Engine Tooling

I started collecting some stuff a couple years ago. Ideally, I'll have enough tooling in the future so I don't have to rely on borrowing other people's stuff.

The first thing I bought was a valve seat grinder. This is a Black and Decker sold as Snap On.
Sioux stuff is the most common but this works well. I actually bought a Sioux to B&D stone adapter because the stones are cheaper for a Sioux.



Sunnen Honall valve guide hone

This is a fairly expensive unit that I got for a steal. The only thing more expensive than this would be the Goodson Diamond guide hone or the Sunnen Diamond guide hone. You can use reamers to resize guides but with a hone, you can be more precise.



I'll update this thread as I buy equipment. I have a few other misc. items but nothing major.

 

Many decades ago, I too bought a B & D seat grinder and valve grinder. Also have a Sioux seat grinder.
Used very little by me. Thinking it's time to move them along to someone younger and more motivated than me.

 

Not specifically engine related but I bought a spray cabinet aka jet wash.

 

Moving the jet wash out of the basement it was in and onto the trailer was miserable, to say the least....

Once I got it to the shop I had to do some sketchy maneuvers to get it off the trailer and onto the jack stands. Well over a foot off the ground and it's top heavy.



An hour or more of slowly lowering it down a notch until I could put small jack stands under it.



I used the engine hoist, transmission jack, and brute force to move it into position.



A large pry bar came in handy for getting the floor jacks out from under it.



Finally in its place.



An extra pair of hands would have been great or better yet, a forklift. I'm going to feel great when I wake up in a few.

 

Nice! We have one of those at work. Make sure you turn the heater off when you’re done! It almost burnt the shop down a few times.

 

Picked this up today.

 

We also had a jet spray booth for cleaning engine parts, blocks and heads. The shop used caustic soda heated in the tub. Was very good for removing sludge from
engine blocks that the owners never changed the oil in. They also form flash rust very quickly if not dried quickly, we used compressed air to dry and blow out all the oil passages. Would not want the see the gas bill for firing one of those up to temperature today.

 

ECJ5 Engine rebuild services..

 

Bought a few tools and was given a couple of others....I knew the man (Mr. Doug) whom these belonged and I guess they'll always be his, I'm just watching over them. I'll get more pictures and information as I bring them to my shop.






Gates PC 707 Crimper

All the hose dies I found. There may be more there but I'll have to look around.


Van Norman 777 Boring Bar



Sioux 663 valve refacer

Valve seat grinders

Magnetic particle inspection magnet and puffer

Armature tester




Misc. valve seat/guide tools and consumables


Weaver 28 ton high speed press


Vibratory parts cleaner

Ammco drum/rotor lathe

 

When are you opening up shop?

 

I started a small business over a year ago and I mostly just do automotive work. I no longer rely solely on it for income since I have a job with insurance and all that fun stuff. Honestly these tools are probably just going to be used more for my hobby.

 

Nice.

 

I would say I'm jealous of the tools but I'm more jealous you have time to use them!

 

I also have a number of engine machine shop tools/machines, many Kwik-Way branded. I have a couple of those electric valve seat grinders, and about 25-30 stones, very similar to yours. If you intend on using these, make sure you find the stone truing/dressing guide. You need to dress the stone after each hardened seat. If you’re going to do many valve jobs, consider Neway hand cutters. They are far faster, and more accurate, and easier. Its hard to mess up a seat. The downside is the investment in cutters and pilots, but they are really the way to go. Your valve grinding machine will work fine, as long as valve stem chuck is not worn out.
Do you have any way to cut heads for hardened seats, and the install tools? Any surfacing machines for heads, flywheels?
I’ve never used a VanNorman boring bar. Does this mount directly on the block, or does this setup use a table like my Kwik-Way? On mine, the block presses up against the underside of the table, and the boring bar clamps to the top of the table. I can bore four cylinders in a row with a single block position, but have to reposition the block for inline 6’s last two cylinders. Do you have a cylinder hone machine, or do you have to hand-hone each cylinder?
I love your Jet-Wash cabinet, as well as the ultrasonic cleaner. The shop I bought out had a hot-tank cleaner, but I left that behind due to the chemical/environmental hazard. That hot-tank would have required monthly logs/inspections due to my location. I really don’t have the real estate in my shop for that many large machines anyway.
Overall, it looks like a good start on a machine shop you have going there. Do you have much experience running most of these?
-Donny

 

I have a similar (older) Sunnen guide hone, and it works well.
I also have a setup that sleeves the original worn guide. I ream the worn guide, insert the bronze sleeve, then have a set of ball broaches that expand it into the guide, then final ream/hone to original stem size. You get the strength of a steel guide, and the lube of a bronze guide for long stem life. Its a pretty trick. The Sunnen hone/stones are a nice setup to finish this.
-Donny

 

I've been hunting for a seat and guide machine or a large enough mill that I could install a rollover fixture on and use it like a S&G machine. No resurfacer yet, been looking for one of those too but a large enough mill and I could surface heads and some blocks.
The boring bar I have doesn't have a stand but I could put it on one. It fixtures to each cylinder, you set it on the deck and an all thread rod and a shoe hold it to the block. It's not a lightweight tool either by any means. No cylinder hone besides a couple of ball hones. I do have a chamfering cone. Oh, and a connecting rod hone is on the list too.
Bronze guide liners are very nice. I planned on buying a kit eventually. Two of the big things on my list are an oven and a steelabrator. That would take many many hours out of the cleaning equation.
All that being said I do have access to a real machine shop with everything you need to rebuild an engine including a CWT balancer. I took automotive machine for 3 years altogether and I worked in a few machine shops. I primarily worked on commercial diesel cylinder heads, blocks, and crankshaft grinding/polishing at the last machine shop I was at. Automotive machining is something I truly enjoy but there aren't many places around here to work and wages are atrocious. I've machined and reassembled a few engines on my own for a few people and they're all still running so there's that.
My goal here is to be as self sufficient as possible. I'd rather not have to pay someone to do something I can do. It costs more this way but that's just the way it goes.

I did acquire a hot water pressure washer last July. Had to rebuild the missing burner and do some minor electrical work to it. It's been one of the most used tools I've bought.