Originally Posted by blykins
First of all, yes being an engineer, I figured out what bore and stroke it would take to get to 482. Second of all, I wouldn't buy a 428 that's been bored .060" over. I was hoping to give you the benefit of the doubt by saying it was a 4.160" bore and a custom stroke.
In an earlier post on this thread, I did mention that everyone has to start out somewhere, so for another benefit of the doubt, I did email you about a block the other day. However, I would never buy anything machined, checked, magnafluxed, or sonic tested from you again. I've bought two machined/tested blocks from you, unfortunately I saw enough in them to deem them unacceptable.
As for not telling the whole story, here it is:
I contacted you over Ebay about a fully machined block, probably about 3 years ago. I paid for and picked up the block. When I got it home, I noticed that there was no crosshatch in the cylinders. (See, I do know something about machining...) I contacted you about it, and even though you said it would be fine, I asked that you would give me enough money back so that I could take the block to another shop and have it correctly honed. You did give me money back without hesitation, so I took it to another machine shop. As I was loading the block back in the Explorer, the sun hit perfectly on it and a nice crack stood out by a freeze plug. I still dropped the block off and told them that before they honed it, they should re-magnaflux it (this was supposed to have been done at your shop). Sure enough, it was cracked.
I brought that block back to you, you gave me my money back, and I bought another bare block from you (I know, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice....). You said that it had been sonic tested and would be fine to take the overbore that I was planning. I dropped that block off at the machine shop and on the first pass, there were indeed pinholes that showed up that showed that the wall was thin. It was to the point where the block needed to be sleeved.
I once again took that block back to you, got my money back, and then snagged a fully machined block from Keith Craft.
That is the whole story, and I'm pretty sure that I have all the emails saved from the discussions between us.
I've seen your products enough for me to warn others. I hate to see people spend hard earned money these days and not get what they want.
I would buy untouched blocks and untouched original parts from you, but buying a machined block, or a fully assembled engine is a different story.
BTW, I don't make a living as an engine builder (nor would I want to), but I can post 4-5 dyno videos of some engines that I have assembled here in the past few years for myself and for others. So not only do I know a little about machining, I know a little about assembling too.
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