Tri Star Performance, a company known mainly for their crate engine programs, promotes good engine building techniques with their technical section on the company’s website. 

Tri Star’s tech page is filled with copious bits of wisdom for engine builders of all levels. Sharing information of that caliber is remarkable considering the company’s primary product is fully assembled turn key crate engines. Leading off the Tech page is a piece of sound advice for any engine mechanic: “The Golden Rule: Always determine what caused the old engine to fail so you don’t transfer the same problem to the new engine.”

The majority of the technical information and instructions deals with issues relevant to crate engines. Things like priming the oil system, breaking in the engine, valve lash adjustment and harmonic damper spacers are inherent issues with crate engine swaps but home engine builders can pull a lot of good information from these sections. The real jewels in the tech section are listed in the general information section. Measuring exhaust back pressure, Flat tappet VS. Roller camand the Engine rotation sections are beneficial to the home engine builder and the marine engine customers. 

The tech section is filled with a wide variety of topics that help crate engine customers and home engine builders alike.

The section that really raised our interest level was under the title heading, “Surface conditioning disks.” Tri Star engines explains General Motors position on using surface conditioning disks. Acting as an industry representative, Tri Star Engines promotes and publishes items of common interest to customers and engine builders alike. In educating and informing the engine buying public, Tri Star Engines have help support the aftermarket automotive industry and the public alike. 

According to the tech page, Tri Star reprints the standards regarding the use of grinding discs as obtained from the General Motors Corporation. “When cleaning engine gasket sealing surfaces, surface conditioning disks (typically constructed of woven fiber or molded bristles) which contain abrasives, such as a high amount of Aluminum Oxide, are NOT RECOMMENDED. The information contained in this bulletin supersedes any previously published GM service information regarding the use of surface conditioning disks and pertains to all current and previously manufactured engines.”

Alternative solutions are offered in the remainder of the document along with cautions for using different abrasives on the contact surfaces. To see the full document, click here.