I for one would be scared to death to send out any enigne without comlete dyno and dye test. We did not have to worry to much about a few
oil leaks with the race engines we did as long as they ran good and won, but when you are dealing with Cobra and Performance street car owners it is a very important issue. We have very few problems with the performance or durabiltiy of our engines. One of our biggest concerns with these aluminum engines has been getting the
oil leaks sealed as well as water leaks.
This is the main reason we dyno test the engines to check for all kinds of leaks and any parts that may be a problem that we can check any other way.
We take no ones word about a block new or used and pressure test all of them. I gotten Genesis, Pond, Shelby, Ford Racing and about all other makes that have had a porosity problem. Matter of fact we have more problems with blocks than about any other part of the engine and most of them are new. We take nothing for granted and try to check all of the parts we use.
We can not charge NASCAR prices and I can not pay my guys what most all of you make by no means but we try to do the best engine for the money. Price is a concern for everyone but you normally get what you paid for and pay for what you get. Even when an engine leave our shop I worry about the things that can be done to it during the install and have fixed some that I know where screwed up during the install. If we have any problems with an engine we loose money because we are working on such a tight margin anymore.
We send a lot of engines out of the country because of our reputation and quality and we sure can not afford to ship them back and forth because of a problem. We break the engine in on the dyno, then check all of the bolts again, check the valves, look for any leaks that need to be fixed and inspect the filter before we start to makes pulls on the engine to tune it. We then tune the engine for max power and correct air fuel ratio on the dyno. With all of this deal the customer may still have to do some fine tunign due to their location, air cleaner used if we do not have it, headers and side pipes used. We even send a letter along with everything to look at and check. Have a large paper attached to the engine telling the customer to check the timing when installed because the MSD boxes vary sometimes. Customer called recently and his engine was not running as good as he thought it should. I told him about this and he was sure the shop had checked it that installed the engine. Guees what, they had not checked it and he put about 2000 miles on the engine with 50 degrees timing. I told him that I had hoped he had not hurt the engine. He even had it on a chassi dyno running it full blast and tuning on it but they did not check the timing.
We try to read the customer's mind about what he knows and does not know because I have been doing this a long time and have seen alot of stuff done to engines. Communication is very important to making sure that you have a happy customer when he gets his engine or complete car. This is an investment and somethng that most people have been saving and planning on for a while. My guys and I understand that and try to treat each engine like it was ours and do it the way we would want ours done.
These are just things to think about when getting an enigne and what we try to do to make it a happy occasion. The parts are made by humans and built by humans so you need a lot of check points and final dyno check point. Even the Shuttle has a problem every now and then. I do feel that the parts and technology have out grown some of the older companies that do not change with it. Good luck to all, Keith Craft
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