I have been a member of the forum for about 8 years now and read almost daily and post almost never. I have been purchasing engines from Eric at Performance Engineering for about 6 years now, usually about 2 a year. I have been performing engine installations in Backdraft & Superformance replicas for about 8 years now. I do it on the side not as a full time job and only complete a couple a year.
I have had the exact opposite experience with Eric at Performance Engineering. I have had nothing but great customer service and engines that perform flawlessly with not even a leak and continue to perform flawlessly except for one. I recently about 3 months ago had an engine with about 200 miles on it lose all
oil pressure. After installing the engine I delivered the car to a fellow in Kansas which enjoyed his Backdraft only briefly before this issue. Initially we assumed it was an indication error due to the occasional failure of the electronic sending units and the fact that the engine ran and sounded fine with no ticking. Turned out the engine actually had no
oil pressure. I returned to Kansas from Texas to pick up the Backdraft and pulled the engine and personally delivered it to Performance Engineering in Ohio. We removed the
oil pan while I was there and found that the cast housing on the Melling oil pump had split in two at the base where it attaches to the block. There was no installation error of any kind and this was not Performance Engineerings fault. Although they did warranty the engine and they did stand behind their product with no questions asked. Eric built and shipped me a new dyno tuned and tested engine, with new block and all since the engine had been ran for some time before the zero oil pressure issue was noticed therefore scraping out many of the components. The new engine also came with a new warranty. I redelivered the Backdraft to its owner and there has been no issues what so ever since and if there was I feel confident the Eric at PE would stand behind his product as he did before.
I have also used Roush Engines and Several others. I have had a distributer failure and water pump leak in two separate Roush engines and both of those issues were resolved by Roush so no complaints there either as I hear complaints from others about Roush all the time. I could purchase and recommend engines built by anyone and I feel personally obligated to resolve or ensure resolution of any issues if I am the one who installed and recommended the engine. So if I felt in any way Performance Engineering was not going to stand behind their product I would certainly not continue to use them. I currently have a 393 windsor being built by Eric at PE right now and have plans to continue doing business with them. Personally I only use standard 4 barrel carburetors on my installs due to the known temperamental issues of some of the other configurations. I tend to be a perfectionist and if I feel I personally can’t get it right I won't perform the installation and will refer you to someone that will. When the engine is installed into the vehicle it will have different exhaust configuration (usually more restrictive which could richen the mixture) and possibly a different ignition box then used on the dyno so sometimes things change a little. To dial things in perfectly some adjustments, usually small, are sometimes needed after the engine is installed in the vehicle.
Bottom line is that most major engine builders build thousands of engines over the years and have issues weather major or minor with a small percentage of these engines. Most of these issues are resolved and then a very small percent that may not be resolved to the customers liking and these are usually the only engines you are going to hear about. Not saying this is right, as in a perfect world all issues should be resolved and everyone would be happy or we would have no issues in the first place. Performance Engineering has been around since 1984 so I would think they are doing something right and taking care of their customers. They certainly have for me. I figured I would tell me story since usually all you hear is the negative.
Gun Doc I sincerly wish you the best and hope you get things resolved. I really wish I could give some assistance to your problems but it looks like you no longer live in Texas and I personally don’t have any knowledge about Webers. Feel free to contact me though
matthew@flpcars.com if still in the area.
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