An illustration of this is a recent customer of
ours that built his own engine (his first) using one of our small
block Ford stroker kits. With only a few miles on the engine, he
experienced a spun bearing. He decided that this failure was due to
bad bearings. We suggested that the failure could have been due to
inadequate pre-oiling prior to initial engine start up and requested
that he send us the bearings for inspection, and also his oil pump
primer, so that we could "check it". His response: "What's an oil
pump primer?"
You may wonder why someone with minimal engine
building experience would attempt to build a high performance
engine, particularly, as a first attempt. You might think that the
he would hunt up an expert in the engine building field.
Here again, we are finding that many of the so
called experts, are not. They may think they are. They may even
advertise that they are. But racers need to be careful. Many of
these "engine builders" must have learned their craft working during
high school summer vacation at Acme's Rebuilt Engines. These usually
are not engine builders as much as engine assemblers. This, of
course, is a major difference. An engine assembler may know where
all the parts are supposed to go, but actually fitting them under
close tolerances (blueprinting) may not be his bag. Clearances? What
are those?
And then there are machine shops. It used to be
that machine shops did the usual boring, milling and cylinder block
preparation. Now it seems that many machine shops are pushing their
own engine building capabilities. But, just because someone can
operate a boring machine doesn't necessarily qualify him as an
engine builder.
So, where is this all going? If you are an
experienced or professional engine builder, none of this is directed
toward you, and in fact, you have probably dealt with these issues
before. You have probably quoted engine builds for inexperienced
customers and had them stagger out to the local Chevron station to
get their engine built (assembled). Hey, you get what you pay for,
right?
Which brings us to the subject of money. Most of
the time, looking for the lowest price for performance parts or an
engine building service, may cost the most in the long run. Smart
customers try to gauge the true cost of parts or service against the
number of runs that he can expect before failure (if it's a race
car) or the number of trouble free miles that he could get if it's a
high performance street car.
If, after 5,000 miles of hard street driving, all
the parts are laying in the oil pan, has the customer really saved
any money by going with an "engine assembler" over an "engine
builder"? The question is not how much money can be saved by going
with the low bidder? The question is how much more will it cost to
do something over again in order to get it right?
David Reher, owner of the famed Reher-Morrison
Pro Stock team and a well respected engine builder offered this
advice recently. He said; "When I hire a CPA to prepare my business
tax returns, I rely on their expertise in areas that I know little
about. I wouldn't hire the cheapest CPA to represent me at an IRS
hearing. I'd look for the most qualified person to do the job
right."
It all comes down to this: If you have limited
experience building engines and this is going to be your first high
horsepower engine, go with a reputable (and real) engine builder.
These professionals will do it right the first time and I can
guarantee that you will actually save money in the long run.
