Been pretty busy in the shop with this whole Covid crap going on. Engines getting rebuilt, parts being made and so on. Will start posing pics of things going on in the shop. One project going on. Got a local college kid that lost his internship to covid and was needing work. So I have him and a local HS kid tearing down inventoried core engines. To date they have 56 tore down. The parts are getting separated and arranged in category's. Makes it easy to use them. Here they are ready for a days work. Took 3 weeks to get 56 tore down. about 55 to go. This pic represents 52 engines worth of pistons.
Inliner Member 1716 65 Chevelle Wagon and 41 Hudson Pickup Information and parts www.12bolt.com
Also in early May, got a new piece of equipment. Serdi 4.5 headshop. This is used to rebuild cylinder heads. All I can say is it is NICE! Fast and accurate
Last edited by tlowe #1716; 07/04/2004:04 PM.
Inliner Member 1716 65 Chevelle Wagon and 41 Hudson Pickup Information and parts www.12bolt.com
Another new product in the shop. Billet 2 groove waterpump pulleys. 292 version and another for 194-230-250. These are needed for Power steering and air conditioning. Hard to find the right part for either engine, especially the 292.
Also the piston pallet got too big, so we started another one. So far have 95 engines tore down. Picking up 2 more 292 this weekend. Over 80 heads on this pallet
Inliner Member 1716 65 Chevelle Wagon and 41 Hudson Pickup Information and parts www.12bolt.com
Wow you have all kinds of goodies Tom! I'll have to look at my water pump pulley to see if it is setup for power steering. If not I will be inquiring on buying a 292 pulley. Watched the video, those boys have tearing down an engine to a science. Good work by those two, and valuable experience for them as well.
We always offset bored all our non-Mexican performance and race blocks because they were always too thin on the major thrust side like that! .150" isn't bad, most are around .100" when they are .060" over.
Larry, This is a block that was saved by using molasses. It was rusty and stuck. The pistons cam out nice, and all the rust is gone as seen. The bores were beautiful, but the lifter bores were pitted from the prior rust. Good guinea pig block for the CNC and Sunnen SV-15 diamond hone. That is why it is all machined. Including the allign hone. Did not want to rebush the lifter bores, I have so many blocks. Good eye on the ChevyII casting.
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Not that saw. But do have a Doall vertical that would do it. Have a couple more practice blocks could see about doing that sometime. Have to rig up a counterweight to keep tension on it so I can walk away.
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Like a deck plate. But just above the main cap to keep the block oil pan rail as one. If you could/wanted to and depending on the Price I mite buy it from you and use it as a jig rather then useing a whole motor.
Larry/Twisted6 [oooooo] Adding CFM adds boost God doesn't like ugly.
Making a jig to machine chambers and valve throats in the CNC. This should really help production. Also have a worked up head sent out and scanned. We are working on the program to do this.
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The head fixture for CNC is nearly done. Had time over the weekend to install and set it up. Programming is next. We have a head out being scanned, from that the program will be made. Might not be long before the chips start flying. I have plenty of cracked heads to practice on.
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Got a used vise for the shop. Cleaned it up and painted it. Made a larger anvil for it and installed it. H13 tool steel. This vise weighs 220 pounds! The other pics are taken out working on heads.
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I have missed updated for a while. A few things have happened and plenty going on. Parts, heads and engines going out daily. Got a New Hwacheon HL-460 lathe in April. It is 3 phase and runs perfectly on a VFD, even added a potentiometer to vary the speed. It is a Geared machine. Weight is 5200 lbs. For general use in the shop. Also picked up a 1983 Chevy shortbox truck with a integral 250/ 4 speed. It runs bad now. Plan on documenting the problems it has, fix them and then start stepping into areas to improve the truck and engine.
Last edited by tlowe #1716; 11/10/2101:36 AM. Reason: Beaters fault
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A little past the beginning stages of making a new intake manifold. Made to fit the stock chassis of a ChevyII, Camaro, Chevelle and the other GM stock chassis. Maybe not a G series van. Don't have one to test fit. The runners are longer, cross section of port is smaller to raise the velocity. Also is made to fit up with a flat edged lump like a PES lump. Water heated. No adaptor needed as it will be a direct bolt on for the Holley carb. The first one is a 3D printed part. And it weighs only 3 lbs. Going to coat the inside, machine it to fit the carb and bolt to head and it will get real world tested on the 65 Chevelle wagon.
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Beater, good for you to pack away those lumps. Who knows what else you may have stashed.
Hank, No plans on it right now. Going to be making a block into a flow test bench to test this and other intakes on a head and flow thru the cylinders. Second test will be on the engine. More people will want it as is and not a divided port. It is pretty hard to divide the ports in the head.
Last edited by tlowe #1716; 02/04/2211:31 PM.
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I'll be following this. As you know low end torque interest me for my 292 truck engine. I thought I had my intake. Too much stuff stashed most of it legal.
"I wonder if God created man because he was disappointed in the monkey?" Mark Twain
Progression of forklifts at my shop. First one was over 20 years ago and was a 1990's unit ,pretty used up then. Was still a good workhorse. Second one was a rebuilt 2004 Daewoo, very dependable and did all I needed. Current one should last me a LONG time. Thanks to Curt Lowe (brother) at Onesource Handling for keeping me going.
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Starting process of making new engines. These blocks will be baked in a oven 3 at a time to degrease/remove paint. Next step, head to shot blaster to shine them up. Then into the shop for crack detection before machining starts. Doing 10 blocks.
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Yes Sir. cleaned in house. We use a Peterson bake oven, it is pretty big. It can hold 21 cylinder heads or 9 cranks or 3 blocks or any mix of the above. After that the parts go through a shotblaster to remove all dirt. The look like new. Will get another pic as that gets underway. Pics of the shop tools are on the website. https://www.12bolt.com/shop-tour.html
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What temp does it take to burn off the grease & grime? Looking forward to more pictures. When I was building my 270 many years ago there was no hot tank around and a shop's steam cleaner could not remove all of the old cooked on oil & grease. I brought it home and put the Rosebud on my torch and burned it off and wire brushed the rest. It took a long time. Now it's almost that dirty again.
"I wonder if God created man because he was disappointed in the monkey?" Mark Twain
Beater, Most parts are cooked at 550 degrees for 4 hours. They look pretty dry when done. The oil and grease are just a powder at that point. It in no way harms the cast iron or steel.
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Darn, I wish I was a little closer, lol. Just getting started with a 292 build and as usual, I am the last of the Mohicans around these parts with inline motors.
Before and after pics of a block after going thru the shot blaster. Also a row of blocks after crack checking and inspections. Next, pressure testing, boring and zero decking, both in the CNC , And diamond honing with a TQ plate.
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There are a few reasons. 1. It leaves oil in the main bolt holes. Easier to clean later than baked out crusty holes. 2. We cant mix them up with other blocks
12 Block cleaned up. Machining next.
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Blocks are now going thru the CNC. Boring and decking. Crack checking is all done. Next will be honing, 2 kinds. Allign honing the mains and finishing the bores.
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Thanks for posting that. I have one of your balancers that I bought for my son's 292 (which I am still gathering parts for) and I remember saying to him when we got it that it had been balanced which I thought was tremendious!
Here is a tool we needed in the shop. When Chevy put straight 6 194-230-250 in ChevyII Nova's. The block was drilled in a very specific location to match the front sump oil pan. We made a drill jig to aid in this feat. The drilled hole is on a angle in 2 planes. Very hard to do with a hand drill. This jig takes all the guess out. X marks the spot drilled. Available on the site as a rental.
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Made a new video of how we install the bolt in lumps. This work is done on a Head Shop. These machines are used in engine rebuild shops. Really nice to located a head and move from 1 location to the next. The table allows full rotation of head to work on either side.
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Made a needed part today. Offy and Clifford intakes use a adapter to bolt on a Holley carb. These adapters only allow the carb to be bolted on sideways or 90 degrees to the engine. The adaptor made here allows the carb to be turned either way. Lots of chips! Some edges look bad, need to order larger stock next time.
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Don't have enough of your own stuff You had to copy more of my stuff? And you could'nt even get it right the first time to dam funny. You just don't quit do you?My carb plate
Last edited by Twisted6; 06/29/2211:32 PM.
Larry/Twisted6 [oooooo] Adding CFM adds boost God doesn't like ugly.
Twisted, By no means are these plates a copy of yours or anyone else's. These were drawn from scratch on my computer. These will bolt on in 2 directions. 90 degree or straight with engine. There is plenty of room in the inline world for multiple vendors. Buyers win when they have choices. Did not know you offered carb plates either.
Last edited by tlowe #1716; 06/30/2202:47 AM.
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90% of my plates do bolt on both ways and They fit Both the clifford and the Offey. So don't give that BS you did them from scratch, You also knew I did custom carb plates, Not like you have Not seen them Or any of my stuff. But hey If you say you didn't know. So you believe what you will or want to. You have Burned me in the Past along with Others So I would not put it past you to do so again. Hence the reason I will not send you my stuff to sell Or Advertise in the 12 port right along with the other Venders who will not advertise in the 12 port to much conflict of interest.
Now I think I'm done with this. Topic.
Last edited by Twisted6; 06/30/2209:16 PM.
Larry/Twisted6 [oooooo] Adding CFM adds boost God doesn't like ugly.
Nice and quiet in the shop. Good time to concentrate on finishing up a bunch of heads. Final valve jobs on the Serdi. Both 1.84 and 1.94 valve sizes. Will get about 8 done in this group. Decking in the CNC is next . Much more work goes into these than making Carb adapters. Have a GREAT 4TH of JULY!
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Your right on that But it Takes certain talent To get a head to flow and Set track records with it, And to spend count less hours on a flow bench rather than just coping other people's stuff. Then it does to do a carb plate that's for sure.
Last edited by Twisted6; 07/07/2210:32 PM.
Larry/Twisted6 [oooooo] Adding CFM adds boost God doesn't like ugly.
Nice work Larry. That 194 chamber looks like a runner! Here is what is going on late this afternoon here at 12Bolt. Step 2 of shop expansion. Step 1 was prepping a site for a storage building. Step 2 , Acquire the building. 52x96 14 side walls. Many steps to go. The shop expansion is taking place in the old building. Needed storage area for the engines/ parts.
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When balancing, the crank or part can spin any direction. You are only inducing centrifugal force and it happens in either direction. Crankshaft grinders and polishers need to spin so that the cut grain flows opposite of crank rotation. The best analogy is running your hand backwards on sharks skin. There are always tiny flakes sticking out of the surface of the metal.
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Making progress. Footings are poured for 1/2 of building. Foundation walls also poured for 1/2 of building. 52x96 building. These walls are plenty stout. 1 foot thick and going down to the footing that is below frost line.
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Made 24 more carb adaptors over the weekend to make up for working on building during the week. None left of the first batch. Got the program changed so there were no unmachined areas. This Am , packed parts to send out till 11. Then headed out to work on the building till 6. Making progress! 36' up. Tomorrow should get 24 more done.
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More new parts in the shop. Have had customers over the years ask for heavier duty timing sets. Sometimes under severe use they alum gear will fail. Here is 12Bolts answer. Iron cam gear and steel crank gear. Also adjustable +/- 4 degrees or Zero. Made in USA. Progress on the storage building by these 2 guys. [/img][img]
Last edited by tlowe #1716; 09/24/2205:01 PM.
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Progress on the building. Nearly done with all I am going to do. The tin work will be hired out. Just a little more bracing and electrical. Already have the lights hung. 52x96x14 walls. Also picked up a core 250 from a 72 Elcamino.
Last edited by tlowe #1716; 10/29/2206:03 PM.
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Beater, The lights are direct wired to 120V. You could put a plug on them. About 1 foot in Diameter and hanging down from roof a couple feet.
We are getting ahead of work. A little. With heads anyway. A few ready to assemble and a few done. Find them on the website. https://www.12bolt.com/store/c69/Performance_Heads.html Also making progress on our Storage building. My daughter is the photographer. Tin to follow. Next to start working on the 1983 C10 factory 250 integral head/ 4 speed manual with O/D and pig slow take off 2.73 gears. It runs bad as is.
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Thanks Tom. I'm doing some updating on our cobbled solar system. It's been pieced together over the last 40+ years in Mad Max fashion and some modern efficient lights might help.
Things are looking good there!
"I wonder if God created man because he was disappointed in the monkey?" Mark Twain
It has been a long time since I last made these. With the new CNC, wanted to take advantage of the tool changer and the 4th axis. Did it even better and make 2 at a time. The fixture took a lot of time to make, but paid off! The machining is better than ever. Using up about every inch of travels and table. I made the entire trunion table, A frame support and riser for the 4th axis also.
Last edited by tlowe #1716; 03/03/2303:38 AM.
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12Bolt's newest offerings. Dual Manifolds for Plymouth- Dodge 201-218-230 flathead 6's and the 25" Chrysler- DeSoto Duals also. And progress on the shop expansion. 24X42
Last edited by tlowe #1716; 03/14/2311:46 PM.
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Stage 2 of shop expansion is taking place. We moved core engines and parts over to the new building. Also the Blaster and Bake oven. This allowed the area for expansion to get ready for concrete work. As of today, the concrete is in. We had to dig out 8" of gravel and dirt to prepare the floor for concrete. 2" of insulation and then the radiant floor tubing. Concrete is 6" thick. Area is 24x42 and 14 tall
Have most of the parts/ engines moved into the new building. This is allowing the expansion of the machine shop. Having a forklift is a must! Might be the largest inline 6 Chevy parts offering in the world.
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Here is what is going on in shop today. We rework the factory flywheels. Bake, blast, remove gear, grind, install gear and rebalance to under 1 gram. Most shops wont do this. Lumps being machined in CNC also. The shop expansion is nearly complete. Insulated and interior tin installed. Wiring done also. Overhead hoist is next and then move the parts in.
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Heads lined up to go though the CNC . We deck them on 2 sides. intake/ exhaust surface and the Head/deck surface. Next they are cleaned, assembled and QA tested for proper seal. Also have a bunch of PES intakes done now too.
Last edited by tlowe #1716; 09/08/2301:30 AM.
Inliner Member 1716 65 Chevelle Wagon and 41 Hudson Pickup Information and parts www.12bolt.com
Have worked through all those heads. Pics are example of a head with beehive springs , 1.94/1.6 and lump kit. They are now assembled and on the website. Also just received another batch of PES intakes. Got valve covers to pickup next. My foundry is rocking!
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This is a note from a customer. 64 Biscayne 230 3 sp stick w overdrive. Stock lower end and stock camshaft. He lost 1 MPG at 75 MPH but then made it back up with another mod which he discusses. "Tom, I just thought I'd let you know the results of installing the 1.84 intake/Standard Rocker performance head on my 230ci 1964 Biscayne daily driver. The install went normally in May and since then I've put 5,500 miles on the car. I have driven this car since 1970 in Kansas below 1000ft elevation and much of that was under federal 55mph mandates. Six years ago I brought it to the high desert of New Mexico at 6600ft elevation and the car lost over 20% of it's already meager hp to the altitude. As a result the car stayed in the back of the shed and driven infrequently since it was a hindrance to normal traffic flow, especially on the interstate at 75-80mph. The Clifford intake with 2bbl carb helped but it still wasn't really drive-able in normal traffic flow because of low acceleration and frequent kick-down from overdrive going up hills on the freeway at 75. The swap to the performance head made all the difference. It now performs better at high altitude than when it was new in Kansas. Even though it only has a 230ci L6 with stock cam and lifters on a 3500lb full size family car it can now easily accelerate and merge with traffic on the freeway and only kicks down out of overdrive above 5,500 ft on the steepest of interstate grades. When taken back to visit family in Ks the performance is now really stellar at the lower altitudes. Of course fuel economy suffered a bit with the higher horse power available but recently that has been addressed with a Carb Cheater auto-tune kit (thecarbcheater.com) that keeps the carb tuned whether it's just a 2000 ft altitude change on the 35 mile trip into Albuquerque or a 6000 ft altitude change over the 700 mile trip to Ks. Of these mods the 12 Bolt performance head made the biggest single improvement in performance and allows this car to once again be my daily driver for around town or long hauls on the interstate without any loss of performance or economy.
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Working on the next group of heads. There are 3 more on another stand. Need a longer set of rails to work up these heads. First step is cleaning 2nd Mag the decks and chambers for cracks 3 pressure check 4 mark each head for problems ( ie bad bolt holes ect) 5 install guides 6 machine for positive seals 7 machine exh seats 8 machine intake and exh seat (roughed) 9 unshroud valve bowls, port, cut bolt boss for lumps 10 install lumps 11 final valve job 12 deck intake/ exh flange and deck of head 13 final clean 14 assemble Sometimes there are more steps, it just depends on the head.
Ran into one that was severely overheated. No telling how deep those cracks are.
EDIT does anybody really read these updates?
Last edited by tlowe #1716; 10/29/2302:17 PM.
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Have a show and tell for you guys. We are working up a group of heads. Some are worse than others. Here is one that had rust issues. The exhaust seats were severely eroded, valves stuck. Once it is chamber worked by hand and decked, it will be ready for action again. These are 1.84/1.6 valve seats. The seats/ chambers are only roughed in in these pics.
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Something we provide as a service. Doubt anyone else offers this. 292 engines came with a 168 tooth flywheel. Many people want to use them with a 153 tooth flywheel. GM never made such a thing. We take a 250 flywheel and remachine it to be used on the 292 with dowel pins as required. The 250 has 7/16 bolt holes and 1 dowel pin hole, 292 uses 1/2 bolts and 3 dowel pin holes. https://www.12bolt.com/.../Flexplate_or_Flywheel...
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Here is a painful repair. Valve cover bolt hole. Previously "repaired" by someone long ago. They must have broken off the bolt and then drilled on either side of it. Only 1 of those 2 side holes went full depth. I thread locked a bolt into the angled hole and then milled it off. Then mounted the head into the CNC with the VC bolts inline to the machine. I also have the exact bolt pattern in memory. Milled the correct bolt hole into the pad. Installing a new insert into the right spot.
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Update on RUSTY the cylinder head. This is from a few posts back. It had rusty deck, chambers and exhaust seats. After the new seats installed , bowl enlargements and hand porting was done. The final decking was finished. A total of .030 was milled from the deck. Same as is done to almost all of our heads. The pitting is gone.
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We started the shop expansion last year in March. Life threw a big curve ball at me since then. Now getting my feet back under me. The shop expansion is nearly complete. This is the area that holds the majority of inventory, and packing. Also made a impossible to find bolt. Making another casting to include 292 water neck with bypass hose also.
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