That's why Jackson said he is selective in the type of machine work he conducts and the type of customers he does business with in his longtime machine shop.

"I try to give the customers what they want at a fair price," he said, adding that he does piecework for a combination of passenger applications, which include OE replacement, plus vintage, racing, and performance engine parts.

Occasionally, Jackson said he may not feel right about what a customer wants done.  In that case, he said he will turn the work down.

"I'm not going to do the work if I can't make money," he said.  "One of the hardest things in business is to say no to someone."

Typically, Jackson said he conducts head surfacing, valve jobs, boring, guides and seats, block work, rod work, and crank work for dealerships, repair shops, and racing enthusiasts.

"Labor and work is guaranteed, not parts," Jackson said, adding that when parts fail, it's usually driver abuse.

The only work that Jackson said he farms out is balancing, which he sublets to Mike Gobel, owner of Mike's Balancing in Eaton.

"I push balancing on everything I build," he said.  "It's cheap insurance.  The new parts may not weigh exactly what the old ones did, which may cause vibration.  It's the same as a tire; you don't put them on without balancing them."

When asked about the flood of automakers selling OE replacement or performance crate engines, Jackson said there is little room for modification.

"With a crate engine, you get what they give you," he said.  "With custom engines you get what you want."

A lot of engines with manufacturer failures end up in his shop, Jackson said.  "The biggest right now is with imports, a lot of Subarus."  That work is mostly on the 2.5-l engine on late-model Subarus, he said, adding that the head gasket usually goes on those at 5 years old.

"Usually, water ends up in the combustion chamber," he said.  "This causes the check-engine light to come on."  The fix includes milling 3 thousandths off the cylinder head, he said.

Jackson said most of the shop's parts purchases are from Egge Machine of Santa Fe Springs, Calif., for new old stock (NOS) antique parts, and Engine & Performance Warehouse Inc.'s (EPWI) Denver warehouse for performance and OE replacement parts.  Preferred brands include Fel-Pro, Seal Power, Celvite, SPI, Melling, ARP, and Comp Cam, he said.