Team, Been teaching 2 new hot rodders how to build their first engines. Several quality issues found in components. Not here to bash "brands" but lets note what we are seeing to prevent quality failures. Lets build 1) Magnetic Rod Bolts in refurbished BBC con rods. Problem: attracts mettalic breakin particals, possibly in to rod bearings. Potential Cause: I've seen this in components shot peened and heat treated. Should be a callout on print to demag. Solution: going to try using a shop tool mag/demag. 2) Bearings Packaged wrong. Always check bearing o.s./ u.s. Had wrong under sized rid bearings in box. Solution: Returned, exchanged. 3) Piston ring dimension issue. Intermediate ring (2nd) flared at ends, too thick at gap, causing ring to stick in groove. Top and Oil ring were fine. Problem: This would side load piston, and being a scraper would scuff bores, lead to seizure from insufficient lube film. Solution: Return, exchange..take piston with you.. verify clearance.
Nothing new! 1975, bought a set of GM issue sbc pushrods, one end of one pushrod did not get the insert drilled all the way through, burned up a rocker arm before discovering it.
Push rods...I sight through them first, measure them all (make sure they are all the same) and roll them on a surface plate, make sure they are straight. And of course solvent clean, blow compressed air through them.
After work and inspection, ALWAYS do a through cleaning. Got bit by a fresh crank that was 'ready to install '. Had junk in the oil passages. Did the job twice.
Don't get me started - hot or maybe warm or just cold tanked the heads - did you notice that those dirt dobbers had built a nest in that screw hole ?
Once bitten twice shy. Or, forewarned is forearmed. Good to pass on what you've experienced in this thread, and maybe someone else will check their shop's work or new parts, and not get caught. Had to pull a SBC to re-fit rear cam bearing that was installed at a shop. It wasn't positioned properly, and was bleeding off pressure internally.
ALWAYS, check the push rod to lifter and rocker arm diameters. Can happen at any time. I bought two sets of a Mid-brand aluminum rocker arm. Mid-brand because no one else makes rockers for a Studebaker (or didn't at the time). The company has been around many years. They mostly make small and big Chevy rockers, but they have others too. Anyway, I had seen on the particular forum that folks had problems burning pushrod tips with these rockers. I bought them anyway. I could not believe that so many people had these problems and didn't have the..."whatever"...to check parts fit ! Well, in giving the rockers a good "once over", I found that the lash adjuster cup tip was smaller than the pushrod ball ! I checked all 32 (two sets !) rockers, ALL had the same problem. These were sold as...drop-in rocker arms. See previous paragraph. I called the company. Long story short, they didn't seem to care, at all. They did NOT carry or make the correct adjuster. They could not tell me where to go to get a set of the correct parts. After MANY phone calls, I found ONE company that had the correct adjusters (correct diameter). They cost a small fortune because of being not used in many engines. As in Top Fuel Harleys only ! I weighed the adjuster cost with the cost of a set of double ended pushrods...AND the possibility of accidently putting the pushrods in...upside down ! I sprung for the high dollar adjusters. Mike
Crank failures at rod throw. Failed, cracked journal from rod throw being lightened, this near oil passage. Crank OEM.. said lack of lube... I'm trained in AFA.. look to non failed throws... they were cracked with no signs of lack of lube. OE.. racing parts are not warranted due to intended use. Racer bought a vintage early 70s drag engine short block GM crank..BBC rods machined for sbc, (pops ran these forgings at 10k rpm) ran rest of season winning Limited Late Model championship that year.
I was helping my brother put his 327 back together around 1982. He got a set of exchange camel hump heads for it, bolted them on. I was helping him spin the engine on the stand... out of the exhaust ports comes a trail of media blast. So the heads come off and we take the time to clean everything out, we even removed the valves just to be sure. Luckily nothing fell into the bores. With my last 355 build, I went with Dart heads and the builder suggested taking the heads apart to make sure everything was clean. He removed some flash here and there. Real cheap insurance.
These issues are across the automotive parts industry today. In the last week alone I've had a lower control arm boxed wrong, close but the ball joint end was 1/4" shorter. Sway bar links that come as a pair in a box with 1 being correct and 1 wrong. From Kia a VVT actuator part number on the packaging but purge solenoid in the unopened package. From Chevy a inside door panel marked gray on the box but actually was black. Autolite spark plugs that come as 4 boxes in one outer box but 1 inner box was empty.
@GlassThamesDoug when you mentioned incorrect bearing, were they marked/stamped incorrectly, or packaged incorrectly I/e you asked for .002 and had .001 in the package or mixed in?
Oh man, don't get me fired up on a Sunday. I go through this kind of shit all week at work. The parts problem seems to be getting worse every month. Not to mention poor quality or junk right out of the box. Ok I'm done ranting.
I dropped my Scat rods and had my Speed Pro (not cheap...) pistons off to my engine builder. I came back later in the week and he had the rods and pistons assembled. I looked them over. EVERYTHING was neatly deburred and clean. That's the way to go.
A lot of this can be chalked up to the practice of "no questions asked" return policies, especially at the "high volume - low price" parts houses. Customers have no qualms about returning wrong or failed parts in the packaging from the correct part that they reordered. Got some unused (or used) spark plugs laying around the shop? Just put them back in the nice clean boxes from the new plugs you just bought and return them for a refund! If they question your return, make sure to be as loud and indignant in front of as many other customers as possible before leaving the store. And always make sure to let the parts man or woman know that you know how to do their job better than they do.
Agree, always inspect, measure, clean new parts. Haven't built one in a while, but found similar issues on new name brand parts. Difference is having to mail order most stuff now. Returns are awful and can delay a build for weeks / months if a part is wrong or poor quality. Open your parts as soon as you get them, if you shelf them as you collect the necessary, may not be able to return later.
I lay all the parts out in front of me, same as new boxes of ammo... looking for that squib... If something is really amiss, you'll tend to see it. We had a supplier at work, usually delivered dirty oily parts. One time 2 of them were clean as can be. The inspector looks at them under a bright light... those 2 parts had holes that were plug-welded and re-drilled.
Whenever I buy parts from a B/M store, I learned to open all boxes at the counter first to make sure the right part is there, it is new not returned junk and it isn't damaged already. Pretty bad in this day of age you cannot trust anybody anymore. Seems there is no quality control anymore. Rather catch the problem at the counter then driving 40 miles back home and then find out. The counter guy which happened to be the owner of the store was surprised when I took an air cleaner out of the box and it was half smashed. Box was perfect, knew it wasn't a return because it was super clean, just couldn't believe anything that smashed got packaged.
I recently bought a set of pushrods for an SBC. They came in a package marked "Set of 15". Of course this left me 1 pushrod shy. Why in the hell would you sell pushrods in packs of 15?!
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