Engine purchase recommendation

[Prof]

You ask about the DFW area, so I will be as honest as possible in what I know.

Keith Craft in Arkansas: delivered to Plano easily (and I saved the sales tax!). Hard motor to break, great communication over the phone with the builder, superb "forever" warranty.

AER in Carrollton. Gotta poke around to get to private sales (big car show there on May 4th and I am sure you could drive away with it that day). Gonna be a late-model roller cam bottom end possibly set up optimally for EFI.

Wayne Calvert in Denton (drag racer). I do not have experience, but his name will undoubtedly come up in conversations. Ernie at ET will not get a good vote among Cobra owners, but he pulled together some mish-mash parts I had and the 351 dyno'd at 430 hp/450 tq. Motor going in a non-track car. Some local guys have blown his motors in a very short amount of time.

Then if you have no budgetary limits, Ken Barr (Garland) is at the top of the pile. The motor will last twice as long because it literally costs twice as much as anyone else. You would think that no one could possibly ask that kind of money for a motor, but he does. If money falls from trees around you, he's your man. And he's famous too.

Smiley's Racing will not come up in conversations, but let me mention how incredibly impressed I am with a 289-based 331 stroker they built for me. In Sherman TX, Smiley's has a small store with one of the best engine builders in the country. Problem is-Smiley's bread-and-butter SBC dirt stuff hides the deep talent. They built me a killer 331 for a price comparative to Ford Racing / Keith Craft. Meticulously clean shop, balancer-extraordinaire, not too busy to answer questions, definitely "seasonal" in production of their dirt track stuff. Occasionally will have a complete 351W long block built out for sale. 903-868-0016. Talk to the owner. I would buy there again in a heart-beat!

That's my experience with 8 engines I have had built in the DFW area in the last 10 years. Hope that helps.

Best,
Paul