Do-It-Yourself High Performance Car Mods

Upgrading Pistons, Rods, and Crankshafts

Much of the work with the reciprocating assembly requires a fully equipped machine shop. Installing new pistons the correct way often requires checking the bore, recutting the surface in a process called overboring, and polishing the cylinder walls with a device called a cylinder hone. There are cheap cylinder hones that attach to a drill, but it’s rare to see a boring machine outside of a machine shop. Repairs to the crankshaft require similarly expensive tools. Many pistons also require a heavy-duty hydraulic press to attach them to connecting rods. In some cases, you may want to leave all the work to a machine shop. Other builders prefer to have a shop do the machine work and then finish assembling ...