Looks like Coast has some issues with assembling engines. The actual assembly of the motor can make or break it that's why I decided to do my own assembly. I have built quite a few engines but this was my first Windsor Ford. I dimensionally checked and weighed all the components I got from Coast and they were spot on. The reason I chose a local machine shop was because I wanted to see first hand exactly what they were doing to my block. Barry at Martyn Motors was fantastic and called me to come and discuss what they were going to do, look at set up on the machine and discuss final dimensions etc, before they squared the decks and again before they bored the block. I expected to have to slightly re-machine the decks on the block to get exactly the deck height that I wanted but when I bolted the rotating assembly in all the clearances including the deck height were spot on.
If you can find a copy, the November 2002 issue of Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords has a good article by David Vizard on mail order short block quality. Specifically DSS.
From the other posts here it looks like may be I was lucky with my experience with Coast. Caveat Emptor. (Buyer Beware)
