Engine bearings, those very important steel and aluminum shells that keep everything spinning as it should, are more complex than ever before. Material designs and compositions have evolved into some serious, load handling pieces compared to the parts of long ago. Let’s take a look at the various aspects pertaining to the bearings for crankshaft main journals and camshafts.

Current bearings fall into two basic construction designs, bimetal and trimetal. Bimetal designs feature a steel backing with a top layer of aluminum alloy. Trimetal bearings have a steel backing like the bimetal but contain a copper lead center layer with various materials being used for the top layer depending upon the usage application of the engine. A bimetal bearing is widely used in most OEM applications because it is a harder material and can last for many thousands of miles to provide a longer service life for the engine, also a bimetal is more cost effective to produce. In regard

The rocker arms in your engine have one simple but very important function, transferring the opening and closing events from the camshaft to your valves. They do so by converting the radial movement of the cam lobe into linear movement at the valve. The amount of lift that is achieved is determined by the ratio of the rocker arm which will dictate the actual distance that the valves travel from the valve seats

You have numerous options to choose from in aftermarket rocker arms for just about any push rod type engine and also overhead cam designs as well. There are stock replacements made from stronger materials, roller tip rockers that maintain the OEM style fulcrum mounting but have a roller tip to reduce friction at the valve stem, stud or pedestal mounted full rollers that utilize a needle bearing or bushing at the fulcrum and also have a roller wheel at the tip and shaft mounted rollers for higher

Let’s take a look at the various aspects of pistons designed for performance and competition engines. If we consider the extreme environment that regular cast replacement pistons operate in with the combustion pressures and high temperatures, it’s quickly apparent that when these values are increased it necessitates using a much more efficient component that can withstand the elevated levels. We can also add to that the much higher and/or sustained RPM’s of the engine that could quickly devastate a normal cast part.

Manufacturing

There are two types of pistons, cast and forged, and they are manufactured using pretty much the same method as crankshafts except we’re dealing with aluminum instead of steel. In a cast piece, melted aluminum alloy is poured into a mold which when cooled produces a piston that closely resembles its final shape which requires less machining and is more cost efficient. The forging process involves placing a heated billet of aluminum alloy into dies that use

Building a show-stopping custom is no easy task. From the initial concept to the finished product, a project of this magnitude usually takes multiple builds to perfect. Keith Sayers achieved perfection in his first attempt. This tricked-out 1953 Ford F-250 is loaded to the brim with ingenuity and creativity—it’s a reflection of Keith’s natural talent.

Growing up around cars, Keith is no stranger to working under a hood. “My mom raced stock cars when I was a kid,” he says. “When I got older, I helped my friends work on their mini trucks. I also helped my brother build his ’66 Nova.” Armed with all of that hands-on know-how and the drive to build himself a vehicle, Keith began searching for his dream machine. Driving home from work one evening, Keith spotted an old Ford farm truck for sale. “I’ve always wanted a ’50s Ford truck. I love the rolling fenders and the mean look of the grille,” he explains.