In a sense, every engine has a blueprint specification to go by, but this is an imperfect world and not every component that falls of the end of the assembly line meets the engineers’ exact specifications. That is why there are tolerances and some tolerances are more critical than others. The “art” is to know if the specifications should be corrected, on the high side or on the low side to get total performance. On production lines, the drill bits and machine tools become dull, grinding stones wear out, gauges and torque wrenches become out of calibration, lathes run untrue and mills flex. As complex as an internal combustion Caterpillar® Diesel engine is all these inaccuracies add up. The difference between good running horsepower engines with fuel economy and longevity is the talent for holding tight specifications. That is the exact difference of buying an engine from a production factory versus buying a custom built engine from Great Lakes Diesel.

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