Tools
Tools. There are so much of them, you can spend a fortune a still don't have everything you need. I could easily fill up a whole web site with information about tools. I try to develop this page from time to time. It might never be finished, so pls be patient. General rule of thumb. If you ever buy a tool, spend a bit more money and get them from quality brands. Believe me, it will be cheaper on the long run. I gonna mention some brands, but you won't find these in the States. Go to talk people and you will get the picture very soon.
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The starting point is a good set of wrenches. Both traditional a metric. I prefer the ones, which has an open end wrench on one side and a box wrench on the other. Six point could give you the best grip, but I like the 12-points because it allows much more positions.
I found Tonas the best bang for the buck here. I got my ratchets, sockets, deep sockets and extensions from them too. I prefer the 3/8" sets, they cover most of my needs. You can get some special extensions, like Allen-head and Torx drivers, or even standard and Phillips bits, O2 wrench to expand the versatility of your set.
You will need a few basic things like a set of pliers, hammers and screw drivers to be able to start to work. Also you are not a real SyTyer if you don't have a good 16mm spark plug wrench.
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The next step is to buy some torque wrenches. Typically you can't cover all the required torque values with one wrench. Because of this I got two, a 3/8" from 20-150 Nm and a 1/4" from 4-20 Nm. That make me happy so far.
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An other mechanical tool which you gonna find vital. Distributor wrench. It's next to impossible to loosen your distributor bolt and adjust you timing without this one.
Of course if you wanna set timing you will need a timing light too. Get an adjustable one. With a piston stop you can complete you timing tool set.
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I found the need of a vacuum pump very early, so I bought a MityVac. The only real player on this field AFAIK. You can check a ton of things with it, including basic engine and turbo charger functions.
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With my new propshaft I had to buy a grease pump.
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Also a digital multi meter is must. It should be able to measure current, resistance and voltage as a minimum. Temperature and capacity could be a useful addition.
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A compression tester and a leak down tester could save some hard nights for every gear heads out there.
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If you ever plan to play with cylinder heads or plan to do some valvetrain refreshment jobs, you will need a valve spring compressor. I got mine from Summit (#SUM-906784).
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Do you want to pull you steering wheel. You will need a steering wheel puller. The list is endless, but I try to add new things to it continuously.
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If you ever need to pull your power steering pulley, for example to remove your headers or heads, you will need a pulley puller.
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I had some fueling issues in the past, so I bought an injector tester. Could be a usefull tool if you combine it with an FP gauge.
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I just plan to buy a good compressor with a few extensions, that will be my next addition.
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