50 Best Tips & Tricks

One definition of a hot rodder is someone who is always looking for a more efficient way to accomplish a task. Since hot rodders are inveterate tinkerers, they are also the best source for tech tips. A few months back, Valvoline sponsored a tech-tip contest that flooded Hot Rod and our sister publications Circle Track and Car Craft with hundreds of tech tips and high-performance hints. We waded through the avalanche of how-tos and came up with 50 of the best ones to share with the rest of Hot Rod’s tech-hungry readers. We’ve included the name and hometown of the author of the tip to give credit where it’s due. We’ve also added a few of our own tips to the list.

Many of the tips were submitted by more than one reader. Since we have limited space, we chose just one name for each, so if you see someone else’s name next to your idea, don’t be offended. In addition, you may have seen some of these tips before, but we felt that they were worth repeating—especially for new readers. Either way, there’s some helpful information here just waiting to be put to good use.

We've segregated them into general topics, which you'll find listed in the sidebars below.