Website update - AR Engineering

I had a consultant help me out with some updates on my website. She recommended adding links to my YouTube channel and making it easy for people to watch the YouTube videos that I already have. So we made those changes and now I'm going to start shooting more videos and I'm going to start shooting higher quality videos. I need to learn how to do some video editing and I need to invest in a couple of video cameras so I can shoot dyno sessions. Probably take me a few months to figure it all out but the goal is to shoot a video of every interesting dyno tune session. We do about 10 of those a year so I'm hoping we'll be able to post that many cool videos a year.

https://arengineering.com/

Sounds great. I'll check it out. Thanks.

Sounds like a good plan, Andy - the videos should increase your exposure and help sales.

I look forward to the videos.

Avoid the trap I fall in to. Don't lose your personality and become a lecturing professor. I have to reshpot so many bits because I went instructional.

Studies show most people are on youtube to learn, so thats not a bad thing.

It takes hours and hours to create instructional videos that satisfy you.

Be aware of this, and

“Don’t let the Perfect become the Enemy of the Good”

Take a little time and watch at least a few of Milton Friedman”s now very old instructional videos

Free to Choose

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dngqR9gcDDw&list=PLTplBPPoWdX2dsFq7tcFw9xPNqn8JMp9k

They are certainly not about dynos and engines,
but they are “near genius” in simplicity and presentation.

Watch a few Khan Academy school lesson videos.

What you intend to do is very admirable.
When you find the going tough think of all the people who helped you.

And how many videos on youtube have bad music blaring over the content? If i want to watch a dyno run i don't need to hear music over it. And as others said don't need to hear useless blabbering either. Just my $.02

Agreed, about the only guy doing music over testing and does it right is Project Farm

What program are you planning to use or looking to acquire.

Similar situation for our club website. Would only be making 12 or so videos a year. Maybe more if the editing is easy and couldnfackage them it’s 2 minute clips.

I worked for a small company and the owner was a professional photographer. And really intelligent savvy guy. In 2015 he had 2 or 3 Go Pro cameras. I ?think? he could sync them. That way he’d get different camera angles. I think multi-Camera helps the production quality.

Agreed. Music intros and droning on about personal life issues off the topic of the video are annoying a.f. I usually start at the 2 min mark and keep skipping until the blathering ends.

I'm not sure on editing software. I'm going to hire a pro rather than try to figure it all out myself. I hired a pro to teach me how to shoot photos. Only took a few lessons and I knew what I needed to shoot all the photos for my two books so I figure this might be like that. I just need a few pointers to clean up my videos and make them crisper and more informative. I'm not interested in shooting Engine Master type stuff where they sit around and talk about the dyno session. I just want to shoot the action shots, provide some specifics on the engine parts and show the power curve numbers. I"m primarily interested in showing people real results from real customer engines. We build and test a lot of 600 hp big block Mopar engines. The ones that go in the magazines make 700 hp but cost twice as much. The average guy is going to live with a 550 or 600 hp engine for $10,000 rather than pay $25,000 for the 700 hp version with the custom cam, hand ported intake, pro built carb, etc.

So you are hiring a pro to teach you and suggest what to buy?

Or just pay him to do all the videos.

Thats a cool approach. I bet the hands on 1 on 1 instruction gets you to a level much quicker that thumbing around the internet getting bits of good and bad canned generic instruction. Do you feel you’re also getting “mini consulting” sessions. By someone understanding your objectives and fitting the instruction and tools specifically to you?

Yes, that was how it worked with the photog. He did a few one on one sessions with me and then I was ready to go. Same with the guy who built my website. We had a few face to face meetings and the got me up to speed on how it works. I tend to hire pros to help me do lots of things these days. I just tell them up front that I want them to show me how to do it while it is getting done. Most are okay with that, some aren't. Not a big deal, I just move on to the next one.

New site looks nice. I poked around looking for the 451 Manifesto, and couldn't find it. Blast from the past I know...but it's good info.

I nuked that document in the last update since it was so old it had become embarrassing. I also didn't think it was good information anymore. It was kind of cool as a historical document, but I had people continuing to ask me about cutting down 440 cranks to build a 451 and they seemed pissed when I told them that it didn't make sense to do that anymore.

The manifesto was written before stroker cranks were available for big block Mopar engines. Once everyone was able to buy a new forged stroker crank it didn't make sense to hunt around in bone yards looking for a forged core out of an Imperial or whatever. But I had guys who had been stashing parts for 20 years hoping to finally build a 451 that were mad at me when I told them to just call up Molnar or 440Source to buy a crank.

I tried to put the manifesto to rest in the Big Block Mopar book but now even that book is getting a little dated. The book was done before Trick Flow heads and they changed the game again on us. BB Mopar stroker engines are super easy to build these days and there are only a few big gotchas hanging out there. The rear main seal problem is huge with no good fix in sight. Camshaft core quality and lifter quality are both suspect now with no good solution in sight. Other than that life is pretty good. 600 hp is easy, 700 hp is within reach for anyone willing to spend a little more money. With EFI you can daily drive a 600 hp big block. That really wasn't possible 30 years ago when the manifesto was written.

Copy or print it while it's still around.


http://arengineering.com/tech/451-manifesto/#:~:text=The%20451%20is%20arguably%20the,has%20almost%20perfect%20design%20parameters.

I used to do paying video work for a few years and got out of it because of the sheer amount of time it took to put out polished work. Ended up getting into sports photography and found that to be far more lucrative. Anyways, when I was doing I used the Adobe CS Suite of software. Photoshop, After Effects and Premier covered all the bases, but now I doubt you even need that much. Everything anymore is so over produced that what is getting eyeballs is the stripped down, no BS videos that respect the viewers time. No flashy intros, drawn out engine startups on the dyno, or pretentious boomer Dad jokes.

A good channel to look at for examples of this is: I Do Cars

The channel is just a salvage shop owner doing post mortem tear downs on core motors. Simple, stupid. Guy shot up over 100k subs in under a year. Updates once a week,

I agree. My stuff right now is too crude to be called stripped down but I think that is where I want to end up. I'm only interested in delivering content and most of the time I won't be trying to sell anything. The majority of the videos will be of customer engines that we dyno. It will primarily be a stash of results that over time will allow viewers to see what makes what. Once we get more than a dozen or so dyno videos posted a viewer can figure out what makes power and what doesn't.

Have you got to the point on deciding what video software to use? Or have some ideas of what you are focusing at.

MarkZ, do you have any suggestion of video editing software/programs to use for video like the "I Do Cars" makes?

Thanks Andy. I do totally agree with you that is so much easier and better nowadays to just buy a new crank. More than likely, it's more cost effective also. I mainly wanted to save it for the man who does my machine work. He is 80 years old and loves to learn ways to do DIY stuff like cutting down cranks to make strokers that he is not as familiar with. He's long been a builder of mostly Chevy engines for NASCAR, CASCAR, ARCA and others. He still works full time in his shop because he wants to, not has to, and is very successful. I have long since saved The 451 Manifesto as @Zippy suggested and plan to print it off and give it to Ben to file. He is on the same page as we are in saying just buy a new crank, but will enjoy the info from a master machinist/engine builder point of view.

YouTube has a built in editor which I've now used a few times. I don't really know how to use it and I wouldn't call it very intuitive. I've also used the video editor that is built into Windows 10. It seems a little easier to use than the YouTube one. And I got a free download from Microsoft called Clipchamp which I've played with a little bit but don't understand it yet.

Thank you for the info and insight.

I'm continuing to make and post videos on a regular basis. I'm using some of the simple editing techniques to trim away dead space from the videos but I haven't done anything else yet. I could make title pages and introduction slides and that kind of stuff but I haven't done it yet. Here is a link to my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoSY4bQ7I23XK834NLVTC9w

I worked with a photographer to build me a new banner photo so I'm gradually getting the building blocks in place.

Looks like I'm buying more tools

I'm not familiar enough with the editing tools that she used but I don't think the setup was very expensive. I'm going to have her edit more car pictures for me since the first ones came out super nice. The pictures were good before she edited them but after she worked them over they really, really popped off the page. Well worth the price she charged.

I'll check to see if she wants to edit more pictures. I think she could make money editing car pictures for guys who are either selling their cars or maybe they just want a few really nice pictures of their car to hang on the wall or to use on Facebook or as a screen saver.

Long time viewer of your channel, and even longer time customer of your products. Would it be possible to do some videos on adjusting valves? There's next to nothing out there on this except ball stud stuff. I'd like to see how someone who knows what they are doing does it

Yeah that is a possibility. I never adjust valves myself but Paul, the owner at Gray's Automotive does it so often that he doesn't even think about it. He goes so fast I get confused watching him. Guys tow their cars over to his shop so he can adjust the valves before heading to the track.

absolutely! I have never seen someone else do it, so to see that I think it would be helpful

Not to change the subject, are you still making the heater fan delete plates.? Ordered through Mancini and after 5 weeks they refunded my money stating not available.

AR329 heater fan delete panel? I have them in stock. I ship them to Mancini all the time. Must have been some screw up. Maybe someone wrote down the wrong part number or something. Call them back and ask them to drop ship the part if they say they don't have them in stock; https://arengineering.com/products/block-off-plate-heater/

Ok

Sorry about that, I don't know why that happened. I have plenty of those on the shelf and I haven't run out of stock on them all year.