Having the best equipment was a lesson Noland said he learned early on from his father, who opened Noland's Cylinder Head Repair in 1946.

"My dad believed in buying the best equipment to do the job better and quicker," Noland said. "We saw a lot of machine shops that would not spend any money over the years, and we always kept buying something new.  We bought the first air-flow table around town, which allowed us to speed up our output and increase our business."

Noland, who said he began working at Noland's Cylinder Head Repair full time in 1970, recently purchased a Serdi 4.0 Power seat and guide machine. The new machine is an upgrade from the Serdi 60 series, which he had used, he said. The Serdi 4.0 Power is more rigid and capable of going down to a 4 mm pilot (about the size of a pencil head), which helps for motorcycle head work, he said.

"These pilots are made out of carbon and cost about $125 a piece, and they don't bend," Noland said. "It will just break if you push it too far.  This machine is set up a different way so that it can handle a smaller pilot without breaking it, and it is set up on a floating head table."

 
The new machine has not only helped with smaller motorcycle heads, but also for work on larger diesel heads, which account for 50 percent of his total sales, Noland said.

"Big diesel work has really taken off, and we can put the big 24-valve Caterpillar heads on the same machine as the motorcycle heads," he said. "It can really do heads from one extreme to the other."

Noland said the purchase of a new Rottler SF8A surface grinder two years ago also helped increase productivity.

  
"The Rottler surface grinder really made it a lot easier to work on these big heads," he said. "It is much faster and does a much better surface finish, whereas the old surface grinder was just too slow."

To keep up with changes in the cylinder head industry, Noland said he also purchased a profilometer, a tool that has become vital to his operation.

"When they changed the gaskets on the aluminum heads, it required a much smoother surface finish," he said. "We bought a profilometer, a device that measures the roughness of the cylinder head. I was sticking it on some of these heads and I was in shock--some of the heads were over 200 roughness average and they were supposed to be around 20 roughness average."

Noland said a cylinder head sometimes can appear to be smooth, but without actually testing it with the profilometer, one can't really be sure. "If it is too rough, the head digs into the gasket, and down the road maybe 10,000 miles the gasket fails and the customer is going to be wondering why," he said. "We went to a head gasket seminar a while back and the instructor asked how many of us knew what a profilometer was--a lot of people raised their hands. When he asked how many people used a profilometer, I was the only one that raised my hand out of 25 other guys in the room." 

 
Noland said the unwillingness of shop owners to purchase necessary tools and upgrade their equipment can largely be attributed to the decline of machine shops.

"We were always kind of the first ones to buy the new equipment," he said. "But a lot of other shops weren't buying any new equipment--consequently they are not here anymore. We are only one of two machine shops downtown now, and the other one is only a one-man shop."

Noland said his staff includes six machinists, one welder, and one office manager.  He said the office manager is his wife, Judy, and two of the machinists are also family, including his brother and co-owner Mike Noland and son Brad Noland, the third generation to be a part of Noland's Cylinder Head Repair. 

  
Noland said he keeps his crew busy, primarily with a customer base of local automotive repair shops and dealerships. He said the shop works on both aluminum and cast-iron heads and repairs cracked heads through welding and the lock-and-stitch method, which is used on the big diesel heads and smaller four-cylinder heads as well. He added that occasionally, they also work on exotic cylinder heads including those from Ferraris, Porsches, Jaguars, and Lamborghinis.

"We are fortunate to stay busy year round," Noland said. "We have a good reputation, and my guys live up to my reputation-- they watch out for it." 

  
Noland said he also takes advantage of his membership in the Automotive Engine Rebuilders Association (AERA) and uses industry trade magazines to keep his customers informed and provide them with the best finished products.

"AERA sends us bulletins once a month that tell us any technical problems that may be happening with cylinder heads," he said. "It gives us an edge to try to make sure that we don't hand a customer back a head that has a problem. We want to make sure we corrected the problem--make sure the job is done right."

The membership also offers assistance through a Web site and a network of individuals who may be called on for cylinder head help, Noland said. 

 
"We also read a lot of magazines like Engine Builder, Precision, and Rebuilder," he said. "We try to keep up with all the latest information for our customer. If he's not aware of changes, we can clue him in and tell him things like you need to use this type of gasket or replace these head bolts. We always make sure we get the job done right when it goes out the door. It makes the customer happy and keeps the customer coming back."