Whats Your Definition of a Engine Builder

General engine tech -- Drag Racing to Circle Track

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rockcrusher
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Re: Whats Your Definition of a Engine Builder

Post by rockcrusher »

Whew...long thread and loaded question. Depends on your definition of "the definition of an engine builder". I think the whole builder question was answered but was that really the question? Is it the definition of an engine designer? The guy who starts with a blank sheet of paper.....or computer monitor? I don't think that was the intent of the question but I do think a REAL builder is the guy who does all the best of the forgoing posts but works within an existing basic framework to achieve the finest results possible for a given application by the careful selection, modification and implementation of parts and design that will allow the greatest results from the least investment or within a budget. That can only be based on years of education in mathematics, engineering and hands on experience.

RC
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Re: Whats Your Definition of a Engine Builder

Post by Malvn »

Thanks for the 60 replies on this Subject . I see that allot of you gave it some thought.
I really do appreciate it. :)
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Re: Whats Your Definition of a Engine Builder

Post by smeg »

promachine wrote:If you walk into a shop that has flatehead fords and late model dfi engines and blown gas boat engines and 410 sprint engines and import engines and early cads and late model hemi's. , you have found yourself a builder. A full machiine shop is not required but helpfull and a dyno is a must have.
That sums it up perfectly. Sounds just like our shop!
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Re: Whats Your Definition of a Engine Builder

Post by RW TECH »

So now the next question:

If a customer is completely satisfied with their completed engine purchase, how could it possibly matter to them if they bought an engine from whomever from any of the categories listed in this thread?

Of course the hack doesn't count but pretty much anyone who can sell a completed package to a customer and ultimately satisfy the customer's needs is doing the best thing for the greatest number of people.

In my life I've been a prototype assembler, a machinist, an engine builder, a dyno operator, a coordinator, an engineer, a project manager, a QA engineering team lead, and a grounds keeper for an apartment complex.

If a guy can sell completed engine packages to customers that are designed for and meet or exceed the customer's requirements, I don't think it really matters much whether he is personally completing every single step in the process to create a complete, assembled, tested, and delivered engine.

If there's underlying resentment in the mix from guys who invested heavily into machinery, my suggestion is you let that become your focus & stop wasting time building engines. Machine time normally pays better and a CNC doesn't need to take a crap or two & sit down to eat a lunch every single day.
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Re: Whats Your Definition of a Engine Builder

Post by enigma57 »

My Mom and Dad were engine builders. They had their own automotive machine shop from the late 1920s through the end of WWII. Dad did the machine work and most of the engine assembly. Mom did all the mic work, poured babbit and fitted the re-babbited rods. She also did some of the engine assembly. They employed a man to help with disassembly and hot tanking, as well.

To her dying day, Mom could quote you the journal sizes and running clearances of every American built engine from the Model T to those built at war's end. They also rebuilt tank and aircraft engines during the war. Mom was particularly interested in the radial aircraft engines.

Neither Mom nor Dad attended college nor graduated from high school. Dad and his elder brother Emmett left school and joined the Marine Corps in April of 1917 a week following America joining the war. Dad was 15. Had to use the birth certificate of an older brother who died in infancy to convince the recruiters that he was 17. Following his return Stateside, Dad and his younger brother built and raced a car out of the Memphis area in the mid-1920s. Dad drove and both he and Uncle Frank wrenched. Dad worked in a machine shop in those years.

Dad met Mom in the late 1920s. She was 16 and he was 32 when they wed the following year and started up their engine rebuilding shop. Her family were from Beaumont, Texas and Dad's family were from Memphis, Tennessee. So they picked a spot midway between and opened their machine shop in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Yes, it was another time and place. They were engine builders who learned their trade hands on. Dad from working in a machine shop and Mom learned from Dad. Neither were college grads. Nor high school grads for that matter.

Best regards to all,

Harry
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Re: Whats Your Definition of a Engine Builder

Post by houser45 »

If you do not have either an experienced past of being able to fully Machine a competition race engine from start to finish or currently do at the current time, you are not a builder. You are an assembler. You have little control over the machine work. 3 things, being able to choose a good combination, machining from start to finish, assembling. These 3 things required to be a builder. The machinist dictates a lot of the outcome of your build. At that point you are an assembler
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Re: Whats Your Definition of a Engine Builder

Post by bob460 »

Who are the TOP 10 ENGINE BUILDERS .....................GO.
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Re: Whats Your Definition of a Engine Builder

Post by 1972ho »

I always thought you had to be a machinist first and a builder second the guys that started off as machinist first normally end up as good engine builders,because they can machine anything that put in front of them.
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Re: Whats Your Definition of a Engine Builder

Post by David Redszus »

The sweet sixteen top engine builders

My list of outstanding engine builders might be a bit different than most others. So be it.
In alphabetical order.

Benz, Karl
Clerk, Dugald
Cole, Edward
Daimler, Gottlieb
Diesel, Rudolf
Duckworth, Keith
Duntov. Zora
Ferarri, Enzo
Fuhrmann, Ernst
Maybach, Wilhelm
Miller, Harry
Otto, Nikolaus
Offenhauser, Fred
Porsche, Ferdinand
Taylor, Charles
Wright, Orville

It is probable that most folks on this forum will not be familiar with the above list of
names. Without them, however, engines would not be what they are today.

"We are midgets standing on the shoulders of giants."
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Re: Whats Your Definition of a Engine Builder

Post by smeg »

1972ho wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2020 11:11 am I always thought you had to be a machinist first and a builder second the guys that started off as machinist first normally end up as good engine builders,because they can machine anything that put in front of them.
I agree 100% with this,
i know a guy who with a few brain cells, had no formal training, pulled down an old pro engine and low and behold he now tells everyone who will listen I am an engine expert builder.
MELWAY
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Re: Whats Your Definition of a Engine Builder

Post by MELWAY »

smeg wrote: Fri Mar 13, 2020 1:14 am
1972ho wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2020 11:11 am I always thought you had to be a machinist first and a builder second the guys that started off as machinist first normally end up as good engine builders,because they can machine anything that put in front of them.
I agree 100% with this,
i know a guy who with a few brain cells, had no formal training, pulled down an old pro engine and low and behold he now tells everyone who will listen I am an engine expert builder.
:lol: :lol: :lol:
3370lb Sedan 9.89@136MPH 358chevN/A
Arthur
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Re: Whats Your Definition of a Engine Builder

Post by Arthur »

Burt Munro -
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Re: Whats Your Definition of a Engine Builder

Post by SchmidtMotorWorks »

David Redszus wrote: Fri Mar 13, 2020 12:13 am The sweet sixteen top engine builders

My list of outstanding engine builders might be a bit different than most others. So be it.
In alphabetical order.

Benz, Karl
Clerk, Dugald
Cole, Edward
Daimler, Gottlieb
Diesel, Rudolf
Duckworth, Keith
Duntov. Zora
Ferarri, Enzo
Fuhrmann, Ernst
Maybach, Wilhelm
Miller, Harry
Otto, Nikolaus
Offenhauser, Fred
Porsche, Ferdinand
Taylor, Charles
Wright, Orville

It is probable that most folks on this forum will not be familiar with the above list of
names. Without them, however, engines would not be what they are today.

"We are midgets standing on the shoulders of giants."
Good list.
Helping to Deliver the Promise of Flying Cars
enigma57
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Re: Whats Your Definition of a Engine Builder

Post by enigma57 »

Arthur wrote: Sun Mar 15, 2020 2:02 amBurt Munro -
:D Fair dinkum!

HB
bob460
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Re: Whats Your Definition of a Engine Builder

Post by bob460 »

smeg wrote: Fri Mar 13, 2020 1:14 am
1972ho wrote: Tue Mar 10, 2020 11:11 am I always thought you had to be a machinist first and a builder second the guys that started off as machinist first normally end up as good engine builders,because they can machine anything that put in front of them.
I agree 100% with this,
i know a guy who with a few brain cells, had no formal training, pulled down an old pro engine and low and behold he now tells everyone who will listen I am an engine expert builder.
What's your shop called?
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