Planning out and piecing together an engine rebuild on your high mileage project can be a stressful task. Did you forget any gaskets or seals? What about rod bearings, is under sizing necessary? Do the cylinders need to be machined?

Needless to say sometimes components get forgotten or overlooked by the DIY enthusiast during inspection, and more often than not you won’t find out you need it until it’s too late. To help solve this problem, Summit Racing sells a variety of engine rebuild kits for Ford, GM and Mopar platforms.Engine rebuild kits were introduced to prevent components from being forgotten and to reduce the stress placed on the consumer, but even those kits can become confusing depending on the application you’re rebuilding. With so many individual components and engine designs that can vary from year to year, it can be difficult for the average enthusiast to know exactly what they need to inspect and to decide on what they do and don’t need in an engine rebuild kit. Summit created the video above to give enthusiasts a better idea of what the most common problems areas are on high mileage engines and how to decide which rebuild kit is right for you.

Almost all of the rebuild kits offered by Summit include the most common wear and one-time-use items such as, upgraded gaskets/seals, engine bearings, fasteners, freeze plugs, and piston rings. and others might include bigger ticket items like aftermarket pistons to increase the compression ratio, an oil pump, or even camshafts and valvetrain components if it’s a performance upgrade kit.