Who is the best FE engine builder?

[Barry_R]

I'll try to get into this without it being too "self serving".

First is that there is no "best" FE engine builder. There are several good ones, each having an advantage in one aspect or another based on history, geography, and experience. Several have already been mentioned and there are several others. There are also some folks to avoid - but you'll need to research that on your own - I am not bashing anybody here even if they deserve it. Each builder has a competitive advantage that gives them an edge in one aspect or another. Only you can make the decision based on a number of parameters, weighing which ones are important to you.

Lets get price out of the way first. All the builders purchase the parts from a fairly short list of suppliers. The costs for products and services are going to be reasonably similar - some of us get a better deal, some not as much, but nobody has a truly huge advantage. If you see a smoking deal the odds are high that something is not being disclosed. I prefer a certain group of parts that may not be the same as somebody else likes - ask your builder WHY they choose one or the other.

Credibility has to go beyond a keyboard. Each builder should be doing something in a public vehue that proves their relative merit. Or it becomes a simple price competition. As an example George does the road race thing every year, Keith has a bunch of drag racing records, I do the Engine Masters thing. These are a way to document skills, capabilities and effort. There are some ebay guys that you'll never see in any venue where their actual work can be compared to their peers - - you should question why.

Now onto parts quality. I like certain items for a reason. So do the other guys. My personal experience is in 20+ years of parts manufacturing, so I put a pretty high value on the quality/value relationship of products I prefer to use based on that. Somebody else might put a greater emphasis on providing the lowest cost product. Yet another might emphasize faster delivery. And another builder will specify only the highest end race proven parts. There is no single right answer.

Delivery is both time dependent and geography dependent. If you want to be physically present during the process the geography is important - example is my being in the Great Lakes region while Lucas is in California. Trucks and shipping take care of geography for other folks. Timeline can be an issue for some projects. There can be a pretty long lead on some FE parts - availability can be a challenge. My shop tends to run on the long side - wish we were faster but we are not - our process times are kinda long because we spend a lot of time "rubbing" on stuff before moving to the next step.

Service - a warranty really is not worth the paper (monitor) its written on unless the shop owner backs it up. These are complex builds and stuff does happen despite the best of efforts. We truly try to take care of issues that arise. Others do teh same. Research...