Old School Repair: This Dude Welds A Crankshaft Back Together Like A Boss! It Was Broken In Two!


Old School Repair: This Dude Welds A Crankshaft Back Together Like A Boss! It Was Broken In Two!

If you watch videos from other countries, where guys are doing repairs that would seem nearly impossible without modern tools, you start to appreciate and understand what our grandparents and great grandparents were doing to make similar repairs. It’s a true testament to how good something can be even without CNC machines or what have you. In this video, the only equipment used to fix this completely snapped crankshaft is a drill press, a stick welder, and a lathe. The lathe isn’t anything new, but it does seem to work well, and the guy using it clearly knows what he’s doing. But the lathe could be 50 years old or 5, it’s all the same.

Watch as this guy cleans and machines each end of the broken pieces, which might actually be from two different crankshafts, slides them together, indexes them, and then gets his arc welding on. He then straightens the crank, machines the crank, and finally drills the oiling holes in it and then sends it on its way to be used in some truck or what have you. It’s impressive and you’ll dig it.

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Dyno Proven 500 Horsepower Combos: Three Stock Bottom End 5.3 LS Combos That Will Make You 500 Horsepower Or More.


Dyno Proven 500 Horsepower Combos: Three Stock Bottom End 5.3 LS Combos That Will Make You 500 Horsepower Or More.

I get asked about LS engine combos all the time, and the overwhelming majority of them are from people who think that they need to build an engine with all aftermarket parts. When I ask them how much horsepower they want to make, the vast majority say something like 450 horsepower. This makes me shake my head, because making 400 to 500 horsepower is simple and doable if you have a 5.3 LS that runs. Stock they make 350 horsepower, so anything you do from there will make real power improvements. A camshaft and headers will make over 400, and when you combine an intake, heads, etc, there are real power numbers to be had. And then there’s nitrous! Okay that’s another video, these are completely naturally aspirated combos that are based on a stock bottom end 5.3L.

Check out Richard’s combos, dyno results, and more in the video below.

Video Description:

HOW DO I MAKE 500 HP WITH MY 5.3L? DO I NEED FORGED INTERNALS TO MAKE 500 HP WITH MY 5.3L? CAN MY 5.3L MAKE 500 HP WITHOUT BOOST? WHAT IS THE BEST CAM TO USE ON MY 5.3L? WHAT ARE THE BEST HEADS TO USE ON MY 5.3L? WHAT INTAKE SHOULD I USE ON MY 5.3L? CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO ON THREE (3) DIFFERENT 5.3L BUILDS THAT NOT ONLY EXCEEDED 500 FLYWHEEL HP, BUT DID SO WITH THE STOCK BOTTOM END (STOCK BLOCK, CRANK, RODS AND PISTONS). ALL YOU NEED ARE THE RIGHT HEADS, CAM AND INTAKE (WITH HEADERS) AND YOU TOO CAN REACH THE 500-HP MARK.

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New Product Install: New Mid-Mount Gen III HEMI Front Accessory Drive – HEMI Swap Greatness!


New Product Install: New Mid-Mount Gen III HEMI Front Accessory Drive – HEMI Swap Greatness!

One of the most annoying and frustrating parts of any late-model engine swap can be fitting a bunch of accessories that never came in your car up front and in between the engine and radiator. Whether you realize it or not, almost all of the late model V8 cars are considerably larger than their previous counterparts. A new Challenger is bigger than a 1970 Challenger, for example, and so is the underhood space. These new cars are designed to fit around all the stuff that needs to be on these late model engines, and the older cars weren’t. Thankfully the gang at Holley has come up with the solution. Their new Mid Mount accessory drive system is a game-changer.

When Holley came out with accessory drive systems for the LS engine it made swapping one into just about anything much less of a headache, and now Mopar fanatics are going to benefit from the same technology. Their bracketless design means everything fits tight to the block minimizing any chance of interference between accessories and the chassis, body, etc.

Video Description:

Holley’s new Gen III Hemi Mid-Mount Accessory Drive Kits offers a simple, clean and reliable way to install all of the serpentine belt-driven accessories for your late-model Mopar engine onto our patent-pending bracket-less design. This allows the alternator, air conditioning pump, power steering pump, and everything else to be mounted tighter to the engine, making a Gen III Hemi swap an easier affair, regardless if you are using a VVT or non-VVT engine in your build! https://www.holley.com/products/engin…

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JUNKYARD TWIN TURBO BIG BLOCKS-HOW MUCH BOOST DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE 1000 HP? 3 DIFFERENT BBC COMBOS


JUNKYARD TWIN TURBO BIG BLOCKS-HOW MUCH BOOST DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE 1000 HP? 3 DIFFERENT BBC COMBOS

Big block Chevrolets are awesome. I mean, I love small blocks, and I love a good LS or LT, but a Big Block Chevrolet still just stands above them all. In this day and age, where everyone is swapping junkyard LS engines into everything, and making big power with them by simply adding a turbo for boost, a lot of people have forgotten about the Big Block. But not Richard Holdener.

Nope, Richard is still making big power with a big block and showing that just like junkyard LS engines, junkyard big blocks can make stupid power with some boost. But how much boost is needed to make a big block make 1,000 horsepower? Here’s the answer, on three different junkyard big block combos so you can decide which one is right for you!

Video Description:

CAN I TURBOCHARG MY JUNKYARD BIG BLOCK CHEVY? HOW MUCH BOOST CAN I RUN? WILL MY TURBO 454 MAKE 1000 HP? HOW MUCH BOOST DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE OVER 1000 HP? WILL A BIGGER MOTOR MAKE MORE POWER WITH BOOST? SHOULD I MODIFY MY BIG BLOCK FOR BOOST? WHAT IS THE BEST BBC CAM FOR BOOST? WILL A GEN V 454 MAKE GOOD POWER? HOW WELL DO BPE POWER ADDER CRATE MOTORS WORK? THESE QUESTIONS AND MORE ARE ANSWERED IN THIS VIDEO, INCLUDING HOW MUCH BOOST IS REQUIRED TO EXCEED 1000 HP WITH DIFFERENT NA COMBOS. THE POWER YOU MAKE UNDER BOOST IS A DIRECT REFLECTION OF THE POWER YOU START WITH NA!

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An Electric Subaru Brat? Okay, This Is An Electric Vehicle Swap We Think Might Be Real Fun!


An Electric Subaru Brat? Okay, This Is An Electric Vehicle Swap We Think Might Be Real Fun!

The idea of taking a gas or diesel-powered car and making it electric intrigues me. I think it would be a fun project and have been thinking about a few different fun cars to do the conversion on. Of course, I have a jillion other projects going so there isn’t much need to be worrying about anything in the short term, but I certainly think it’s a fun idea and love checking out projects that other people are doing. So when James Fleischman at Flash Drive Motors sent me an email with a link to this Brat build I was intrigued.

Finding out that he’s located just outside of Austin, which is only a few hours drive from me, also made me want to go and play with electric cars so trust me that’s on the list of must-do things this summer.

But back to this project. This one is a Subaru Brat, you know, the little truck that came with the seats in the back. It was in really good shape, as it had been driven on the road up until 2017 but it still needed to get redone. Luckily, Flash Drive is all about restoring cars and not just making them electric. In fact, they will gladly work on your gasoline-powered ride, do EFI conversions, etc.

But I digress! Here are the first two videos in the Electric Brat conversion series, and we’ll have more tomorrow!

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Valvetrain Tech: If Light Weight And Low Reciprocating Mass Matter So Much, Do Stiffer Valve Springs Cost Horsepower?


Valvetrain Tech: If Light Weight And Low Reciprocating Mass Matter So Much, Do Stiffer Valve Springs Cost Horsepower?

Roller rockers, roller lifters, beehive valve springs, lightweight valves, lightweight locks and retainers, and the list goes on. These are all things designed to aid in controlling valvetrain at high rpm and under extreme power levels, and they do this by reducing the load required to move and control these components. So it would make sense that lighter valve springs would also be good for that. After all, anyone that has built an engine before knows that spinning the engine over by hand is very easy when it is just a short block and gets harder as you add components. If you have an engine with no spark plugs in it, and no rocker arms, then it is still really easy to spin by hand. But when you also have to turn the valvetrain, it becomes much more difficult.

So if you had an engine that didn’t “require” heavier valve springs, because it wasn’t going to be run at high rpm or didn’t have a camshaft that needed the extra valve control that heavy springs provide, would it make more horsepower with lighter weight springs that the others? Logic says yes. Or at least it seems like it does. But what does the dyno say?

Luckily for us, Richard Holdener knows because he’s done this very test and here it is so you can see for yourself.

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Compression Testing Junkyard Engines, In The Junkyard. Know What You Are Getting Before You Buy, Because This Engine Is Junk!


Compression Testing Junkyard Engines, In The Junkyard. Know What You Are Getting Before You Buy, Because This Engine Is Junk!

Here’s another junkyard video from Richard Holdener, the king of junkyard horsepower, and one that teaches you how to choose the right engine at the junkyard. This one hits close to home as Richard needs one too replace the Ameri-Barra that he strapped to the dyno but that has no compression in some of the cylinders. Sometimes you end up with a loser when you grab an engine from the wrecking yard. It’s just part of the deal. Hell, with as many engines as Richard has pulled from the yard there is no way he can be too made about getting one that sucks. The odds are usually in his favor, but not with the Atlas 4200, aka Ameri-Barra engine in the video below.

We’re putting these two videos together so you can feel Richard’s pain during the testing of the first engine so you can understand his motivation to do some testing when trying to find another one. Oh and did we forget to mention how many head bolts broke while trying to get them out of this engine? Yeah, it isn’t pretty, but you are going to want to watch because you just have to laugh. After all, if you don’t laugh then you will cry and nobody wants to see a grown man cry.

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Speed Secrets: Does Size Really Matter? How Much? Dyno Testing A 5.3 vs 6.0 Stock, Modified, And Stroked To See How Much Cubes Really Matter


Speed Secrets: Does Size Really Matter? How Much? Dyno Testing A 5.3 vs 6.0 Stock, Modified, And Stroked To See How Much Cubes Really Matter

Bigger is always better right?  Well maybe not. Or maybe so. Hmmm, is the jury out? Maybe. In todays horsepower video Richard pits a 5.3 vs a 6.0 to see which one is best stock, modified and then when equipped with a stroker kit. Will the stroked 5.3, at 383 cubic inches be as good as the 408 made from the 6.0? I can tell you that I have been around for tests of both combinations and they are impressive. I love a stroked 5.3 combo, and have made well over 1,000 horsepower with one with a little street cam and some boost. And all without doing anything that would be considered radical or too crazy for a street car. But does that make it better than the 6.0 is in this battle? Watch and see.

Here is the video description from Richard.

JUNKYARD LS COMPARISON-5.3L & 6.0L-STOCK. MOD & STROKER! HOW MUCH POWER DOES A STOCK 5.3L OR 6.0L MAKE? WHAT ABOUT WITH A FEW MODS LIKE PORTED HEADS, CAMS AND INTAKE? WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU STROKE AND POKE A 5.3L OUT TO 383 CUBIC INCHES? HOW ABOUT WHEN YOU DO THE SAME TO A 6.0L AND PRODUCE A 408 STROKER? HOW MUCH OF A DIFFERENCE DOES THE ADDED CUBIC INCHES REALLY MAKE? IS BIGGER REALLY THAT MUCH BETTER?

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