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S 2 : Ep 6

Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

Former Jet Ski Champion turned Lamborghini racer, Ryan Hardwick, shares his secrets with World Champion Drag Racer Rickey Gadson.

Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

The Peach State Challengers, defenders of Dodge, make no excuses for their loyalty to brand and brother

Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

Imagination, ingenuity, and heartache join friends who set out with a simple goal of transforming a ‘35 Plymouth into a running taxi cab. Provenance and passion take center stage as families and friends strive for best in show.

Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

The natural landscape of Jekyll Island, GA makes for a great backdrop to showcase the Country’s greatest cars. But the ocean air and remoteness of this barrier island is no place to leave a painstakingly rebuilt ‘59 Imperial Speedster. Skip Smith makes it his mission to locate the talented builder behind this island mystery.

Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

The word is out that Caffeine & Octane is the major league of North American car shows. Former Atlanta Brave, World Series star and 10-Time Gold Glove winner Andruw Jones acknowledged the stardom and showed up to show off his 6 wheeled Super Jeep. The state-of-the-art creation took years in planning and execution, but Jones chooses one great event for its debut.

Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

Vintage Testarossas and Quatra Valve Ferraris don’t just show up on a dealer’s floor, they’re hunted! Adam Merlin has spent a lifetime searching for the cars that defined his youth, but nothing is assumed or given in his high stakes game of Risk.

Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

The secret to properly rebuilding an engine isn’t really a secret at all; it’s measurement. If you don’t know what you have, you will never know what you need to do. This goes for almost all parts of an engine assembly, from bearings to bolt torque. For today’s DIY episode, Davin talks you through one of the most critical measurements needed when sending your engine block out for machining: bore diameter.

On the surface, measuring the diameter of each cylinder with a pair of calipers sounds like a simple process. The problem? A set of calipers is only designed to measure 3/8 inches deep and thus won’t tell you much about the wear pattern in a 5–6-inch-tall cylinder. You’ll need to set up a micrometer and use a telescoping gauge to transfer the inside diameter of the cylinder to the micrometer where you can actually measure it.

An even better option is to use a bore gauge. Once set, this spring-loaded tool can make the process much faster and every bit as accurate. To start, make sure the anvil is the proper length to contact the cylinder wall. Then you can zero out the gauge in the bore. Here, the most important part about the bore gauge becomes obvious: It doesn’t measure anything; it merely tells you how one spot in the cylinder compares to another.

To get the measurement, use your micrometer to gently squeeze the bore gauge until it zeros out again. Now you know the inside diameter of that specific spot in the cylinder and are set to quickly make the remaining measurements. Davin likes to measure at three depths in each cylinder, rotate 90 degrees, and repeat the process. This method reveals how the cylinder is wearing and where the worst of the wear lies. In the case of the engine block on Davin’s bench, the cylinder has worn in a slight hourglass shape: The diameter is slightly smaller in the center, and larger at the top and bottom.

With the proper tools, you can easily evaluate how good (or bad) your engine block is. The next step is communicating these numbers to the machine shop and understanding what they are going to do with them. If you want to hear about that part of the process, be sure to subscribe and watch for next week’s DIY episode.

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

There are two types of projects when working on cars: those that require accuracy and precision, and those that don’t. The best mechanics can determine these jobs on the fly, but most DIY enthusiasts can learn which is which by consulting a shop manual. Trying to treat either of them as the other is a recipe for a bad time, which is why Hagerty’s go-to engine builder Davin Reckow thought it a good idea to help folks out with how to read a micrometer for this week’s DIY video.

Precision measurement is critical while assembling engines, transmissions, and differentials. One of the best tools for getting accurate sizes of objects is also one of the most intimidating to use: the micrometer. This is a simple tool that can read out to the ten-thousandths of an inch. Used improperly though, the number you come up with is meaningless.

Before Davin gets to how to read the tool, he reviews the parts. While this seems extremely basic on the surface it is actually quite important to understand the individual parts in order to properly maintain the tool. The frame determines the measurement range capability. The one Davin places in a clamp is the 1-2-inch version, meaning that the zero on the measurement barrel indicates that the precision-ground anvil and spindle are exactly 1″ apart. Adjusting the thimble moves the spindle and also provides the readout of the gradations on the sleeve. A ratcheting grip provides the perfect tension for precise, accurate measurements and prevents the part being measured, or the tool, from being distorted during the process.

That process is fairly simple. Place the piece to be measured between the anvil and spindle, then tighten the thimble until the thimble ratchets. Then use the lock to hold the measurement, remove the part, and you can start reading. The gradations on the sleeve are your first spot to look, as this tells you the measurement to the rough thousandths place. Then add the number that aligns on the thimble, and if you need the ten-thousandths place, go up on the sleeve to the first set of lines that line up and that will indicate the fifth significant figure.

If that sounds a bit complicated, well, that’s because it kind of is. This is a process that takes a bit of practice to do consistently correctly. That just means it is something to practice from time to time or trust to your local machine shop who does it day in and day out. Most are happy to confirm measurements and they often have properly calibrated tooling to double-check your work if you are nervous. In fact, next week’s DIY video is how to measure up an engine block before or after machining. Be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube channel to be notified when that one—and all our great videos—goes live.

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

Hagerty’s Editor-at-Large Sam Smith explores what makes the E30 BMW 3 Series, including its M3 variant, such a beloved classic — from its engineering and racing history, to its innate handling and dynamics. He’ll also detail what you need to know about buying, owning, and maintaining this iconic sports sedan.

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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