Quote:
Originally Posted by Great Asp
In and after High Skewl (74-75) we raced FE's in a 55 Ford. Anyone ever put a rear crankshaft rope seal in? Seems like NASA designed it to me 
The parts today are SO much better (Machining too) than when I built my own motors.
Where is the OP?
I can't be the only one holding and ready to throw the BS flag.
E |
The OP is right here reading all judgements, opinions, comments with great interest and enjoyment. Don't throw the BS flag yet because you might get some on you as it is now pretty clear that many others have had EXACTLY the same experience that I have had with SA.
To clarify my experience, I am happy to let you know that my first 427 SA motor was installed by Unique Motorcars - I think they are reasonably qualified! When the car arrived I had AutoStrada, a vintage race car builder and restorer manage the start-up. We could not get the motor to start and Bill was absolutely no help. All we heard was "This motor was run for three hours" over and over again. We finally spun the distributor nearly 180 degrees and replaced all electronics and it finally started.(Remember, "It was run for three hours") It ran poorly but we had
oil pressure and we took it around the block.
Oil pressure dropped and we immediately ran her home where we found the
oil full of coolant. Bill to this day has not explained what went wrong. (Although he bragged to AutoStrada during the second failure "That this had not happened in 900 motors and my first failed motor was already resold to a guy that has put 1200 miles on it in his ERA cobra" - This was a great thing to hear when I am losing my second summer in a row due to engine challenges!)
Bill offered to replace this first failed motor (originally installed in a painted and finished car before the body went on I might add ) and 4 weeks later we received the "replacement". This motor had not even been run. Oil was new, no carbon in the exhaust, absolutely no fuel in the carb. The fuel lines were used and the fittings stripped. The turkey pan was modified with a saw of some kind and was absolutely carved up and still had burrs and "sharpey" pen marks everywhere. The Canton oil pan was scatched and chewed up like the motor had been slid across the shop floor and the oil pan drain plug was stripped by tightening with pliers or a vise grip. There were missmatched fasteners everywhere. In fact, completely different fasteners were used on the second motor. This replacement motor arrived incomplete and was in such poor condition and was so poorly built that we stripped it to find undamaged parts from the two motors to try to create one that looked something like a $14,000.00 motor. AutoStrada commented, "If SA went to the time and effort to replace the first motor why did they send such junk?" This motor started and we ran it for a couple of hours realizing that it just did not run right and it leaked oil like crazy. We decided to dyno at Meridian Performance in Bellingham and loaded the car into the trailer. These guy's were great. We were doing our first run -up on the dyno when the rocker assembly came apart. We opened up both valve covers and the rockers were not even finger tight. A used bolt had broken and come apart holding the rocker assembly and had thrashed around. This day ended fast. I had Meridian fix leaks (over one inch gap in the gasket material) and replace broken hardware. Since the first headers were custom made for the first motor we did some more custom fitting, retuning and found parts (springs) missing in the "new" Holley carb. I did not get one call from Bill - not one. We all got lucky here as there was no major damage. I sent Bill an invoice and got a nasty letter and a partial payment - broken bolt and push rods ONLY. So I lost my second summer with the car. Zero professionalism or pride in workmanship was experienced with SA whatsoever!
Thank you to those of you who have shared similar experiences. It helps to know that this is a reasonably common SA experience and that I did not just get ripped off because I am on the other side of the country. To those of you who are quick to wave the BS flag feel free to contact me directly and I can back up every comment with letters, photographs and conversations with the two pro shops that salvaged my experience for me. If this is still not enough for you, since I must be a "first poster" a "troll" or a "BS'r", feel free to do business with SA and best of luck! I know I for one work too hard for my money to line the pockets of opportunists and BS'rs who talk a great product, take your money in advance and then ship you junk.