info on southern automotive

[Bugman]

I have one of their Super FE 452's and love it! Great people to deal with. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to my grandmother or anybody else!

[Gatorac]

I have a SA 408 in my BDR. It's got 8k miles on it now. When it was delivered, it had an oil leak.

They answered my calls promptly and even gave me Bill's cell phone number to work through the issue and get the car on the road in time for an event I was planning on. It still leaked but not bad enough to stop me from going. Then on the drive to the hotel the distributor failed. Came apart inside. I was fortunate enough to find someone that had an SA motor sitting in his shop and he gave me the distributor to use. SA sent him a new one.

I took the car to SA to have them fix the oil leak and the graciously took care of it.

The engine had a small water leak coming from the water pump. The valve cover gaskets gave me problems. That seems to have been taken care of now. There was a stripped oil pan bolt.

My engine now has over 13k miles on it. After the initial issues, it has been flawless. Great power, very streetable and runs like a dream.

JMHO

[Dinobyte]

I have been sitting on the sidelines watching this...but feel I have to comment.

I have not had a great experience with their products. That is not to say they are not nice people, let's keep that separate.

My first motor was a 427FE Top Oiler, not stroked, vintage 1963 block...just the standard fare 427.

The engine leaked oil almost from day one. Okay, FE...I get it.

After 1200 miles, one of the heads, an Edelbrock RPM which had been CNC machined by SA blew through the water jacket and splashed the cylinder wall. They replaced the head, Great..thank you...however the damage not seen was that it ruined the rings, and created a oil nightmare. Oil basically was being pushed out of every crevice possible, and created a mess in my brand new engine bay.

After multiple back and forth emails/calls, Bill replaced the motor. To make up for the issue, Bill threw in a 428 crank...Terrific I thought.

About 700 miles later (engine), we are now at roughly 2400 TOTAL miles on the car, I start hearing a knocking sound....knock knock knock...which only gets worse as the RPM's increase...crap...

We pull the engine, and find the #3 rod journal has gone bad, and the crank cannot be repaired.

Trying to salvage something...we keep the block, but purchase a new crank, rods, pistons, oil pump. After we assemble the motor, put it on the dyno and do ONE PULL...the block basically comes apart at 4800 RPM. Now I am not sure SA did any sort of Sonic Testing...does not matter at this point, as I purchased a brand new Genesis Side Oiler block.

Bottom Line is...I would not recommend SA. Go with Keith Craft, Tom Lucas at FE Specialites, Dennis at Valley Ford Specialist in La Canada, or any other motor builder. I guess if you are local to SA, go for it...but don't cry wolf when you have to take the motor back to them to have it rebuilt or refreshed every 1000 miles or so.