A warning for anyone buying engine in the US...

[weairy]

Hi guys,

A heads-up for anyone who's considering buying an engine cheap out of the States.

We bought a race engine from FastCo Auto in the US (remember the name!). Paid $8,000 for it, seemed to be the way to go. Alloy heads, lightweight crank, 70s style brass block, roller cam/rockers, QuickFlow carbi, Edelbrock alloy manifold, American anti-slosh baffled sump, Mallory/MSD ignition setup. Basically all the nice bits. Hit the dyno and they said they came up with 420hp and 400ft/lb of torque. Great.

Well, we got the engine here after a huge delay and found it was the prettiest little engine we've ever seen, thought it'd be great.

Well, after 2 events in the off-roading, we pulled the engine down. Found the block was cracked (in a way that it would have been prior to machining in the first place), the crank was twisted, the manifold had been fitted wrong and didn't fit tight against the heads and block where it had been decked (which previously had caused a huge vacuum leak and oil pressure issue before it went on the dyno in the states), Pro-Comp heads with two different types of valves and non-matching pushrods, the dizzy had been bastardized to compensate for the failed manifold fitting, the carby was useless and the so-called American sump split in three places and had "Made In China" stamped on it. The ring gaps were something like 40thou instead of 16 and the block had been machined out to 50thou instead of 30thou as quoted. So after a total of about 500km, the engine was a throw-away job.

Tried to sort these issues out with the engine builder only to recieve no replies and no help at all. Ended up building an engine with our trusted local mechanic for a very modest price of around $9k which pumped out 500hp/500ftlb of torque with fuel injection and everything fitting how it should.

In summary, do NOT trust FastCo Auto to build you a race engine. They'll take your money, send you a lemon and then stonewall you at every turn.

/endrant.