News You Can Use

Ask Away! with Jeff Smith: Fuel Pressure Regulators, Brake Pedals,and Accessory Drives

It's a trio of tech Q&A this month in our Ask Away! with Jeff Smith column. We've got questions on proper fuel pressure regulator location, master cylinder sizing, and power losses from engine-driven accessories. 

Ask Away! with Jeff Smith:Replacing Distributors and Saying No to Large Camshafts

It's hard to believe that July is coming to a close, but that's OK because the end of the month brings new tech information from the latest Ask Away" with Jeff Smith columns. 

This time around, he'll be talking about the best distributor option for a small block Ford and why putting the biggest camshaft available in your engine is probably not the best way to go.

Ask Away! with Jeff Smith--EFI Idle Speed and Cruising Gears

This month OnAllCylinder's tech guy Jeff Smith fields questions on tuning the idle speed on an EFI-equipped engine and explores choosing the proper rear end gears for highway cruising in a car with an overdrive automatic transmission.

Ask Away! with Jeff Smith--Choosing the Right PCV Valve

A PCV valve is a PCV valve is a PCV valve--or so the story went. Ask Away! reader CM thought so too, but he was having issues with oil vapor all over the nice 472-cubic-inch engine in his ’69 Cadillac, even with a PCV valve installed. What's worse, at highway speeds the oil dipstick would be pushed out of the tube.

CM dumped the PCV valve for a big breather on the valve cover. That solved the dipstick problem but not the oil vapor issue.What's a Caddy man to do?

Ask Away! with Jeff Smith--Carburetor Conversions and Vacuum Advance Redux

Jeff Smith tackles a couple of really good questions this month. Well, it's more like one question--how to convert a draw-through supercharger carburetor to a blow-through design--and a refresher course on the the importance of vacuum advance for ignition timing. Let's get to it.

Ask Away! with Jeff Smith--Curing Hesitation and Bumping Compression

This month's Ask Away deals with two topics all of us have encountered at one time or another--hesitation under acceleration and needed a boost in engine compression to make more horsepower. Of course, our friend Jeff Smith has helpful advice on curing the first problem and fixing the second.

Ask Away with Jeff Smith: Shoebox LS and Proper EFI Fuel Pump Placement

Jeff Smith got a couple of nice meaty tech questions this month. Grab a fork and dig in.

Ask Away with Jeff Smith: EFI Rotor Phasing and Crate Engine vs. Junkyard Rebuild

A couple of great topics in this month's Ask Away column. Good job, question-askers.

Ridetech Builds a Chevy C10 in 48 Hours at Barrett-Jackson

The suspension masters at Ridetech love putting themselves through the project car wringer. Not only do they attempt to build some awesome rides in just 48 hours, they live-stream the process on the Interwebs for all the world to see.

in 2015 Ridetech transformed a tired 1972 Corvette into a fully equipped track monster, then flogged the wee out of it at the Optima Challenge and other autocross and road racing venues. Summit Racing was a 48 Hour partner; we even created Parts Combos to showcase many of the parts used in the build.

Ask Away with Jeff Smith: Cam Timing Blues and Air Compressor Optimization

It's a new year, and Jeff Smith is ready to answer more of your burning tech questions. He finished 2016 with advice on cam and ignition timing and air compressor efficiency.

Cam Timing Issues
Todd B. has a 1967 Camaro with a 327 small block under the hood. The engine has 'double hump' cast iron cylinder heads, a 252 degree duration/.521 inch lift Crane flat tappet cam, a Holley 750 double pumper on a dual plane intake, and an MSD distributor and 7A ignition. He advanced the cam two teeth on the cam gear 25 years ago when he built the engine, and now wonders why the 327 is so hard to start.

Two things got Jeff's attention immediately--a camshaft that is too big for the engine and way, way overadvanced. Moving the cam timing by two gear teeth, he effectively moved the cam by 33 degrees-a huge change. By comparison, the better aftermarket timing sets allow you to move the cam usually no more than 8 degrees.

There is a lot more to this cam timing thing, which Jeff explains much better in the article.