A.H.M. Performance Custom Engines

Our Shop and Services

In our engine shop, we are prepared to do just about any job. We are always looking for new ways to do our work in the most accurate fashion possible. Aside from the standard engine machine shop tasks, we are able to index lifter bores, index cylinder bores, sonic test, flow test, sleeve blocks, balance, etc. We have the most accurate equipment available and we are always looking to upgrade when an upgrade is available.

All of our engine shop technicians WERE ASE certified Engine Machinists so you can know that your engine is being handled by a professional. Sadly, ASE no longer offers the Engine Machinist certification but we WERE certified when it was available. If it does come back, we will recertify at that time!!! We do not train or have apprentices as we prefer to hire experienced technicians.

We have experience in everything from antique flatheads to modern DOHC 4 Valve engines and everything in between. Chances are, given the amount of time we have been around, we have seen almost everything automotive and marine related.

In the time that we have been around, we have had a lot of customers become very successful with our engines. The very first time we had a customer go to a national event he came back as a winner. Those NHRA trophies are pretty nifty! Our engines have been down dragstrips, around dirt ovals, speeding across the water, crushing cars in monster trucks, going through mud, drifting or just cruising the local hangouts. We even have many successful street racers using our engines.

Please browse through the shop photos and photos of some of our finished work. If you have any questions regarding our techniques and/or procedures, please feel free to call or e-mail us.

CYLINDER HEADS

You have to put good cylinder heads on a good block so we take a lot of time and effort to give you the best machined block available.

Our blocks, just like our cylinder heads, are cleaned in our Kwik-Way spray washer and/or our Grease Monkey sonic cleaner. Before machining, we magnaflux and/or pressure test blocks to make sure they are in buildable condition. Sonic testing of cylinders is an available option and is recommended on large overbore jobs; even on aftermarket blocks. If the block is getting the water jackets filled, now is the time for that operation.

We always start with the main bores as all of our other machine operations are based from that center. We either align hone or align bore the mains on our Sunnen Align Hone machine or our Kwik-Way main bore fixture. If the customer is changing caps, using studs and/or installing a main cap girdle; those items are installed now and not later. Any change can affect roundness of the bore and/or add taper. Main bore machining is essential to proper bearing fit. A lot of shops that do not have main bore equipment subscribe to the theory that if the crank spun OK when it was disassembled then it (the bores) is OK. Well, we used to think the earth was flat at one time too. Moving on....

Following main bore machining, we mill the deck(s) of the block to correct the angle (blueprint procedure), to ensure flatness and to give the proper surface finish. Most factory blocks are not where they need to be from the factory. For example, a 90 degree V-type engine almost always has deck angles a few degrees off one way or the other. We use the BHJ Blok-Tru fixture to correct that and we also set the desired block height at the same time. We machine our block deck surfaces on a Berco Mill.

Once the deck surface is corrected, we then move to the Rottler boring bar to take care of the cylinder boring. We have a couple different ways we can go at this point. We offer a standard bore job that centers off of the existing bores or we can use the BHJ Bore-Tru fixturing to index the cylinder bores. We offer that for popular domestic V-8 applications but it is very expensive and often requires sleeving of the cylinders. We recommend that only for boring new blocks with semi-finished bores or for people looking for absolute perfection as it is not necessary for your average engine build. On this same machine, we also perform much of our sleeving work too. We have lots of experience with Darton M.I.D. sleeves for Honda, LS1 Chevy and 4.6 Ford engines.

At this point, the block is ready for honing. Before that is done however, now is the time for some other operations to be done before the final hone. If the block is getting it's lifter bores indexed, we can do that with our BHJ Lifter-Tru fixture. This is a great idea for your domestic V8 as probably 75-100% of lifter bores are out of alignment. Also, stroker clearancing, deburing, oil gallery modifications, etc. can be done. Once everything else is out of the way, we then hone the cylinders on a Kwik-Way 094 Vertical Hone. Why not use a Sunnen cylinder hone (or any other rocker type) like all the magazines recommend? Two reasons, the rocker type hones tend to slow down briefly as they approach the end of their stroke and it flattens out the cross-hatch pattern. We know because we had a Sunnen CV-616 hone and got rid of it to upgrade to the vertical hone. Also, because the hone head is moving in a linear motion, there is no side loading on the hone head and that helps our cylinders stay very round. Other added benefits to our machine is the on-board computer that can give us very precise crosshatch angles. Does it make a difference? We have had customer blocks (ones that were originally done elsewhere) come in for nothing more than a clean and plate-hone and, with no other changes, have put it back together and went faster at the track. This has happened many times. Sunnen just recently came out with their own vertical hone. Hmmm...

During our honing process, we use BHJ torque plates to recreate the stress of having the cylinder head torqued on the block. We can torque plate hone many engines and we have torque plates in both cast iron and aluminum to match the customer's cylinder head type. We will buy a torque plate for your application if we do not have it in stock. We recently spent $1200 on a custom torque plate for a VR6 Volkswagon; we are committed to excellence here at A.H.M. Performance.

After everything is finished, the block is final cleaned and cam bearings and core plugs are installed. The block is ready for assembly.

ENGINE BLOCKS

ROTATING PARTS AND ASSEMBLY

We can perform many operations to the rotating parts of the engine. In this day and age, a lot of engines are getting all new internals but there are still repairs that need to be done occassionally and there are modifications that need to be done.

Connecting rods have become a commonly available aftermarket item but we can still resize the housing bores on our Sunnen rod hone machine. Pin bushings can be installed and/or replaced. We can also modify rods when they are not being used as originally intended such as a Chevy rod in a Ford engine. Regardless of what you need done, we can handle it.

Crankshaft work is another area that we can perform. We can regrind, polish, cross-drill, lighten, knife-edge, etc.

Pistons can be polished, lightened, flycut for valve clearance, etc.

All rotating parts are balanced on our Pro-Bal balancer. We have very tight tolerances on our weights far exceeding what the commercially available "balanced rotating assemblies" come through with. We can also lighten flywheels too.

Our engine assembly process is ultra-clean as we have a seperate assembly room (call it the "AR" for those of you that like those important sounding initials) where the engine is assembled. A lot goes into engine assembly and I will not go into every detail. I can tell you that it is very time consuming and, most often, the customer gets the best of the bargain. If you know what you are doing, engine assembly takes some time; lots of it. If you do not know what you are doing, engine assembly can be done in a few hours. Our theory is to trust nothing that comes out of a box. We check everything and we have to. If a manufacturer boxes a defective item and we install it, we will have to take the blame. That is why it is such a tough and time consuming job. The final product is a clean and professional engine. There is not silicone oozing out of every gasketed area, there are no greasy paw-prints all over it; this is a high class job and way better than some crate engine built on an assembly line. As we like to say, "think outside the crate".

Specialty Services

• Outboard Engine Machine Work - Click Here
• Crack Repair - Click Here