HOT ROD Pro-File: Billy Boat
From his father’s repair shop to the pole position of the Indianapolis 500 to owner of a thriving performance exhaust company, Billy Boat is truly a current-day hot rodder.
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Author: Performance Technician
Meet my Favorite Fabricator, Part 1
This issue of Performance Technician features a major article on restoration. Fabrication is often a major part of that pursuit, so our man Greg visited the best “make-anything” shop he knows of to create this story. In the early days of automobiles, the U.S. was a “fabrication nation,” but now the necessary skills and talent are rare.
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Using Vacuum Readings for Tuning and Diagnosis
Some people consider the vacuum gauge a lowly instrument that might have been part of a DYI tune-up kit decades ago. Think about it for a minute, though, and you’ll realize how basic and important the info it gives you really is.
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Torque Benders, Part 2: Detailed Procedures
Last time, we discussed the basic design, failures, and what it takes to freshen up a differential. Here, we’re going to get deeply hands-on.
Read MoreDon’t Play with Fire
There’s no such thing as a “minor fire” at an auto service shop. Beyond the obvious loss of property, equipment and business income, the threat to the safety of humans is paramount. We’ve all heard the stories or know someone...
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Performance Technician October 2014
The October 2014 issue of Performance Technician opens a whole new area of coverage. Sure, we’re still giving you the kind of practical hands-on tech articles you won’t find elsewhere, but we’ll also be introducing you to the restoration business, which often includes high-performance aspects, and should be interesting to any car guy. To complement the main feature, we’re including a story about an incredible fabrication shop. I don’t know about you, but I enjoy this kind of work, maybe even more than making a good diagnosis.
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McConiga’s Axioms: They Aren’t My Clowns and This Isn’t My Circus
I don’t know about you, but I’m fed up with political correctness, partial truths, and our lack of...
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Flat Tappet Oils & Additives
In spite of the wholesale O.E. switch to roller lifters that started a couple of decades ago, if you’ve got a vintage rod chances are it has flat tappets, and maybe you don’t want to go to the trouble and expense to retrofit to rollers. Plus, some racing venues only allow flat tappets. These operate at higher temperature and pressure levels at the lobe/lifter interface than rollers do, so require greater wear protection. The primary anti-wear additive for flat tappet camshafts and lifters is ZDDP (zinc dialkyl dithiophosphate), but that’s been phased out of ordinary motor oils mostly because of fears that it’ll foul the cat. Racing oil and additives provide zinc in adequate quantity to provide the protection you need to prevent catastrophic lobe and lifter wear.
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Handling the Change, or Changing the Handling, Part 3: Suspension Upgrade
In the past two installments we discussed how the dimensions of a car and its overall weight distribution can affect cornering and handling. Let’s see how we can utilize this information and begin to upgrade the suspension.
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Protecting Your Eyes and Hearing
Protecting your eyes and hearing is your responsibility. It’s easy to do, but many technicians do not make the effort to protect themselves. Change that habit!
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