Hi everyone. What is a good trustworthy company that sells crate engines that are good quality? Thank you.
I would suggest the crate engines available at Summit Racing in Tallmadge Ohio. Summit is about 2 hours from you. You can have the engine shipped to your house. The following link will take you to their Ford 302 crate engine choices. You can make a selection based on your budget or desired horsepower. https://www.summitracing.com/search/department/engines-components/section/engine-assemblies/part-type/crate-engines/make/ford/engine-size/5-0l-302/engine-family/ford-small-block-windsor?N=4294949512+4294881857+4294869887&SortBy=Default&SortOrder=Ascending You have a choice of flat tappet or roller camshaft. I would advise as 71gold suggests selecting an engine with a roller camshaft. Just mine and 71 gold's opinions.
I recommend that you at least take a look at Prestige Motorsports in Concord NC. I visited them and took the grand tour and was very impressed with the shop, staff and the quality parts. They worked closely with me even long after the sale. Doug is the shop owner. Give him a call. Nice guy. http://prestigemoto.com/index.html
In the past 15 years I've purchased TWO crate engines and BOTH of them turned out to be poorly assembled with several factors which indicated Poor or NO Quality control. WORLD Products for a 427 FORD stroker , and a 347 Stroker from COAST Hi Performance . The COAST engine was align-bored improperly and resulted in a ' near disaster ' .. We found the problem in time .. the WORLD products had valve placements which were not correct ..So NOW we build OUR OWN ENGINES , one of which now is going into my Daughters 72 Maverick as you read this . There are probably engine builders out there that will do a good job .. I just don't have any faith in that. Cometized (Chip)
I built all of my own engines for decades. I can't keep track of how many times I traveled back and forth to the machine shop after I mocked up the build. When I moved to another city, I was no longer close to the machine shops I had developed confidence in. I decided to contract some of the assembly out, primarily the short blocks, to a few of the most reputable shops in NE Ohio. Knowing these guys personally, we talk extensively about the clearances and tolerances throughout the build. I supplied all of the parts and cores. Knock on wood, no unpleasant surprises. If I had to buy an entire engine, I would consider "Ford Racing" if for no other reason that they license their subcontract shops and have a reputation to consider. It goes without saying that their pockets are deeper if an issue arises. Back in the 80's, I purchased one of the early sets of A460 heads from Ford and discovered a serious casting flaw in one of the chambers. I wrote them a letter with pics and was contacted shortly thereafter by Rick Smith at TFS, who stated that Ford had "chewed him out" over the issue. Needless to say, the issue was quickly resolved.
Over the decades I've bought two crate short blocks because I didn't have parts to build my own at the time. One was from a well-known performance shop. I disasembled and checked both of them before using and found problems with both.
Jasper. They come with a 3 year 100,000 mile warranty which covers parts and labor. I've bought 2 engines and 1 transmission from them over the years and was very impressed and satisfied.
Only problem with crate mtrs is sometimes attention to detail gets lost because as a machinist you are under pressure to produce x number of engs. in a certain period of time to make money.I worked in 1 shop for 5 yrs. & for 2 of those yrs. me & another guy had to build 17 engs. a month.That might not sound like a lot,but when you have to tear a core down,clean everything,do all the machine work,assemble all the parts,put the eng. together,bolt it to a pallet wraped in plastic with the correct gasket set,believe me the grass ain`t growing under your feet.The only thing we didn`t do was grind the crank,someone else in the shop did that.We had the oven & shot machine for cleaning,& each time you had to inspect every square inch of everything,one tiny piece of shot you don`t catch will wipe out your crank,Warranty.I`ve stood at the Rottler boring bar,beside the Sunnen CK 10 with an over head crane & bored & honed 11 blocks in one day,it is a grind.I`m not saying there are not good shops out there,but if you can build your own or get a knowledgeable person to help you,DO IT.
