On this episode of Rottler Featured Series, join us at Stanfield Racing Engines, a Louisiana based, family-owned engine building business.

We talk to Aaron Stanfield, the rising Pro-Stock star, carrying on a three-generation legacy of engine building and drag racing wins.

As a high-performance engine shop, Stanfield Racing Engines knows that precision machining is key to engines that win races. Aaron credits their Rottler EM69HP high performance engine machining center as being a big part of that.

“We used to port heads by hand,” he said. “The first race we ran with heads ported on the Rottler, we won.”

Now they do everything from porting and basic machining to building custom parts with the EM69.

“A lot of building winning engines is the ability to imagine what you want and then be able to do it,” Aaron said. “Having the [Rottler EM69] machine, and the support that comes with it, gives us the means to control our proprietary information and our own destiny.”

With more than 50 race wins under their belt, and dozens more through their customer’s race cars, Standfield’s destiny seems to be well in hand.

“When a racer pulls up to another car on the track and sees that Stanfield logo on the side of the car, they know they have competition,” Aaron said.

Here at Rottler, we’re proud to know that our equipment played a part in that.

On this episode of Rottler Featured Series we head out to Phoenix, Arizona to see Robert Tanquery and his shop, RNR Custom Engines.

RNR is a custom engine machine shop that rebuilds everything from Cummins diesels to Chevy LS engines, as well as all manners of classics like Pontiacs, AMCs, and even the rare Mercedes gullwing.

Their extensive tooling and machine line-up allows them to take on engine rebuilds that no one else can, which Tanquery says is a blessing and a curse (the good kind).

Talking about his suite of Rottler equipment in his shop – an F69ATC (now the EM69ATC), the H85AX hone, SG9 seat & guide machine, and an S86A surfacer, he admits to being “flabbergasted” at how much business they bring.

Even vintage car collector and racer, Craig Jackson, brings his cars to RNR. That includes the 1967 Mustang that used to be Caroll Shelby’s daily driver, Tanquery told us.

“Having these Rottlers on the floor gave us quadruple the work,” he said. “Once word got out, people were bringing us everything. We couldn’t do it without (Rottler).”

For us here at Rottler, we couldn’t be more pleased to be part of RNR Custom Engine’s success. Check out the video!

For episode 35 of the Rottler Featured Series, we’re in Groton, Connecticut to see Gary Espinoza, owner of the legendary machine shop Larry’s Auto Machine where they offer all levels of engine building, from mild to 1150HP blown pump gas hemi.

Gary got into the business in 1988 and he’s never just wanted to build engines, he wants to build engines that win races. Not surprisingly, is engines have done that over 1,700 times. It doesn’t matter what the race application is either — circle track, drag, boat, you name it — and there’s a vehicle power by a Larry’s Auto Machine-built engine winning it.

One of the interesting things about Gary and crew is that these guys for the most part learned their trade hands-on. None of them had any experience in operating a CNC machine. So, when they got their first Rottler machine (an F68A) and found that it, like them, works in inches and has touch screen controls that even a novice can use, they knew they’d made a great choice.

These days the shop floor at Larry’s looks a lot like a Rottler show floor. In addition to the F68 multi-purpose CNC (now upgraded to F69 capabilities), they’ve also got an H85A automatic hone, an S85 surfacer, an SG9HP seat & guide machine, and an EM69HP engine machining center for those seriously high horsepower applications.

Gary’s guys will tell you that their suite of Rottler machines give them the kind of power and productivity you can’t get anywhere else. Machinist Anthony Franco told us there are days where he’s “honing, decking, porting, boring, and doing a valve job all at the same time” thanks to Rottler’s “set it and let it run” automation.

Ultimately, what sets an engine built by Larry’s Auto Machine apart from others is their ability to find engineering advantages in small places and be able to leverage them into big performance gains. “In truth,” Garys says “this business would not be as successful as it is without Rottler.”

We couldn’t be prouder to call Larry’s Auto Machine a customer and partner. Check out the video!

This week on the Rottler Featured Series we’re in Guildford, Indiana to see our old friend Tony Bischoff at BES Racing Engines.

Tony has been in the engine building business for almost 40 years and won the Engine Masters Challenge 5 or 6 times (so many that he’s not quite sure).

The secret to his success? Being a Rottler customer for over two decades. In Tony’s shop he runs an EM69 engine machining center, an F69 automatic machining center, and multiple H85AX hones.

Tony and the crew at BES credit their ability to build better engines faster to their use of Rottler machines — so much so that pretty much every engine they build goes through a Rottler machine!

We’re proud to be an important part of BES’ success. Watch the video!

For episode 19 of the Rottler Featured Series, we’re in Piney Flats, Tennessee, home of Straub Technologies.

There we catch up with Chris Straub & company to see how he and his people use their suite of Rottler Machinery (they have one of every machine we make!) to keep the business running even when the lights are off.

Chris and his four guys leverage Rottler’s automation features—set it and forget it—to do the work of 12 people.

The machines you’ll see in the video include:

• F69 – Programmable Automatic Machining Center
• EM69HP – CNC Machining Center
• SG9MTS – Seat & Guide Machine
• H85AXY – Automatic Vertical Honing Machine

The Rottler EM69HP is Rottler’s flagship 5-axis machining center. Building on the strong foundation from previous generation porting and block work machines, the EM69HP now incorporates Rottler’s next generation 4C control as well as a newly designed 20,000RPM spindle. This allows the Rottler EM69HP to create race-winning ports faster and with a better finish than the competition.

music credit: https://musicforvideo.net/

Our first attempt at a live stream was unfortunately cut short due to technical difficulties with WiFi connectivity. We greatly appreciate everyone who tuned in and sincerely apologize for not being able to fully share the experience live with all of you. We have learned a tremendous amount during this process and look forward to bringing you live content in the very near future!

This video is the un-edited demonstration that we intended to perform during the live session, where we walkthrough the workflow for using the Rottler EM69HP with Fusion 360 to manufacture custom parts. We hope you enjoy this video and appreciate all your support and interest in what we do!

Video Summary:

00:00 – 02:16 – Intro, Machine discussion, Applications
02:16 – 06:47 – Fusion 360, G-Code File Transfer, Post Processing
06:47 – 14:03 – Rottler 4C interface, Operation Setup, Probing
14:03 – 19:56 – Part Machining, Tips/Tricks Discussion
19:56 – 21:41 – Finished Product, Overview, Final Thoughts

Click for more information about the Rottler EM69HP Engine Machining Center

A short video featuring the Rottler EM69P changing its tooling automatically.