Projects Machine shop horror story !

Just thought I would put in an update on my crank. They called me last week and said it was back, and I went over and picked it up on Thursday. Now I have all of my motor back.

As soon as I get this altered project out of the way I am going to crate it up and ship the whole thing to Tony at Ross Racing...........that way I know it will be done right.

Don

 

This is a good ending to one chapter and we look forward to the next new chapter - hopeful with you having a big smile on your dial and a machined and assembled engine in the shop.

 

Whats the shop name, and where in the Bay Area is he located?

 

Star Machine, in Emeryville.

 

gimpy - thanks for the info, ill check them out.

 

Finding a good automotive machine shop in today's world is quite a feat. Companies like Eagle and Scat are selling Chinese made and machined rotating assembles for lower than regrind crank, rebuild rods, bearings, pistons and rings. And its balanced to boot!
This has put a lot of automotive machine shops in a stressful situation, as has the availability of other stuff like cyl.. heads, etc.
The shops can't exist without a profit, and even this comes after overhead, and employee wages, etc.

 

I am okay with paying more so the people in my community can eat, pay bills, have jobs, etc.

 

So am I Gimpy, but you and I don't think the same as some of our fair citizens and the few like us are not able to support the shops we knew in the past.

 

Don, Have you tried Lamonts Machine shop in Ft Myers? Always did a good job for me. Don

 

I used LaMonte for about 25 years on a lot of car and boat motors, and he always did a good job for me. If LaMonte personally did the work it was better than if one of his guys did it. The reason I switched to Joes Performance was two fold: LaMonte did a couple of motors for me where things were not quite right. For example, two oil galley plugs blew out on the 331 Ford he built for me and he blamed it on an oil pressure spike. I had him tap them for threads and that cured it, but it turned me off that he tried to shift the blame.

The second reason I switched to Joe was that Joe does a true race motor type machine job rather than a normal engine machine shop job. He final hones the last few thousandths, has torque plates, etc and had equipment that most shops do not have. His jobs were simply much better than I could get anywhere else. Just wish Joe was still in business.

But I still like LaMonte, he is a super nice guy and did me right for many years. He also knows Ford motors very well, and that is what I usually play with. I would use him again, but on this Olds engine I am going to send it to Ross just because they know them so well.

Don

 

Latest issue HRM has a write up on an Olds engine machining job/rebuild/stroker 400 cid to 480 cid and it reveals some idiosyncrasies in the big block Olds.

 

A 394 is not in the slightest bit related to a 350/400/455 Olds........

 

You of course are correct, been awhile since I read the opening post on this thread and I had completely forgotten that it was a 394. My bad!

 

The one good thing I can say about this is the small (qualified) shops will eventually get business from these same people who just assumed because they payed"good" money for these assemblies that they were done correctly.
As good as some of this stuff has gotten; the quality control just is not what we would (should) expect. And speaking of balancing; a production line balance job just will not match what an experienced(engine builder) has to put out to stay in good stead in the racing community.
On top of that; there are many parts like flywheels, pressure plates, and harmonic balancers that are never seen by the offshore guys when balancing (your) internal engine components.

 

I 100% agree, but my point is that so many people see only the price tag and buy this stuff that it's put a lot of shops outta business.

 

Things were good for the first 100 years but recently, all the junk yards are crushed, scrappers haul off the parts cars in backyards, late model cars are junked, not rebuilt, so machine shops go out of business, young guys dont want jobs where they get their hands dirty, manufacturers dont want anyone to repair their cars, self driving cars are on the way. Our way of life is ending

 

ALL of the local radiator repair shops want $400 for any repair, no matter how small and if you dont like it, they say, go get a new $179 radiator