By: Ernie Fixmer – http://www.erniefixmer.com

Many people always ask me what the basic needs for a “bulletproof” engine are and I always respond,”Head studs, Metal head gasket, and trap-door type oilpan”.  There was definitely a learning curve to get to this point, but over the years I have figured out that I don’t really want to jump in a car if it doesn’t have certain things in place.

Oil being a vital element to an engine’s well being always became a problem for me in the early days of learning how to drive.  I blew countless engines from overlooking not only the quality of the oil(synthetic being able to take more heat cycling), but also the design of the oilpan. I have been using Greddy’s oilpans that have the trapdoors in them for a long time, but recently Moroso has stepped up and made a similar designed oilpan for the same purpose of keeping the oil centralized near the oil pickup.

Another part that has been very common since the beginning of the drift scene developing here in the U.S. is a metal head gasket which allows the combustion chamber to develop more than stock levels of boost.  This also helped to push the limits of tuning.

Many guys still install the gasket  using only stock head bolts.  “Many guys” used to be me.  I got the oil situation under control, but I was blowing head gaskets left and right.  Finally one day I was talking to my friend,  from HKS at the time, and he told me that they never built engines without using head studs.  I soon tried this on the next engine and my head gasket problems were history.

Of course “the right tuner” plays a key part in all of this, but with these three things in place, I rarely have a hard time saying no to someone who wants me to test out their car and show them what it is capable of.   I also believe this applies to all engines used in drifting.