This is the perfect example as to why the cost of quality machining is soooo worth it.. Even though its a "stock" rebuild, I'd put money on it that the engine lasts another lifetime because of the strict quality standards set forth from the start of the project.. Well done! I enjoyed watching this immensely!
Doing level 2 apprenticeship for auto tech. Our engines teacher assigned us this video to watch and get an idea instead of just reading dry out of the textbook. Just letting you know that your video definitely gave me a better understanding, and hopefully you hearing that my engines teacher assigned us to watch it, compells you to make more informative videos such as this one. I enjoyed it very much, especially your step by step info. Take care
A trick with the Serdi (that you may already know) when you encounter chatter that is giving you fits: Turn the spindle off and bring the cutter down until it just touch the seat. Then turn on your spindle until it just starts to spin, holding very light pressure on the down feed handle. That will get rid of 95% of chatter problems. Sorry to be long winded; I rebuilt engines for 23 years and feel compelled to pass on tips and tricks I learned along the way.
Thanks for sharing. I am a manual mill, lathe and cylindrical grinder operator. I make gears, spindles and stuff so I'm not new to machining. I want to start my own business of engine machine shop. Any advice? Or are there any books that I can read to get more familiar with the job?
I really enjoyed watching you do that, you are a credit to your dad with the same work ethic. Get it as good as possible within the anomaly's of working with old engine castings. If I lived in the states and needed engine machining done, I would sent the parts to your shop to get the work done . No matter where in the states I lived.
Another great video! I know these are obviously more time consuming than a short Tiktok, but they are very helpful for the community. Especially me, I learn so much from your videos. Thank you. Always excited to watch them when they get released!
Thanks Corey! I sincerely apologize that I have not gotten back to you regarding your TCM-25... crazy busy. Not meaning to blow you off, but please be patient with me 🙃
Next time I order something I’m going to send a shirt button for Jim, he is so proud of you his chest pushes those buttons right off of them! Seriously I think you are inspirational to watch! We can criticize today’s youths but you really are an exceptionally talented young man, both in machining operation and in narrating these exceptionally informative videos! Congrats young man!
This is not true I spend 3 grand on machine work for a complete workup of two engine heads both heads were completely ruined pistons ruined, forged rods not intended to be ground were ground and weakened at the bolt area, crank was offset ground progressively on each journal from being ok at the trans side to 5mm offset at the front bearing, all ruined due to the fact the machine shop (green Lee machine in Baton Rouge) had interns fresh out of school working on my second visit. My first engine done was perfect, as the owner did that engine. But the interns completely turned my last engine into scrap. And I wasnt able to do anything because it took me a little over a year to get back on my feet from a complex surgery
His dad taught him the right way to do quality work consistently as repetitive as that job can be sometimes ,excellence by designed discipline steps...
@@milotorres6894 well when you have the knowledge to do it right every time as accurate and consistent as this young man it’s more than just work it’s a lifestyle
It’s nice to see that the cylinder head holding fixture is tall enough to measure the valve height as well. Back in the day I was doing cylinder heads on a old float table . PITA !
Interesting trick with the freeze plugs in the exhaust seats. I’ll keep that in mind if our tig machine ever goes down, at the shop I work at we use a tig torch with no filler and just run around the seat, once it cools it’s lose enough to pop them out with a crowbar(? Not sure what the exact name is, I’m new to the engine machining career, just started 4 months ago) your channel is part of what made me chose this path, thank you for the amazing and informative videos.
Nice to see a young tradesman taking pride in his work. On top of that it’s awesome to see a UA-cam channel dedicated to this trade. It may give people some understanding on how much care needs to be taken to perform trade.
Top notch sir, wish you the best for building up a craft & being professional on it, rather than dwindling between cubicles. Much obliged for the insight & sharing the knowledge, learnt a ton.
Interesting video, especially since I’ve just had this work done to my FE heads, and it didn’t turn out good. Valves came in at different height and being used to engines with adjustable valve train I didn’t think of checking the height before assembly and test start. Exhaust valve on cylinder 4 was higher than the others and the lifter probably bottomed out causing the valve to burn. I had to pull the intake, replace the lifter and fiddle with pushrod lengths to make sure the lifter had correct play. Now the engine doesn’t run on number 4 at idle so the heads need to come off again and get redone. A shame that my machinist didn’t put the same pride into his work as you do.
there is a stem height that i e r a furnaces and a true machine shop would go back and check the stem eye to where the spring seats and cut it to that height don't think either one of these shops understands that.. check the stem height your butt stems if you need to then you clean the heads and put them together and it's done check area it's really not hard to do it wish I got 50 years experience doing this.
Buddy,, you did a great job on the heads and the video,, you were articulate and clear I was able to understand everything you said easily.. If you make more videos and I highly encourage you to do so,, I will gladly watch them.. Great job..
Stumbled across this from a mention of the Serdi machine on another video. As an old-skool, tool room trained apprentice and now essentially a pen pusher, that was so satisfying to watch. Great work, loved the work to thousands of an inch. My kids can’t comprehend how I used to make parts to that tolerance, and hundredths of millimetres. Good stuff. 👍
Wow. Awesome machines.. I was an engine machinist about 20 years ago... Miss it. Your videos give me a great feeling that I haven't felt in a long time. Thinking about going back to machining race engines.
I had a 427 side oiler stroker (alum med. riser heads) so I took interest in this video. I like that you are knowledgeable and meticulous in this rebuild. My engine builder has similar personal constitution. He installed oversized Chevy intake valves, 3 angle cut, shaft roller rockers, roller cam, ported a bit and port matched. My engine (10.8 CR) was reliable and made good power on 93 pump gas. It turned over and fired up every time up until I sold the car last yr (‘21) some 27 years after I built it. I miss the engine, it’s planning and the anticipation of getting it completed. Enjoyed the video and beautiful job! Your customer will love these heads. 👍🇺🇸
Any time I had to replace both seats in the same chamber, I would bore out and install one seat first, then bore out and install the other. That way you aren't distorting the bore of the sear next to the first one you install if you bore them both out first. It becomes more obvious the closer the seat bores are to each other. Great video!
The Serdi is definitely a great piece of equipment to have in the shop. The downside to running an Engine Shop is getting paid your worth. In my part of the world seems most shops are very busy trying to undercut every other shop ?? Not sure how things work in your part of the world ? I was interested to start up an Engine Shop many years ago, but for the above reason i decided it might be best to give it a miss. I am a lot happier doing what i am doing now.
Super nice job, the fumes from welding the galvanized freeze plugs is extremely toxic, a good old handmade thumbs up to you, Merry Christmas to you and yours.
A rough is not bad when you have a cast iron head & cast iron block. They Expand & Contract at the same Rate so they won't tare the inside of the head gasket apart. Aluminum heads need a glass like surface.
Awesome work wish I was closer to you guys I had a “ known shop“ do my rocket 350. Not impressed to say the least. A red flag should’ve been when they told me they couldn’t find flat top pistons that there wasn’t any available for my engine. I was able to order them on the spot from Summit and they were just speed pro flattop pistons
This was super interesting. And the explanation was detailed enough for a professional, yet understandable enough for a beginner. Could you maybe show a bit more detailed look on how you got them to look like new already before machining? :D Like how the cleaning process works n stuff..
I love the video. Would like to see exactly how you set up the cutter for the serti. Would be nice to see you set up the head surface machine from the start without skipping anything for time as well. I am new and learning everything as much as I can.
I've done so many 356/360/390/428 heads over the years,one of the worst factory machined head to begin with. Nice when you correct all the problems. I seem to recall heads with 1 or 2 spring seats taller than all the others on one end of the head.
That’s for sure. I built a many of them referencing the tip not off the spring seats but using a large strait edge clamped to a precision flat surface so it could reference off the head surface. I then used a dial indicator to set the tip height. Worked great!
When you were talking about the machine running at full RPM and chattering on certain valve seats, I think the valve seat material that chatters is probably an inferior material. When I work with certain aluminums beyond billet, you start to see a lot of impurities come through with the finish. The same with steel. Anything with a high nickel content finishes great at high RPM, with the substitute beyond insert life. Great video, hope this helps…..somehow lol
More great work. However a kind suggestion is to Tig weld the core plugs to remove valve seats. Far cleaner, just as quick and you can just fuse them together, no cleaning. . Thank you.
Something you may not know is that when re surfacing FE head's!!! It is very important to now how much you take off of them !!!! Because of the fixed rocker assembly!!! You may need thicker head gaskets or shorter push rods !!! We ran into that with a 360ci !! It pump the lifters up and shut down the engine till cooled down !!! 0.020 shorter push rods fixed it !!!! 😊👍👍👍👍👍👍🌎🌞
Many factory engine don't machine this good because it's all about mass production. Get em' built, get em' sold and out the door, production demands it.
I looked at the intake face initial cut and thought, "we've assumed that the head gasket surfaces are flat and straight, but if they're not, then by bolting the two together, we might have introduced warp into the exhaust and intake faces". Granted, we'd rather have warp there than on the head gasket surface. Really enjoying your videos! it's obvious you put a lot of effort into them as well as your work
I like the one comment I used to ream the guides first that makes a perfectly straight hole and then you can hone them with their small Dingle ball home made for guides makes a nice finish for good oiling the the old Ford if he heads were the most time-consuming heads because they needed so much work for the unleaded gas.
This is the perfect example as to why the cost of quality machining is soooo worth it.. Even though its a "stock" rebuild, I'd put money on it that the engine lasts another lifetime because of the strict quality standards set forth from the start of the project.. Well done! I enjoyed watching this immensely!
Doing level 2 apprenticeship for auto tech. Our engines teacher assigned us this video to watch and get an idea instead of just reading dry out of the textbook.
Just letting you know that your video definitely gave me a better understanding, and hopefully you hearing that my engines teacher assigned us to watch it, compells you to make more informative videos such as this one. I enjoyed it very much, especially your step by step info. Take care
I’m sure the FE community would love to see more work like this. 👍
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I second this
Here here
Great to a young man taking such pride in his work
Came to the comments to say exactly the same !
Ok boomer
A trick with the Serdi (that you may already know) when you encounter chatter that is giving you fits:
Turn the spindle off and bring the cutter down until it just touch the seat.
Then turn on your spindle until it just starts to spin, holding very light pressure on the down feed handle.
That will get rid of 95% of chatter problems.
Sorry to be long winded; I rebuilt engines for 23 years and feel compelled to pass on tips and tricks I learned along the way.
Thanks for sharing. I am a manual mill, lathe and cylindrical grinder operator. I make gears, spindles and stuff so I'm not new to machining. I want to start my own business of engine machine shop. Any advice? Or are there any books that I can read to get more familiar with the job?
You do some really good work your customers are lucky to have you and your dad around !
I really enjoyed watching you do that, you are a credit to your dad with the same work ethic. Get it as good as possible within the anomaly's of working with old engine castings. If I lived in the states and needed engine machining done, I would sent the parts to your shop to get the work done . No matter where in the states I lived.
I have used automotive machine shops for years but it's always seemed like a little black magic...nice to see how the process works
Another great video! I know these are obviously more time consuming than a short Tiktok, but they are very helpful for the community. Especially me, I learn so much from your videos. Thank you.
Always excited to watch them when they get released!
Thanks Corey! I sincerely apologize that I have not gotten back to you regarding your TCM-25... crazy busy. Not meaning to blow you off, but please be patient with me 🙃
The steel shot gives a much nicer finish than bead blasting. Nice job.
Very enjoyable watching a craftsman at work.
So satifying to wach your videos! If I lived in America I would love to give my Engine to your shop for refresh and rebuild. WOW.. Love your work!
Next time I order something I’m going to send a shirt button for Jim, he is so proud of you his chest pushes those buttons right off of them!
Seriously I think you are inspirational to watch! We can criticize today’s youths but you really are an exceptionally talented young man, both in machining operation and in narrating these exceptionally informative videos!
Congrats young man!
That’s a beautiful set of heads with the perfect machined surfaces.
Why does an engine shop cost so much? Because its well worth it. This video proves it
This is not true I spend 3 grand on machine work for a complete workup of two engine heads both heads were completely ruined pistons ruined, forged rods not intended to be ground were ground and weakened at the bolt area, crank was offset ground progressively on each journal from being ok at the trans side to 5mm offset at the front bearing, all ruined due to the fact the machine shop (green Lee machine in Baton Rouge) had interns fresh out of school working on my second visit. My first engine done was perfect, as the owner did that engine. But the interns completely turned my last engine into scrap. And I wasnt able to do anything because it took me a little over a year to get back on my feet from a complex surgery
His dad taught him the right way to do quality work consistently as repetitive as that job can be sometimes ,excellence by designed discipline steps...
I would pay for this machine work any day I just will have to save up... his work is so SO much better than any work I've seen
@@Engine_biulds that would be poor operation of said expensive engine shop
@@milotorres6894 well when you have the knowledge to do it right every time as accurate and consistent as this young man it’s more than just work it’s a lifestyle
It’s nice to see that the cylinder head holding fixture is tall enough to measure the valve height as well. Back in the day I was doing cylinder heads on a old float table . PITA !
Interesting trick with the freeze plugs in the exhaust seats. I’ll keep that in mind if our tig machine ever goes down, at the shop I work at we use a tig torch with no filler and just run around the seat, once it cools it’s lose enough to pop them out with a crowbar(? Not sure what the exact name is, I’m new to the engine machining career, just started 4 months ago) your channel is part of what made me chose this path, thank you for the amazing and informative videos.
Dad may be able to retire in the not to distant future knowing that the business is in excellent hands. 😊 Great work
Nice to see a young tradesman taking pride in his work. On top of that it’s awesome to see a UA-cam channel dedicated to this trade. It may give people some understanding on how much care needs to be taken to perform trade.
I love your UA-cam videos because they're more detailed. Keep it up and bring on more
Factory specification? I'd say 50% better than factory spec! Love the videos. Superb details in both video and description.
Your narration of your workflow is sooo good. Very informative!
Liked your catch of factory defects in the valve seats having pourous inclusions coming out on the resurface of the old ones ,👍💪😊🙏
Top notch sir, wish you the best for building up a craft & being professional on it, rather than dwindling between cubicles.
Much obliged for the insight & sharing the knowledge, learnt a ton.
Interesting video, especially since I’ve just had this work done to my FE heads, and it didn’t turn out good. Valves came in at different height and being used to engines with adjustable valve train I didn’t think of checking the height before assembly and test start. Exhaust valve on cylinder 4 was higher than the others and the lifter probably bottomed out causing the valve to burn. I had to pull the intake, replace the lifter and fiddle with pushrod lengths to make sure the lifter had correct play. Now the engine doesn’t run on number 4 at idle so the heads need to come off again and get redone. A shame that my machinist didn’t put the same pride into his work as you do.
there is a stem height that i e r a furnaces and a true machine shop would go back and check the stem eye to where the spring seats and cut it to that height don't think either one of these shops understands that.. check the stem height your butt stems if you need to then you clean the heads and put them together and it's done check area it's really not hard to do it wish I got 50 years experience doing this.
It's nice to see a young kid that knows how to use a machine, hands and brain precisely to get the job done. My compliments and well done!!!
I am an FE fan great job I hope there's a guy like you in my area Buffalo NY .
Beautiful beautiful beautiful!!! I wish everyone is so precise and thorough as you 👍
Buddy,, you did a great job on the heads and the video,, you were articulate and clear I was able to understand everything you said easily..
If you make more videos and I highly encourage you to do so,, I will gladly watch them..
Great job..
Great video. Very informative. First time I see the process of rebuilding engine heads. Thank you
Another very good video. I really enjoy watching these video. Please keep up the good work.
Stumbled across this from a mention of the Serdi machine on another video. As an old-skool, tool room trained apprentice and now essentially a pen pusher, that was so satisfying to watch. Great work, loved the work to thousands of an inch. My kids can’t comprehend how I used to make parts to that tolerance, and hundredths of millimetres. Good stuff. 👍
Wow. Awesome machines.. I was an engine machinist about 20 years ago... Miss it. Your videos give me a great feeling that I haven't felt in a long time. Thinking about going back to machining race engines.
I had a 427 side oiler stroker (alum med. riser heads) so I took interest in this video. I like that you are knowledgeable and meticulous in this rebuild. My engine builder has similar personal constitution. He installed oversized Chevy intake valves, 3 angle cut, shaft roller rockers, roller cam, ported a bit and port matched. My engine (10.8 CR) was reliable and made good power on 93 pump gas. It turned over and fired up every time up until I sold the car last yr (‘21) some 27 years after I built it. I miss the engine, it’s planning and the anticipation of getting it completed. Enjoyed the video and beautiful job! Your customer will love these heads. 👍🇺🇸
Such a neat tidy clean job 👌
You'd never put them back on the engine, have them as show and tell ornaments in the house 😎
Back in the day, i actually learned how to grind valve seats by hand, with a 3/8 electric drill.
Any time I had to replace both seats in the same chamber, I would bore out and install one seat first, then bore out and install the other.
That way you aren't distorting the bore of the sear next to the first one you install if you bore them both out first.
It becomes more obvious the closer the seat bores are to each other.
Great video!
That makes sense, especially on race engines, but not so much on a stock job like this with the valve pockets being further apart.
Very nice work! Hard to find machine shop that takes pride in there work.
So much care is hard to find in a shop these days!
Beautiful! I wish you had been around when I was building all my FE engines!!!
Wish you were closer! Excellent work! I would bring all my work to you.
Very cool idea on the valve seat removal!
Dude. I'm envious of your knowledge and skills.
The welding a freeze plug to pop out the seats is genius.
Nice job sitting here watching everything that you do I had no idea there was so much involved
I wish I had the money to do this for my 390fe, this is a gorgeous piece of art
The Serdi is definitely a great piece of equipment to have in the shop.
The downside to running an Engine Shop is getting paid your worth.
In my part of the world seems most shops are very busy trying to undercut every other shop ??
Not sure how things work in your part of the world ?
I was interested to start up an Engine Shop many years ago, but for the above reason i decided it might be best to give it a miss.
I am a lot happier doing what i am doing now.
This is some good content man. I really enjoy watching this. Keep it up! 💪
Really indepth and excellent job, learned quite a bit today. Thanks mate 👍
Nice work man, never seen these automotive machines before
Super nice job, the fumes from welding the galvanized freeze plugs is extremely toxic, a good old handmade thumbs up to you, Merry Christmas to you and yours.
This is the stuff I do, video of all my work because otherwise you wouldn't know the depth of detail we go into when doing head work. 😍
A rough is not bad when you have a cast iron head & cast iron block. They Expand & Contract at the same Rate so they won't tare the inside of the head gasket apart. Aluminum heads need a glass like surface.
I use a tig welder for removing seats, no weld splatter. Nice shop!
Hey keep this up your very good at your job, and people like us love this stuff plus sooo much more in the engine, and all about.
Awesome video love these detailed explanations of a job no one knows exist, thank you
Awesome job. Keep the tradition strong.
Nice work man. Your customers definitely get what they pay for.
For FE I would show most owner's that buying aluminum heads is a good way to go and comparing machining costs
Nice to see people having pride in what they do. 👍
Rather have your job than mine i am an industrial electrician and its its a hard life, keep up the good work
very nice work buddie thank's very much it was very informative and entertaining
H3y. Thanks for taking us along the way and showing the process!! Would love to get into performance engine machining but not many around this area
Great video! Those heads will probably work better than factory!
This is the kind of stuff that keeps me at home and sitting on my arsenal… lol😂
Awesome work wish I was closer to you guys I had a “ known shop“ do my rocket 350. Not impressed to say the least. A red flag should’ve been when they told me they couldn’t find flat top pistons that there wasn’t any available for my engine. I was able to order them on the spot from Summit and they were just speed pro flattop pistons
This was super interesting. And the explanation was detailed enough for a professional, yet understandable enough for a beginner.
Could you maybe show a bit more detailed look on how you got them to look like new already before machining? :D Like how the cleaning process works n stuff..
Thank you! I can definitely do a detailed video on cleaning processes we use sometime. I
I love the video. Would like to see exactly how you set up the cutter for the serti. Would be nice to see you set up the head surface machine from the start without skipping anything for time as well. I am new and learning everything as much as I can.
Great job . Well performed .
I've done so many 356/360/390/428 heads over the years,one of the worst factory machined head to begin with. Nice when you correct all the problems. I seem to recall heads with 1 or 2 spring seats taller than all the others on one end of the head.
That’s for sure. I built a many of them referencing the tip not off the spring seats but using a large strait edge clamped to a precision flat surface so it could reference off the head surface. I then used a dial indicator to set the tip height. Worked great!
When you were talking about the machine running at full RPM and chattering on certain valve seats, I think the valve seat material that chatters is probably an inferior material. When I work with certain aluminums beyond billet, you start to see a lot of impurities come through with the finish. The same with steel. Anything with a high nickel content finishes great at high RPM, with the substitute beyond insert life. Great video, hope this helps…..somehow lol
More great work. However a kind suggestion is to Tig weld the core plugs to remove valve seats. Far cleaner, just as quick and you can just fuse them together, no cleaning. . Thank you.
Great segment - love the detail on the process.
AFTER THIS MAN DONE THESES HEADS & VALUE SET UP & GRINDING, THEY ARE BEST & BETTER THAN NEW !!!
Excellent video very informative thanks
Very nice workmanship almost a shame to use them they look so good
Pro job, keep up the good work.
Something you may not know is that when re surfacing FE head's!!!
It is very important to now how much you take off of them !!!!
Because of the fixed rocker assembly!!!
You may need thicker head gaskets or shorter push rods !!!
We ran into that with a 360ci !!
It pump the lifters up and shut down the engine till cooled down !!!
0.020 shorter push rods fixed it !!!!
😊👍👍👍👍👍👍🌎🌞
The way I was taught, use a cut down valve,weld a cut down washer with a SuperMissle Weld rod. Then hammer the seat from the other side.
Very entertaining. Very informative.
Wish you were in Texas. Need to do this to a 4.0L jeep head.
awesome thanks! do more of these
For the awesome job you just did I'm a perfection of a real Machinist much would a job like the one you just did on those heads cost
Enjoying these videos Very much.
Ahh nice the Serdi video!
If I needed this kind of work done, you would be my guy. I love employees who take their job personally.
For the awesome perfection of your work is what I meant to say
Many factory engine don't machine this good because it's all about mass production. Get em' built, get em' sold and out the door, production demands it.
BEAUTIFUL WORK youngster 👌👌👌👌!!!.......You're going to WORK ON MY fe 390
Enjoy your videos, please keep them coming
You guys make awesome car amplifiers!!!!
I looked at the intake face initial cut and thought, "we've assumed that the head gasket surfaces are flat and straight, but if they're not, then by bolting the two together, we might have introduced warp into the exhaust and intake faces". Granted, we'd rather have warp there than on the head gasket surface. Really enjoying your videos! it's obvious you put a lot of effort into them as well as your work
Excellent Work! Thanks for the video.
Great job 👍🏻
Now I understand how it is done right.
Cool valve seat cutter.
Beautiful work!
I like the one comment I used to ream the guides first that makes a perfectly straight hole and then you can hone them with their small Dingle ball home made for guides makes a nice finish for good oiling the the old Ford if he heads were the most time-consuming heads because they needed so much work for the unleaded gas.
thumbs up and subscribed
I also wish we were closer, I have a 352 FE that needs TLC.
Great job! Very professional!
Absolutely love your videos!