Ray Allen versus Jack Werst '1970 SS/EA Showdown'

[Rich Biebel]

Originally Posted by Paul Ceasrine

Dave 'Bad Banana',

The big thing back then,,,,was the Sunnen CK-10 Power-Stroke
Cylinder Hone,,,,,,,,,that unit could really get that fine finish,,,,and
proper cross-hatch,,,,,,
Every Top Machine Shop had to get one,,,,,,,,that was the #1 piece of machine shop engine rebuilding equipment for the performance shops during those times,,,,
That CK-10,,,,,,,a beautiful piece of machinery...

Yes a CK-10 was state of the art back then but you forgot one very important part....

The man doing the honing......Honing is right up there with other very specialized skills......I honed many many sets of rods and worked my butt off to make them straight and round....

I worked in a shop that did a great deal of machine work for Ralph at T/K's

The owner was named Bill Crowley at Crows Head Shop here in northern NJ.....If he honed your block you could be assured it was right and Ralph often called up after an engine that had just been dyno'ed with a fresh hone made more power than ever before.....

By then the super smooth cylinder wall finishing idea was long gone.....

Bill was fanatical about blocks and had a little technique for the final finish that seemed to always work.....

He was also a super talented head machinist and long befoe there was a Serdi or similar type machine his VJ's were just about perfect....

He also was a very skilled head and manifold porter.....and did some intakes that were not topped for many years....
He went to Nascar country......along with many others in the engine business......

[Paul Precht]

Originally Posted by Rich Biebel

Yes a CK-10 was state of the art back then but you forgot one very important part....

The man doing the honing......Honing is right up there with other very specialized skills......I honed many many sets of rods and worked my butt off to make them straight and round....

I worked in a shop that did a great deal of machine work for Ralph at T/K's

The owner was named Bill Crowley at Crows Head Shop here in northern NJ.....If he honed your block you could be assured it was right and Ralph often called up after an engine that had just been dyno'ed with a fresh hone made more power than ever before.....

By then the super smooth cylinder wall finishing idea was long gone.....

Bill was fanatical about blocks and had a little technique for the final finish that seemed to always work.....

He was also a super talented head machinist and long befoe there was a Serdi or similar type machine his VJ's were just about perfect....

He also was a very skilled head and manifold porter.....and did some intakes that were not topped for many years....
He went to Nascar country......along with many others in the engine business......

The man doing the honing was everything with the old Sunnen rod machines, it's an art all by itself, my hands still hurt just thinking about it.
When I worked with Ritchie Zul in the mid 70s he was still using the mirror finish cylinder walls on the Pro Stock motors he built for a few customers, I did all the block prep and boring but Nassau Hone did the honing.. My ears are still ringing from the dyno pulls.

[BadBanana]

Originally Posted by Rich Biebel

Yes a CK-10 was state of the art back then but you forgot one very important part....

The man doing the honing......Honing is right up there with other very specialized skills......I honed many many sets of rods and worked my butt off to make them straight and round....

I worked in a shop that did a great deal of machine work for Ralph at T/K's

The owner was named Bill Crowley at Crows Head Shop here in northern NJ.....If he honed your block you could be assured it was right and Ralph often called up after an engine that had just been dyno'ed with a fresh hone made more power than ever before.....

By then the super smooth cylinder wall finishing idea was long gone.....

Bill was fanatical about blocks and had a little technique for the final finish that seemed to always work.....

He was also a super talented head machinist and long befoe there was a Serdi or similar type machine his VJ's were just about perfect....

He also was a very skilled head and manifold porter.....and did some intakes that were not topped for many years....
He went to Nascar country......along with many others in the engine business......

I remember Crow's Head Shop and Bill very well. He did my blocks for my SS/EA '69 Camaro; also some head work under the valve and intake manifold work. His shop was special. The thing about Truppi Kling is that they didn't do any machine work, but rather sent each part to the people he found could do the very best work on a particular part; and then told them exactly what HE wanted. Later when the head rule opened up he used Brandwine head Service a lot.
I used to let Ralph send my blocks, heads and manifold to Crow's; Got my crank work done at RC Automotivr in Alex., VA and then go up to T-K to assemble, dyno and tune the motor there before taking it home. In those days we only had stock blocks so we had them all checked for wall thickness, especially on the thrust side of the bore (at least .100) and hardness checked. Good (thick) but soft blocks may have gotten the chrome stainless rings and hard blocks the moly rings. I had a time convincing Ralph that I wanted to use cast cranks. Of course we needed to have them "magged " to find a good one; but they were lighter and while they made no more power on the dyno at a given rpm, I always felt the motor was able to accelerate through the rpms faster.- and hit the converter harder.

[KMachine]

Originally Posted by BadBanana

Got my crank work done at RC Automotivr in Alex., VA .

Thats a name I haven't heard about in awhile. I spent a week at Roy's shop in 1990. Roy brought a seri 100 and I had to set it up and get it working.

LOL, Roy sure like to drink and talk.

[X-TECH MAN]

Originally Posted by KMachine

Thats a name I haven't heard about in awhile. I spent a week at Roy's shop in 1990. Roy brought a seri 100 and I had to set it up and get it working.

LOL, Roy sure like to drink and talk.

I know Roy well....He likes to drink more than talk......LOL. Great machinist.

[KMachine]

Originally Posted by X-TECH MAN

I know Roy well....He likes to drink more than talk......LOL. Great machinist.

Terry,
A quick story on, Roy.
When I worked for Seri, Me and another guy would go in and set up the machines that the salesmen sold.

I called, Roy and told him I would be there on a monday. Roy, ask me how I was going to get to his place. I told him I would fly into Dulles and take a taxi to his place. Roy told me no way. I said what do you mean? Roy said fly into Dullas and take the blueline train to addison road. When you get there call me.

So I did. Roy came and picked me up and I spent one of the best weeks of my life with a good guy.


Roy, took me back to the motel every night as well as picking me up every morning. I lost contact with Roy and haven't spoken to him since 2001 or 2002.

Roy, told me lot of stories about drag racing and nhra in the 60's. He also had a few good Jenkins,stories from being a tech inspecter.

I think, Roy even built a few billet cranks for, Jenkins V-6 comp motors.

[X-TECH MAN]

Originally Posted by KMachine

Terry,
A quick story on, Roy.
When I worked for Seri, Me and another guy would go in and set up the machines that the salesmen sold.

I called, Roy and told him I would be there on a monday. Roy, ask me how I was going to get to his place. I told him I would fly into Dulles and take a taxi to his place. Roy told me no way. I said what do you mean? Roy said fly into Dullas and take the blueline train to addison road. When you get there call me.

So I did. Roy came and picked me up and I spent one of the best weeks of my life with a good guy.


Roy, took me back to the motel every night as well as picking me up every morning. I lost contact with Roy and haven't spoken to him since 2001 or 2002.

Roy, told me lot of stories about drag racing and nhra in the 60's. He also had a few good Jenkins,stories from being a tech inspecter.

I think, Roy even built a few billet cranks for, Jenkins V-6 comp motors.

Yes he is a great guy. I bought a new K.O. Lee seat and guide machine thru him in the late 1980's. He got me the good tooling for Hi performance work and Harley work. Had a few cranks done by him for my car and a few others. Its been maybe 19-20 years since I had talked to him. Heard a lot of cool stories from the 60's. Most of the guys used his shop then as there wasnt any other or better one around in the 60;s.

[BadBanana]

X Tech Man: Where is Lake Placid, FL?
I just moved up to Wake forest, NC from The Villages, FL. going back for a visit the second half of Oct.

[Rich Biebel]

I did most everything at Crow's for over 10 years.......

Hot tank loader and unloader and rinser...Just rinsed the parts off in the driveway with a pressure hose and hot water from a coil that ran thru the hot tank....Brown water ran downhill...Not to cool in todays world.....can you say DEP or EPA

Glass beader.....Did every cylinder head unitll it was spotless.....

I did most of the headwork.....everything but the VJ on race car stuff( Bill did them all), and tons of VJ's on roadcar stuff.....

I CC'ed and milled all the heads including everything for T/K's....That included some LS-6 SS heads.....


I bored blocks on a table we had and used a Kwik Way FN bar......Counterboring was a PITA and I f'ed up a block or two be retracting the bar in the wrong position......Actually happened once when I went to answer the phone and I think it was Ralph....Hit retract and never rotated the bar to the right spot......It was MY BLOCK and it put a nasty stripe in it but I ran it anyway..Hey is was just a 454 for S/G and brackets......

I ran the Storm Vulcan 85-B Block Master........Often had the mill running and was boring a block at the same time.....

Did pistons......rods by the ton.....Assembled almost all the heads and the list goes on and on........

We had a Go-Power Dyno....and a Dyno session usually was very eventfull.....

Those dynos were far from a modern day unit and it was time consuming and often we had "issues" develop during the testing.....

We did dyno quite few engines.......and at one time the current head of Toyota Racing in America......Lee White......used our dyno to test the engines he built for the team he managed locally.... A 924 Turbo Porsche Trans Am Team......Pretty wild little engines....Well over 500hp at about 130 cubes and the sound was deafening if you were anywhwere near the dyno when he tortured it....

I loved my days in that machine shop for the most part.........It's a shame so many small shops shut down......

I could go on and on about that but lets just say times change.....

[BadBanana]

Originally Posted by Rich Biebel

Yes a CK-10 was state of the art back then but you forgot one very important part....

The man doing the honing......Honing is right up there with other very specialized skills......I honed many many sets of rods and worked my butt off to make them straight and round....

I worked in a shop that did a great deal of machine work for Ralph at T/K's

The owner was named Bill Crowley at Crows Head Shop here in northern NJ.....If he honed your block you could be assured it was right and Ralph often called up after an engine that had just been dyno'ed with a fresh hone made more power than ever before.....

By then the super smooth cylinder wall finishing idea was long gone.....

Bill was fanatical about blocks and had a little technique for the final finish that seemed to always work.....

He was also a super talented head machinist and long befoe there was a Serdi or similar type machine his VJ's were just about perfect....

He also was a very skilled head and manifold porter.....and did some intakes that were not topped for many years....
He went to Nascar country......along with many others in the engine business......

Rich: You said Bill went to NASCAR. Is he still there now? If so, where? I am now living in NC and if he is near Charlotte area, I would love to stoop and see him. Also, didn't Joe Tryson, out of Jenkins' shop end up there? Any info on his whereabouts?
I had one of Bill's tricked up intakes. He, or someone in his shop, even etched a diagram of a Crow on it. You guys did great work there.