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If you have a soldering iron, you need a solder sucker (VIDEO)

Description When an automotive repair involves solder, it often involves desoldering too. Removing old solder is a crucial part of preparing a component for a new soldered connection, and a desolder pump (often called a solder sucker) is the ideal tool for the job. It...

The very best way to remove grease from auto upholstery

I try to keep my customers’ cars at least as nice as they keep them. You probably do, too. The only problem is that I am perpetually filthy. I have a trick I’ve used for a long time on the occasions I’ve sullied a nice interior with grease or dirt. (I will never...

A different type of timed event: the Bobby Bosch Relay Race

I’ll hazard a guess you’re familiar with the 24 Hours of Lemons. If not, it’s endurance racing for Joe Sixpack on a severely tight budget ($500). Ridiculous paint jobs are de rigueur. Costumes are encouraged. Everyone sandbags and cheats and tries to fudge the budget...

How to use a lockout kit (VIDEO)

If you work on cars for a living or you’re a diehard gearhead, odds are excellent that people look to you when some basic automotive snafus need to be handled. I’m sure those who know you have asked you to help with the following items: Reviewing an estimate Jumping a...

Drag racing semi-trucks (VIDEO)

Hi, my name is Lemmy and I enjoy the inappropriate application of power. It’s the lighter side of our mutual profession, I feel. I’ve written before about keeping your mojo flowing if the biz of fixing stuff is wearing you down. Here’s another way to do that: watch...

Bump steer – ASE practice questions (VIDEO)

Description All of the following could cause bump steer EXCEPT: A) Incorrectly mounted steering rack B) Worn idler arm C) Worn center link D) Incorrect camberMore ASE Practice Questions

When NOT selling helps business

When I was a wee sprat in my first automotive job selling service, I was beleaguered by a tech in the shop who wrote thorough, lengthy estimates. He would occasionally blow up at me for not selling enough, going so far once as to accuse me of not even trying to sell...

Watch this video on the invention of the Ford V-8 engine

by | Feb 29, 2024

If you enjoy pioneering developments in automobile history, this video on the development of Ford’s V8 engine is a must-watch. It’s a bit on the long side (a little over an hour), but it’s well worth your time to fully appreciate this revolutionary success in Ford—and automobile—history.

Although Ford’s Model A was hugely successful, by 1931 the market was changing. The stock market crash of 1929 and Chevrolet closing the sales gap with Ford (largely due to Chevy’s six-cylinder engine) were putting Ford on its heels. Henry Ford wanted to regain the market lead by introducing a V8 engine that was affordable to the masses. However, his previous attempt with an X8 was too heavy and complex to work effectively for what he wanted. Ford had been putting V8 engines in Lincoln, but those engines were cast in complex sections. In order to bring down the cost of the V8 engine to make it affordable, he wanted to cast the engine block in one piece.

This led to Ford’s secret V8 engine project that ran from 1931 to 1932. By March 9, 1932, Ford’s first one-piece V8 engine rolled out of production. Although it initially didn’t sell well and the earliest Ford V8s had mechanical problems, by July 1932 Ford was selling three times more V8s than their four-cylinder cars. Watch the video for more on why this was an automotive milestone, how it helped Ford beat the competition yet again, and how it made the flathead V8 synonymous with Ford for the following two decades.

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