyone who has purchased motor oil is familiar with those numbers on the front of the container, something like 5W-30. Most folks may even have some idea of what those numbers mean, and how that... Read More

• Replacing Starters & Solenoids

  One of life's great ironies is that you generally don't know you need to replace your starter or solenoid until you've already gone through the trouble of checking out your battery and cables for... Read More

• Replacing Spark Plugs

  For many, replacing spark plugs is an exercise ripe with nostalgia, recalling their first experience with engine maintenance as they helped mom or dad check the plug gap on the family's chariot.... Read More

• Sensor Troubleshooting: Manifold Absolute Pressure

  This engine monitor, called the MAP (Manifold Absolute Pressure) sensor, can be checked and replaced by virtually anyone who has basic hand tools, a scanner to retrieve engine trouble codes, a... Read More

• Oil Change 101

  Note: Be sure to read filter packaging for proper removal and replacement of oil filter.... Read More