A Couple of Handy Accessories for Engine Swaps

We’re smack in the middle of the Project Garage Yukon’s engine swap, and while we’re not quite ready to spring the next post on you, we did want to give you a heads up on a couple of items that are awfully usefull to have around when you’re taking on an engine swap.

   

The first is what we’ve always referred to as “board tape.”  It’s the stuff that professional audio engineers use to label mixing boards as it fits perfectly in the little indented strip below the faders.  We use it to label plugs, wires, and other items that we want to be sure to put back in the same place during assembly. We’re not horribly concerned about its specific size, but we like to use it because it’s easy to write on with a pen, very smudge resistant, and comes in a nice-sized roll.  You can usually pick the stuff up at big music stores, or you can order it online from a variety of sources.

The other item is a box of locking-top sandwich bags.  We’re partial to Heftys or Ziplocs as they have the “zipper” across the top for easy opening and sure-fire closing.  The Ziplocs also have a slick white section on which you can write with a Sharpie.  The advantage to these: now you can put all the bolts, nuts, or other little parts that go with a larger part in a bag and label it.  In fact, if you’re pulling the part you can also go ahead and tape the bag to the item as well, which makes reassembly easy.  You can find these at any grocery store.

  

You can lose hours or even days if you misplace fasteners during a large task like this, so why not spend the $20 or so on these items and make sure you’ve got it all under control?

We’re just sayin’.

Ziploc [Ziploc.com]
Board Tape [Froogle]