When it pays to "NOT" do-it-yourself: FE Specialties

[decooney]

Have you ever been so busy and tied up with work, family, life stuff and a bunch of other things to the point where you just cannot get to drive or do the right maintenance on your Cobra and it just sits until you can - sound familiar?

Like many do-it-yourself'ers, I really don't like anyone working on my car and have always built and done most everything I could on my own. I built the car.

The FE in my Cobra had what I originally thought was a rear main seal leak and needed regular maintenance checks, possibly a valve adjustment, and some TLC. Tom at FE Spec originally built the motor for me so I finally caved in and made the call to buddy Tom@FE.

Ringgggg. "Hello, FE Specialites"..."Yo Tom, Hey, It's been a while, I give in, I'm gonna have to treat myself for once and turn the car over, and let someone else do the work. Can you do your magic? ."Sure, bring it down, let me have it for a week, we'll start on it, and we'll go through it but you gotta leave it for a bit. Okay. I hung up still feeling guilty I just needed to do it myself. Ugh, no!

WHEN SPECIALTY SKILLS & QUALITY of SERVICE PAYS OFF!
So I go in for an oil leak look-see. At check-in time we talk. I give the go-ahead. One week later the car comes out with extra horsepower, added torque, and new drivability where I needed it most - in the rpm range I normally drive the car most of the time. While it was there Tom fixes the intake leak, adjusts the valves, fixes my year old updated seemingly non-advancing distributor, new plugs, sees an opportunity and re-degrees the cam, timing cover/water pump got resealed, repainted. So Tom's talented son completely cleans and details under the car, and repaints all the R&R better than I would have done on a weekend rush. When I pick it up, I drive the car home, notice it feels tighter. Hmmm. I call Tom later...okay, so "what did you do?". "Oh, since we had it up on the rack, we went ahead and greased every fitting on every part of the chassis and suspension too"". Part of our new business model with added focus on extra quality service and care. Took Care of that Too. Not a scratch, Terri Cloth towels used all over the front end to protect the paint. Wow, so nice to go pick up your car and find surprises like this. Finding+Fixing+Blueprinting comes to mind on this one. Added scary bonus is the car blew the tires off in 4th gear rolling on once at 1/2 throttle on the way home. Ahhhh, it never did this before. Sounds even more *****in' now too

Big Thanks to Tom & son @ FE Specialties. Yeah, I'm bragging on ya. What a treat to get this done. So worth it!

[Ron61]

I have talked to Tom in the past and he was always more than friendly and helpful. If I were to have another engine built I would have him do it.

Ron

[xb-60]

Great story. Thanks for sharing it. I wish more publicize it when they find consistently good service from a workshop.

Cheers!
Glen

[patrickt]

So you take your car in for an oil drip and he takes it upon himself to re-degree your camshaft?

[decooney]

Originally Posted by xb-60

Great story. Thanks for sharing it. I wish more publicize it when they find consistently good service from a workshop.

Cheers!
Glen

Agree. And I usually don't. In this case, I did. It's hard enough to run a small business like this and stay in business in California. He could easily go make more $ doing something else but enjoys helping customers. His son is truly pleasant too, hands-on, dedicated and not inside staring at an iPhone or Gaming toy. Blue Collar old school hard working kid, not entitled and he "cares" about good work. I only wish my Dad had been around long enough to teach me his ways. Cool Dad!

Originally Posted by patrickt

So you take your car in for an oil drip and he takes it upon himself to re-degree your camshaft?

Nah. It's more positive. I left a checkpoint call out of the story to try and keep it shorter. Tom called, asked, explained.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by decooney

Nah. I left a checkpoint call out to keep it shorter. Tom called, asked, explained.

OK, so was the cam originally installed incorrectly or did it change its position? Was he the one that originally degreed it in?

[decooney]

Originally Posted by patrickt

OK, so was the cam originally installed incorrectly or did it change its position? Was he the one that originally degreed it in?

Nah. Again, It's more positive, and not gonna find a negative here by Tom. Was my decision, originally. I removed the original cam myself later on when Tom was out of the country, re-installed a new/different one wanting to try a different profile (a merge of 3 profiles) I created myself with Crower years later. That original timing set was set advanced +8, and I asked we set it straight up (at 0) to retard it this time to try it based on other recommendations Tom had for me. He wanted +2 but I had a fixed -8/0/+8 timing set in there (i originally bought), was still good, and continued with it. All good. Pleasantly surprised.

[patrickt]

Alright, I agree. That was good customer service. My first read was more like "well, while I'm putting a little RightStuff around the intake I'm just going to pop that timing chain right off there and shift his cam over three degrees...."

[Sawdust]

So nice when someone goes above and beyond! Congrats

[CJ428CJ]

I was at FE Specialties just before Thanksgiving picking up my new BBM block and heads. I saw your car while I was there. I don't think I've seen it since you repainted it. I know it's been awhile but you don't get out much anymore.

Chris

[Igofastr]

Tom built the motor in my GT40, and fixed a bunch of stuff that was done wrong in the 427SO in my cobra.

He knows what he's doing. As many of you probably know, it's getting harder to find people who really know FEs any more.

[rodneym]

He's been getting dirty with FE's since his first car, a Mustang that he still races.
He used to run with Wayne Torkelson and his SOHC drag car back in the day.
Probably why he stayed away from the new SOHC stuff a few years ago

[pgermond]

Duane,

I could not agree with you more. Your experience with Tom and FE Specialties is identical to mine. They do great work! When I picked mine up after an "extensive" refreshing of a poorly built FE earlier this year it was a totally different car. New found Torque and HP that had been hiding since I completed the car.

I love it!!!

[decooney]

Hey Guys.

Chris,
Hello! I saw your BBM short block built on the stand and took photos. Brought a buddy by to come back and see it while I was there for pickup. I did not realize that was yours. Very nice. Really like it. I wanna touch base with you after you get the new motor in the ERA. I was thinking... down the road I may sell my matching 428CJ/DK Bull Nose Nascar Toploader trans pair (together) to a future Shelby or Drag pack car owner looking to put an original car back together if the right person and situation comes along. It has more value in a proper restore situation - where it should be vs my ERA. I already mentioned to Tom about building me a BBM long block then. May take a few years for the right person to come along and I know that's where it truly belongs. Ron Bulter's son wanted it years ago for a former GT500 restore project, but I could not let it go then.I'd let it go to fund the BBM build and to get mine in the right car. Sorry I lost touch with all after the last year Cobra Bash. Those were the good times. Hope all is well. Glad you still have your car too.

RodneyM,
Cool. Was there a number of times when the twin Paxton FE motor build project was coming together. Glad that all worked out too, kinda wondered how that all went once you got in your car.


Ron,
Had no idea he did your motor in the GT40 or I just forgot, very Cool. Good to know. Was hoping you could bring it to the Toy Run. See ya soon, oh, that's two days from now.

Phil,
Glad to hear yours is still doing well since. Hope to see it again Saturday if you bring it to the Toy Run.

According to Tom, back in 2001-2002 my engine was the very first FE Cobra motor he did in a car like ours. The block was from Tom's personal block stash, he was saving it for himself. Had extra thick cylinder walls, stashed away. We finally agreed we'd do the motor and I'd put it in my next Cobra. Boy, It was fun to hear the engine stand the first time with the original cam, that was nuts. Wackaa, Wackaa... Once I got it in the car, kinda felt it was a too much for the street and 15" radials but I gave it a go for a while. Made a 2nd cam change later to calm it down some, and that was my doing. Tom could tuned it down but I was a happy wannabe cam designer on a computer back then...hahaha. Funny thing is, David Crower still uses my specs as one of his "Cobra Cams". It was a merge of three cam profiles for three different left coast race tracks in one cam validated by software and averaging of three former cams used. I use to spend more time there at Tom's place when the Drag car was coming together at the former shop. He did some fun work for buddy JMarsey on BossJBL Cobra making those Yates heads and valvetrain sing. That little motor went 8,500rpm, it's sound is featured in the first Cobra Bash - end of video. I was at the first few outings of FordDay at Sac Raceway for Tom's drag car unveiling. If any of you saw that customer group signed Photo we gave Tom on the wall by his front desk with the two (West Coast vs. East Coast) Mustangs, that was at Sears Pt / Infineon Raceway at SAAC35. Both cars lifted the front wheels off at launch. Tom' s car made a great showing. That was a fun day. I hope to go out to the drag track again with Tom next to see the new motor run. Even without the trans-brake its a beast for a normally aspirated full interior FE iron block street car.

428CJ/Big TopLoader:
If any of you come across a restorer trying to put a Shelby GT500 or original Drag Pack Mustang car back together, and they need a motor/trans to finish the car - keep it in mind? Some of those cars go for ridiculous money at auction now. That eng/trans combo is sitting in my ERA. If I sold it, I can just replace it with an aftermarket block and let these go to someone who needs original iron. The only thing not original is I had David Kee convert the big nose top loader to a wide ratio, which I prefer and even better for a heavy car on the street IMO. Keep an eye out would ya, thx

[CJ428CJ]

I wanna touch base with you after you get the new motor in the ERA

It's slowly coming together. I figure I should have it finished and back in the car near the end of January. I'd love to catch up.

Chris