Engine builders, Sort of a rant Options

[skline]

I was on the bird board and there was a guy asking about engine builders. He was asking about one in particular. I have seen stuff posted about this one but I want to hear from people who actually had a bad experience from them, not just because of allegience to Brad or Jake, I want to hear if someone had a problem with this company and what it was. Here is a link to the their web site below. This is the guy who used to own SIR back in the 80's. They built an engine for me back then that was very strong and very reliable. The guy closed because of the economy and has re-opened on a part time basis. He doesnt have the shop he used to have but he still has the experience he had before. If you have bought an engine from him, and it had a problem, speak up, if you bought an engine from him and are still running it, speak up, if you have niether, then dont say anything bad about the company, I want this to be fair and impartial.
VW Engines

[seanery]

these are the motors sold on ebay, correct?

[skline]

I think he may be selling them on Ebay, I am not 100% on that though. They guy is in a wheel chair now and has an office about 20 minutes from here in Placentia. I talked to him on the phone not too long ago and he has a shop that does all the work for him now. I just want to hear if anyone has actually used his motors and how it came out. Not stories from someone who only heard about it from someone else.

[dinomium]

Ok, here is my interaction with Dwayne at Import Motor Co. I bought an engine from him just to get my car back on the road. It was supposed to be a 1.8 with a big bore kit. I wanted 1.8 ltr heads and a hotter WebCam for webers. This was on the web site for $1650 and and upcharge for the webcam and followers. So far all good.
The motor was shipped parcell feight to a UPS store. I was charged for shipping and handling. What I got was a motor shrinked wraped to a pallet. I got it home, all excited, and then the trouble started:
The entire engine and block had been spray painted and already starting to peel. The engine case was an EC instead of GA (not a big deal, but not as stated) there was oil leaking from all eight pushrod tubes, rear and front main seals. AND the biggie, a three inch chunk of cooling fin came off with the shrinkwrap.
So I call Dwayne and he has me call JEFF @ JCS. Jeff wont talk to me, but his lead assembler will. George (Jor-hey maybe???) told me that all of there eingines leak, and I "didnt need" that chunck of fin. That really got me mad! Jeff finially did talk to me and told me that every thing was fine including my Bus Heads... grrr!! So he does offer a refund, but not for the shipping. I had to build a crate, Yellow shipping wouldnt accept the POS the way JCS shipped it to me. I never got my $160.00 back and my credit card company agreed with JCS's policy of return shipping costs.

Dwayne does sound like a great guy, but he does NOT do ANY work at all any more. Jeff's shop puts out a ton of motors and are price according to what you recieve. Junk!
I would never buy anything from Import Motors or JCS. Dwayne switched the componant list (Bus Heads instead of 1.8 rebuild Pcar with 41mm intakes, EC instead of GA, ect) He also just passed me off to JCS...
Do a search on JCS and you will see.

Hope this helps, I tried to be a little more lucid and not as PISSED!

[skline]

Well, that is what I wanted to hear. Some good straight from the horses mouth story about what happened. Its unfortunate that Dwayne doesnt do the work anymore. JCS is not who I thought he had doing his work for him. But to clarify something you said, EC is a 1.8 liter which is what you said you wanted, GA would be a 2 liter case along with GC. But all I have heard was from people who had heard about them and not someone who actually had bought a motor from them. Back in the 80's, they had atricles in magazines about them doing great work (SIR) so I wanted to hear some current facts instead of gossip. The guy Jeff or George, you talked to, sounds like a real genius. I wonder if he runs these motors in his car. If so, he must change them out quite frequently. Thanks for the comments and description. It was fair and to the point.

[dinomium]

Just a point of clarification that I didn't fully exspress. Dwayne and I went over each componant of the engine I was to recive and a GA case was one item. We were in agreement that 1.8 liter Porsche Heads with big valves was another upgrade. His product at that time was a 2 liter made out of a 1.8 liter.
Jeff and his crew at JCS may have made an error. I don't know.
Dwayne is a lot of fun to talk to and I was truely disapointed with the outcome.

[lmcchesney]

I too had began to agree on an engine build with Dwayne. Discussed compoents and combinations. He told me of his Viet Nam experience and the fact that he was now in a wheel chair. I was concerned that he would not return my emails or calls. Thus after a month of time, I emailed him that I had decided to go with Autocraft for my engine instead. I felt bad about taking up his time and then going with someone else, but I just could not get him to respond. Looks like I made a good decision. It seems that finding good engine builders to work for you is very difficult. Even here, the Jeep/Chrysler/GM/Ford plants hire them, let them go and hire them back. I would imagine it would be impossible to keep commitments to your customers with that type of help.
L. McC