Lost a Motor last night.

Didn't you work with Bliss on this one?

Yes, he did all of it. I haven't been able to reach him today though.
He is semi retired now, and tough to reach. It's starting to grind on me more as the day goes on. This engine broke twice in one week!

I have to say, it was a monster when running though. 11:70s with old cast iron heads and a 600 carb in a 3000 pound car.

Well, I know he was an awesome Ford builder in his day. He's been pretty much retired for a few years now. Some of the folkd I know that have had their engines built there have had him oversee while they do the actual machining and assembly.

I feel your pain, tho'. I tanked my 351 about four times last year, two that required complete remachining.

Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. Remember, I'm just up in Federal Way.

By the by, I have Bob at Honest Performance doing my machining this time, and my rotating parts are at Dale Greens in Auburn getting balanced right now.

If Bliss doesn't help you out on this and you need a new builder let me know. DG Machine, Honest, and Ben Lismacki are all local and do good work. Plus my wife works at EPWI in Tacoma and is contact with builders everyday, including the Cope family.

I'm not hating on Bliss, but some builders as they get older don't always take the same care that they used to.

I have had a long time relationship with Dave, and feel something went wrong on his end, or some of the parts he used. I may be at fault for not catching it, but I did hire him to do all the set up that I am not geared up to do. If he doe's refuse to help us out, and I don't mean give us a free motor, rather help us figure out why it happened and do the machine work on the next one while I buy the parts, I will move on and not use Dave again. I do feel that "in his day" he was the best Ford guy in our area.(I hope he still is) And I am not sh_t talking Dave at this point either.

I am not a big money guy and can't afford to puke engine's often.

I have a fresh Bliss 302 that is fairly high zoot that we can put in the car until a new 351 is done.

Thanks Murph, I may need to use your options if this does not work out to our satisfaction.

My son had a very good chance of winning the entire program last night too,
there were only two car/driver combo's that we felt were a threat.

Gregg and Brooke

Did your builder help replace the original bent valve?..If so I would say he was aware of a potential problem and did not correct it...If you fixed it on your own then he may not want to touch it and your probably on your own...I agree though 11.70s is pretty impressive for a stock headed motor..Hopefully you can figure out what happened..

Originally Posted by MCCUTCHEON4

Thanks Jeff.

The guy that built our motor has a very good reputation in this area and I have known him for about 34 years. He has built about eight of my motors over those years. None of those eight engines were as high performance as the one that just failed though.

How should I approch him on this? I know it's a race motor and there is no
guaranty on an engine like this, but I still feel like something was over looked in the valve clearence,spring pressure or cam timing area. I paid him to set up all of the mentioned valve train.

I don't expect him to buy us a motor. But something was wrong outside of what we did. He told me we would be able to bracket race this set up for 3-4 years before it would need to be freshened up.

What do I think would be fair? He could do the machine work on his dime and I buy the parts. Or am I way off on this? I do like the guy and that is the reason I have not mentioned his name here, I do not want to hurt his reputation.



Thanks,
Gregg and Brooke (father and son)

This is a touchy situation, I've been on both ends. I'd just take the motor out, take it to his shop, and tell him how it failed. I'm sure he won't make it right for free, but, he should be able to inspect what failed and hopefully work with you on the rebuild cost. If it were my motor and I knew you only made 5 passes and she blew, I'd rebuild it for at or near my cost.

I would think if he has built 8 engines for you, he would take care of a good customer.

Free labor, and you buy the parts sounds very reasonable. I am sure he will want to tear the motor apart himself so he knows where it went wrong. Save the disassembly for him. He will also learn from the mistake. If it is just crappy valves, then that is really not his fault at all, but I bet he will still take care of you.

It sounds like a head component though, not the lower end that caused the issue.

I agree... speak with the builder.
It sounds like he is a good guy and you dont want to jepordize a 34 year relationship over speculation.
Sounds like a valve hung... like other have said... sucks.
Your builder sounds like the kind of guy that would like to know as bad as you do.

Sorry to hear about your loss. Just curious on where your builder works out of. What part of WA?? We'll have to meet up sometime. I'll be up to Pacific Raceways soon, I'm only 20-30 min away.

Hey Murff, how's your buddy like my ol' 270H cam and those stock 72' 225cfm/185cfm ported/modified cast iron heads on his coupe?? I heard he finally got er' together after forgetting to set the valves prior to first starting the engine over. Heard it runs real good, now that is fixed.

Originally Posted by Spali32

...Hey Murff, how's your buddy like my ol' 270H cam and those stock 72' 225cfm/185cfm ported/modified cast iron heads on his coupe?? I heard he finally got er' together after forgetting to set the valves prior to first starting the engine over. Heard it runs real good, now that is fixed.

Yeah, that '47 is running good from what I hear. Haven't seen it since I went over to diagnose why it wouldn't start and found all the valves open. Oops. He set 'em, just a wee bit too snug.

I expect to see it rolling into the office on the next decent cruise day.

And I sure hope the boys at Pacific have had their craniums removed from that lower body cavity. Looks like we'll be running there this summer, if I ever get my junk put back together. Spent the day today cleaning up the shop from the rewire and getting stuff ready for assembling. Hoping to see my engine again this week or next. Probably be looking for our first hit in June or July.