Blueprinting For The Home Engine Builder - How To Get The Most From The Parts You Already Have 

Tony, I believe you have found your "true calling". This channel is exceptional in that you give max wisdom with minimal dog and pony show. No 2 minute intro nonsense, no manufacturered drama, just straight to the point info and wisdom. God bless you.

As a block machinist I worked for four different current or former Pro Stock racers. and what engine Builders go through to give a customer a good high horsepower, long lasting engine most people don't even have a Clue! A younger fellow I know tried to tell me that "Building an engine is a no brainer!" Oh how I wish he'd try & build his own race engine! lol

Man! You are so right Tony. I have spent forever putting my slant six together. Piston height, rod length, cylinder head alignment, pushrod length, cam timing, it's never ending. Sometimes I had to force myself to take the proper steps and not cut corners. And that's not mentioning the worst part, finally starting the engine. A whole new level of fear factor.

Wow! Gave me flashbacks lol. I learned how to use micrometers, calipers, dial gauges, and bore mics as a pretty young lad, by measuring assemblies for my uncle in his shop, as he was building dirt track engines. I took right to it, and I just had a flood of memories come back, as it was in the late 60s and 70s that I was first learning it. Spent many days and nights sorting long rods to short piston pins, and so on.

The late former owner of my house (and my employer at one time) was a maintenance electrician at Dodge Main. Because all the assembly line folks wanted to keep the maintenance people happy when he ordered an employee deal vehicle all the various lines went out of their way to make sure his car was better than typical. The engine guys basically built him a balanced and blueprinted engine. The engine was still running strong when the car it was in finally rusted and fell apart.

I had a 66 Val, Signet with a 272 2bll. and ran 14.63 all day long and drove it to and from the track. This was in the early 1970's.

Tony is being humble! He says he’s not an engine builder but he was building nitro motors in his youth. I think he’s an awesome engine builder and extremely intelligent in terms of engines so we should all listen closely to him.

Thanks again Unk. Stock eliminator always inspired me. I always wanted to take a small block dodge using best parts from different years (eg. '72 360 short block, '66 273 D stock dart cam and rockers, '70 340 heads and 6pack, etc). After you blow the doors off of someone you can say the engine is all stock parts....wink wink...nudge nudge.

So glad I didn't take on what I considered to be my first full rebuild until I worked at an engine shop. Gave the crank polisher guy a pizza to polish the crank. Gave some beers and hot dogs to the cyl head guy. Worked out great, I built it at home but had everything I needed bought in house. That made it a bunch easier. Oh and don't be in a hurry at all. It took me about 2-3 months of 3-5 evenings a week to get it done. Remember this is for fun too, so there's no sense in rushing it.

So good and to the point. I would add get to know a machinist well. As an 17 year old I mixed Buick 350 pistons, early 60s forged rods, cast odd-fire crank, high-port heads on a low-port block, 252 intake and more, all on a 231 V6. Then Turboed it. Just so I didn't have to stick a belly button 350 in my Sunbird. All the tediousness was worth it.

This is great information I wish I knew years ago. No one ever explains this stuff. I never knew there was so much slop in these engines and maybe that is why the newer engines are better with computer cnc and modern castings.

Uncle Tony is a wealth of knowledge.

Stock eliminator and Stock class cars are crazy.. My 72yo freind Steve that was a Nhra tech inspector and licensing official has a buddy in California with a 440 6brl Stock class car, Steve said there is over $20k in that "stock" engine... I was talking to a guy with a 318 2brl 69 Dart that was running 11.0s at Topeka a few years back, it still blows my mind how they get so much out of stock configurations even knowing what they actually go through to do it.. Those people have more time and money in there combination than most do in their full on race engines..

While working in the DIRECT CONECTION END of dealerships near Pittsburgh pa had a street stock team come to several dealers measured 81 rod piston assembly sets to get 8 this team was sponsored by Broadway Dodge in Mc keys rocks just out side of Pittsburgh. I will never forget that... I was Amazed....

This is absolutely fascinating. Getting the most out of what youhave, instead of just buying something shiny and new, is a real art form.

Hey Tony, Tim here, i love the "stock Eliminator" reference used, as those guys go thru HOURS of painstaking time to create a good motor, ex: my stock eliminator buddy set a new record in 1987.....and they had to retire the time slip, cuz nobody cud get there, and beat it!! one of the things he and his partner did, was go thru 120 Rockers, to find 16 that had the max ratio allowed, also off-set ground the crank for max tolerance of stroke......those are the time consuming, painstaking things an engine builder for SE has/shud do......btw it was a '69 BB Camaro.......when they broke the record, NHRA, has to tear it down to chk.....understandably, but the idiot measuring the stroke, measured it on the exhaust side of the piston, and told my guys they were not legal.....my man, argued, and said "WHY ARE YOU MEASURING ON THE SIDE OF THE PISTON?? ARE YOU STUPID??, YOU MEASURE AT THE CENTER OF THE PISTON, AS IT ROCKS IN THE BORE FOR SKIRT CLEARENCE!!!!".......dude took new measurements, and they were PERFECT on the max allowed stroke!!!.....there you have it, a SE story, and an idiot NHRA tech, back in '87.......nice vid, hope u enjoyed the little story!!!.....LOVE UR STUFF my brother!!

Said it once and I'll say it again , I learn something new every time I watch tony explained things , bloody good teacher .

I did this with the valvetrain on a Ford 302. Moved rockers and pushrods around until it all came out exactly where it needed to be. Some have thin shims, some have thick, some have none, but the lifter preload is dead nuts and the top end is very quiet now.

This is why many people only run a particular engine no matter what body it's going into, building up a hoard of parts so they can mix and match.

I've been interested in cars and the mechanical aspects thereof for 15 years and I think half off my technical knowledge has come from you in the last couple. Thank you

Yes I’ve seen a 253 holden V8 that when mocked up….. Two lifters were not spinning in the bore and that was believed to be due to an anomaly with the casting of the block itself…… the angles were not quite right on that particular casting…. To correct that they used shims…… OR you could go to solid roller lifters….. Point being is blueprinting should detect and correct these things………

Tony you're too modest... I'm sure I could build an engine from bottom up, only relying on the videos that you put out.. Thanks for sharing your knowlege & experience ...EPIC!

Very informative and great to hear someone say it out loud. Parts replacement techs and mechanics are far apart in skill level.

What's amazing to me is that 383 is the exact same build we did for my brother's truck Hookers N Blow, he bored his out .060 but he used stock replacement pistons that came to the top of the deck, 516 heads, weiand tunnel ram, and it is a good engine. This will be a cool engine build

You have to remember your Rod Bearing wear will cause the piston to sit lower then normal! Upper rod bearing will wear faster then the bottom one in a high mileage engine which will make the piston dit lower by 3 or 4 or more thousandths of an inch.

the simplicity of your explanations, straight to it, is like a massage for my brain. this is bliss for the inquisitive mind

Jeebus Tony! Do you know how many "internet know-it-all's" heads you just made explode?! You can't use that block with those wonky decks! (snark snark)

Thanks again Uncle Tony. When my buddy Ken and I are working together on my engine for the Green Goblin I always refer to your videos as a point of reference.

Great video Tony!! I am currently building a stroker engine with a lot of aftermarket parts and I have found measuring every little detail is key.

This guy needs to be cloned and then frozen for future generations...exceptional advice and teaching.

Measure center to center on the rods. Match them to the pistons.

I love the comment at the end "I'm a careful assembler." I strive to be that as well. Just recently put my aircooled vw engine together, and realized how much time could've been spent blueprinting that. Like you said though, I'm not an expert, I just measured bearing and stuff. Made sure it was all as clean as I can make it. Hope it lasts at least 50k lol

I'd call it about 100 hours for a serious build. We used 1 machine shop for all the precision work, but we would go over to help and learn. Pay your money and your dues to a reliable machine shop. This always pays off, you have to realize your capabilities. Just because you can assemble a working engine doesn't mean it's going to be good or long lasting.

As always, you enlighten me to ways of thinking that are valuable for the home builder. Thank you again.

Thanks again Tony , your videos are rare in the way that I always watch them in there entirety , they are that good . You were saying that the factory built basically loose engines , I agree. , when I was coming up from 67 - 70 I dragged raced many factory stock muscle cars on the street and at the strip GTO s to Coronet RTs and found that rare bird that was about 10 percent more , those cars I always thought were built just perfect probably one in ten thousand , just flukes

Tony, I find very few vids here I care to watch, your channel is far superior to most, love the 390 fe info as your info is helping my wife and I with our current D4TE budget build . I'm sure I have as much age as you, just not near the knowledge, much appreciate you sharing in such a perfect manor for people like me with a limited budget.

Uncle Tony I love the way you tell it. No Bull$hit in your shows! Cheers & stay safe😊

The more of your videos I watch the more I want to send you my 390fe stroker to go through.

I could listen to him for hours

I done the same with 2 stroke motors, where i have various parts from years lying around. Hand pick all the best ones build a motor, Then hand pick the second best parts for a spare motor

You're so lucky. Get to fux with high precision engines all the time. Every engine I've built has been "GET IT DONE! I NEED THE CAR LAST WEEK!" No time for the fun, time-consuming, detail oriented stuff.

You not only teach me but you also include your years of experience and that makes it even more interesting I am 72 years old and building a 27 t bucket . I just hope I have enough time to finish it.

Leave it to UT to get it right! I always thought calling it "blueprinting" wasn't an adequate term. I knew several racers that ran cars in stock and super stock in the mid to late '70s. I saw some of the work they went through (only as a helper). It's difficult to describe their dedication and skills. Assembling and balancing everything "tighter than a gnat's ass" is amazingly tedious. You really need to 'embrace the suck' to get positive results. I never saw a blueprint or dimensional drawing for an engine. It was usually well-worn pages of clearance and tolerance charts from a service manual. I feel 'optimizing' is a much better description. Much respect to those 'optimizing' out there in YT land! Embrace the suck'!

Have torn apart many many mopar engines. Never witnessed an 0.018 difference in piston height, WOW. Sounds like someone was in this engine and replaced some stock pistons in there. The deck difference you have is very common especially on B motors.

This is one of the few channels that makes me want to click the like button more than once while watching

Uncle Tony just explained in under 15 minutes in what it takes a whole book to do! Like what has been said before....this is his true calling.

Thank you Uncle Tony! I’ve heard of blue printing and had an idea of what it was about but now I really understand. Thanks for sharing this kind of info. 👍👍

Tony your a great teacher, I have learned much about engines from your channel. Things that I did not know even existed until I started watching your channel.

You are so right it's refreshing to hear how to blueprint the right way thank you you make this old motor bilder happy and remember it from the old day's the way I was taught.

I bushing rods all the time to correct rod lengths. Plus the rods and minus the pistons and hopefully you can get everything to be the same height. Then you got to have the crank ground exactly right or it starts getting off again.

What I enjoy about watching these videos is that Tony always reminds us, take your time and do it right, people don’t realize that the same part can vary in tolerance so much, I learned this as a young man buying tires for our midget, I would walk in with my tape measure and start measuring tires that were all listed as the same size. Take your time and enjoy the process. Great video Tony

Powernations, in their videos, make it all look so easy

Thank you for educating me Tony. About to blueprint a Aston Martin V12 engine & doing due diligence.

Damn I wish I really had an uncle like Tony 😂

Show them how to build it, and they will come, UTGs field of dreams

Good vid UT. There's so much detail in building a hot engine it's not funny. I love the fact you break down the basics so everyone can start to get a grasp on how it works, and maybe even show a bit of respect when they bump into someone that does build them. Thanks for the upload!

Thanks Tony, that was a great video.

These videos are awesome! Thanks for taking the time to put these together and sharing them.

It's nice to work on the older stuff because it's all SAE. Screwing with mixed thread nut and bolt pitches on the newer stuff, all day, with plastic parts mixed in, makes me just want to take up gardening.

Again, UT presentation and speaking skills blow me away. He should become a sales representative for some automotive company making presentations to high level Executives and getting paid well. 👍

IMO You ARE a not just an engine builder, but an experienced excellent one. Great information Sir.

Excellent description and thorough!

Spot on. It really stinks with a new head and valves and testing them, then it lap lap lap and labeling. It's a process but the satisfaction is great

Excellent video as always

Another good video Tony. Keep up the good work and content.

I went to buy a used 454 bare block for a project. I had a 366 tall deck bbc which has a 427 bbc stroke crank/rotating assembly and its forged/nitrided from the factory ( for dump truck use). I was going to use my existing dumptruck crank in the 454 block with some new pistons etc to make a 427bbc. The guy selling the 454 block also had a freshly machined 1968 396 bbc Shortblock unassembled with all the bearings and pistons in boxes (new) (20 years ago the machining was done) It was stored properly and good as new. I bought the 396 shortblock instead of the 454 block and assembled it myself with a roller cam etc. The piston rings were already on the pistons and gapped etc. ( i checked anyway. I took my time as it was my first time putting a bottom end together. I checked ALL clearances. I used the low compression large oval port small valve BBC dumptruck heads on it and put it in a 58 Bel AIr. Lets just say the low end torque from the small valves is real nice. I used a 700r4 trans to give me overdrive. I need to up the rear gear now from 3.38 factory to a 373 or 390. I sold off the 366 tall deck and its crank/rods. it was 1100$ for the machined ready to assemble 396 shortblock assembly vs. $500 for a bare block that needed everything. Easy choice.

Great video and explanation of "building an engine " Uncle Tony! Thank you! Would Love to see some more in depth videos of building an engine such as taking the measurements of each component...👍

Half the "builders" out there should bow to Tony as an assembler.

Great stuff as usual. I do wonder how easily Uncle turns those blocks on the engine stands. When I've done that the dang thing binds and makes for a battle royale. I can only suspect the bind is because the engine pulls the rotating assembly down just enough to not let it turn freely, one end being slightly lower than the other.

Great info as always!

My original factory 1985 5.0 HO Mustang engine pistons and bores varied .005 from smallest to largest diameter. You could not swap the pistons around from bore to bore. This was an untouched since new 1985 Mustang 5.0 that I bought new!

Just picked some pretty good new knowledge thanks 👍.

Fantastic video! I wasn't even planning to build an engine, but holy shit, you have me wanting to now.

Thanks for the great information Uncle Tony learned alot 👍😀👌

The rolls Royce merlin engines were all blueprinted when assembled in the U.K. factories. When Packard got the drawings and specs they said ‘this won’t work for mass production, and had to re-spec all the tolerance for mass production. They never made as much power as the U.K. built engines but obviously could me made way faster

Great info! Thanks for sharing!

Awesome explanation of a seemingly lost art!

Thanks Tony, I learned something!

Another excellent video. Thank you

That is an insane difference. I'd never run them in a performance engine

Thanks Tony

So smart thank you tony

Awesome free knowledge Brother...

Awesome work mate

Mate, I subscribed. Thanks for keeping it real.

wow, this was interesting , i never would have thought about a deck height difference like that.

Great info unk thanks Keep it up👍👍

Thanks Tony...!

Hey uncle tony I enjoy watching your engine videos your knowledge is second to none can you do some auto transmission videos and explain the dos and don’ts would be great 👍

When I go to rebuilt modify my LA 360 I'm going to check this stuff out especially with my buddy at his machine shop in Harrison ark = Premier machine shop Rick Cross . to save money I will be buying a 60.00 digital scale from the kitchen supply section at walmart super center to weight my pistions and rods but will have to drop my crank off at the machine shop to have it checked for balancing 😎🔧💪🏁

Great information buddy👍

Dang….I wish i lived closer. I want a 440 4bbl that Tony builds.

Perfectly illustrating the difference between a person who only buys more horsepower and the person who seeks to create his own horsepower with the parts that he has to work with.

I paint the head surface, put them on the empty block. Then scrib a circle on the head face. That leaves you a perfect mark to unshroud the head. You will be surprised how much head you can remove, I think you know that. Good job.

I’m in the middle of blueprinting one now (supercharged sbc 96 ZZ4), it takes a while but worth it, the good part about it if someone buys the truck it’s going in I can hand them a book on the engine, lots of hours and paper work

(Backyard) built a 360 25 years ago. CC'd everything. Worst case I could put together was 10.78 ~ 11.2 CR (.34 CR). Swapped heads side to side and a couple of pistons (domed so less positions they can go Vs flat tops), got it to 10.76 ~ 11.00 (.23CR) Every little bit helps.

Thank you

Awesome information, now I know what blue printing actually means.lol

Thanks Tony......

Nice video 👍🏼