Engine Factory Problems

[jewels]

I know that The Engine Factory is a sponsor here...but the truth is the truth.

I had them do an engine build for me on a MKIV I was having Whitby Motors but together for me.

Jeff at Whitby was great and the build and paint were phenomenal.

As far as the engine from the Engine Factory, well that was a problem from the start.

Various leaks in the engine started to show up before the first 1K miles, most were easily repaired with minimal fuss.

After 1.5K miles I had a failure of the right bank valve train. They had tightened down the roller rockers too tight (factory calls for one turn they had all of 2 turns). This bent some pushrods and caused me to complain about me having to repair it myself.
Yes, they sent the necessary parts and were apologetic but I was concerned about the rest of the engine.

Now understand I am not hot-rodding this engine. I broke it in according to there specific instructions and NEVER take it over 4800 RPMS.

Well it started too lose antifreeze so I disassembled the intake to see if I had a head gasket problem and lo and behold.
Upon original assembly they had broken the intake manifold gaskets and used blue silicone to repair it....now that's low.
U pay top dollar for there products and I expected better quality...rather than covering up such gross poor workmanship with shoddy repairs..
Be aware....

[frankeeski]

That is a common spot of failure on the Felpro gaskets. Keep in mind that Felpro also makes the gaskets for Ford and Trickflow, so you may want to stay away from those as well. I have had failures like that in the past and it had absolutely nothing to due with how I installed them, they just tend to fail there. I've since switched to Mr. Gasket Ultra-Seal gaskets and have never had that problem again. Cut them some slack on this one, it looks like a product failure and not an installation failure. It's common to run a bead of RTV around the water jackets regardless of which brand you use.

[Mark Dougherty]

it is very common to use silicone there.
as stated very common falure area also
I use intake gaskets with a steel liner so this can never happen.

[Plebeian]

They used the Fel-Pro gaskets without the steel core. Fel-Pro makes the same gasket with a steel core, it's just a few more bucks and eliminates that problem.

[edwardb]

...Upon original assembly they had broken the intake manifold gaskets and used blue silicone to repair it....now that's low. U pay top dollar for there products and I expected better quality...rather than covering up such gross poor workmanship with shoddy repairs. Be aware....

Those gaskets come out of the wrapper with the blue material already applied. I believe it's some kind of printing process. May be not the right parts, or the best parts. Or may have been damaged during installation or later when running. But I don't think what you're seeing is blue silicone repair.

[christenfreedman]

That is the gaskets not blue silicone..they come with that on the gasket for a "better" seal...

[CraigS]

get the Felpro intake gaskets w/ the S3 suffix for steel.
1250 S-3 (port size 1.20" x 2.00")
1262 S-3 (port size 1.28" x 2.10")
1253 S-2 & 1253 S-3 (SVO/Yates head w/port size 1.35" x1.95)

[GSides9]

I'm with Jewels on this one. I bought my 408 from a company that builds performance engines every day. I figured that they would have figured out what components work together, and which did not. Is there a reason for doubling up on the valve cover gaskets? Don't the valve covers clear the rocker arms? The engine looks beautiful. It makes me wonder who built the original one in FFRs silver-blue Roadster. Building high performance engines is a tough business.

Glen

[cgundermann]

Echo concerns about The Engine Factory and will not use them again. Upon arrival, I had one motor mount hole in the engine block that was completed stripped/destroyed, because they crossthreaded it when mounting it to the steel shipping stand. It came with the wrong clutch (spline pattern) and at first start, I had leaks coming from the water pump/March pulley mounting hardware because they did not use high temperature thread sealant. All the spark plugs were also incorrectly gapped. The new/installed Davis Unified Performance distributor had a shutter wheel out of spec and a defective hals effect sensor (manufacturer's defects). They initially indicated they would pay for half the price of a new distributor because my first start was after the initial year warranty, but after rebuilding the "new" distributor - they wouldn't even pay 1/2 of any of the replacement parts. Understand that things happen, but from day one the build quality and resulting customer service was questionable. I repaired/replaced all the issues. After spending that much money and I get that things happen - expected better service. In the future, I will go with Ford Racing crate motors...

[AC Bill]

Echo concerns about The Engine Factory and will not use them again In the future, I will go with Ford Racing crate motors...

It's good to hear about this sort of thing. Although these could be unusual incidents, fair warning to new builders...

What is Ford Racing's warranty on their engine and it's components? Would they still cover an issue after a year I wonder?
That warranty aspect has always been a frustration. As builders, we round up new parts for our cars, but they wont be put to the test for at least year, often more. Many of them you need, to keep working on the build. It's not like you can hold off till a week before the cars on the road..

[Engine Factory]

Hi Guys. Christian here from Engine Factory. One of our customers had brought this posting to our attention, so felt was an opportunity to give our 2 cents. First an foremost the Engine Biz is a tough - Bad word spreads a lot faster than good. I suppose that's how things go. We're proud of our Gold sponsorship for past 15+ years, the hundreds of FFR Customers we've served & recommended by many of the staff at Factory Five.

Regarding the Intake Manifold gaskets. We used The Non- Steel core intake gaskets a few years back and found out later about occasional slipping and eroding. These aren't cheap gaskets and considered a high performance Fel-pro gasket. Using RTV on the water ports is considered common practice for these type of gaskets. Anyone who's familiar with small block Fords know that the factory motors were notorious for this. What's a big culprit to their demise is todays gas believe it or not. The higher levels of Ethanol eats away at the gaskets. Its an industry wide problem. We contacted Fel-pro on this years ago and not surprising they denied these claims. We certainly tried to make good for anyone that called us . Good news is the steel core gaskets are not affected by the ethanol and we've been using exclusively for the past few years without issue. The gaskets is only part of it. Need to use good grade hardware (grade 8) matching lockwashers and loctite. Regarding Valve Lash. There are a lot of things to look at when doing valve adjusting. Pushrod length, valve height, block dims, rocker ratio, type of rockers being used etc. We typically go close to a full turn but depends upon the engine and lifter plunger. We use Double gaskets when using roller rockers underneath the Cobra valve covers or they hit the baffles.

I remember back in the late 90's when the Smith Brothers were just starting to sell more kits and we were pretty much the only game in town as far as a Turnkey engine. "Turnkey engine" we actually coined before it became more mainstream - shoulda trademarked it! Engine Factory may not be the cheapest but feel we offer the best value as far as the components , customization, labor experience ,prepping them exclusively for the FFR , thorough testing and offering "turnkey ready" solution. We use New Blocks and reman blocks with new internals depending customers level of needs and wants. In all honesty we've felt the impact from companies like a Blueprint engine ( AKA Marshall engines) that offers a more "economic engine" but there are differences in materials and technicians who assemble them. Maybe not proper etiquette for mentioning other vendors but respectfully feel fair game for as long as we've been a supporting vendor. We're a Ford Racing dealer but use more Dart stuff being that Ford does not have good inventory on a lot of Pushrod engines.

OK enough of the shameless plugging but hopefully restored some confidence?!? We're going to try to throw out some nice offers between now and Christmas for anyone that wants to lock in their price for 2017. Have some Coyote pkgs too. Wish we can spend more time on this forum! Shout out to Jeff at Whitby Motors and Mark @ Travelling Builder both guys that do great work and care!!

[Rotorcraft]

Send me a PM and can give you details of my $12,000 EF experience. :(

[David Hodgkins]

Send me a PM and can give you details of my $12,000 EF experience. :(

Send me a PM and I'll tell you about my Ford Motorsport Crate motor that was recalled after a bunch were destroyed (I was lucky and hadn't started it yet).

It is a complicated task to put together major automobile components and there will never be zero defects. That's just the way it is IMO. I've had issues with several vendors. I've resolved every one but it sometimes took a LOT of patience and persistence. One or more I may never buy from again. Not because they were a crook but customer service was lacking. The key to a successful build is patience. Stuff happens during a build for most guys because they "don't know what they don't know." Learning as much as you can before the build starts can help, but during and indeed after you will learn a TON more. Quite a bit of that learning is from our mistakes, but also learning doesn't stop until we sell the car, frankly.

If you'd like to discuss your issue, send me a PM.

:)

[turbomacncheese]

I used to work at a shop where we built engines for cars, trucks, boats, track, strip, street, whatever. OK, by "we" I mean a guy who had been building engines for thirty years already. I got disassembly, clean-up, and minor machining. Only ever had a couple engines come back in the year I worked there (part-time), but I think that was because we installed and ran them first. If they are going to fail, they tend to do it quickly, or at least show early signs if you know what you are looking for. More than once we pulled an engine back out (or halfway out) and I didn't guess why until I saw all the parts again (which is why I did disassembly and cleanup). That's what makes it tough having an engine sent to you for installation. The folks who built it don't start it up. Guys who expect to turn the key and have it run for years 100% of the time do. That's why they pay the extra money.

[cgundermann]

Well said David, rarely does anything go perfect - we adapt, overcome and learn. I have gained so much from this build, not only from my efforts/mistakes, but also from the wisdom of the experienced forum members. I agree with you, I have patiently worked with vendors and they should have a fair opportunity to resolve the glitch. But like you said - when issues arise, it's the company's responsiveness that defines character and determines whether we go back for seconds.

[Rotorcraft]

Dave, I will send you the same PM that I will send anyone that contacts me.
I understand that technical objects are seldom perfect, however my issues go beyond this in my opinion.

Thanks.
Jeff




Send me a PM and I'll tell you about my Ford Motorsport Crate motor that was recalled after a bunch were destroyed (I was lucky and hadn't started it yet).

It is a complicated task to put together major automobile components and there will never be zero defects. That's just the way it is IMO. I've had issues with several vendors. I've resolved every one but it sometimes took a LOT of patience and persistence. One or more I may never buy from again. Not because they were a crook but customer service was lacking. The key to a successful build is patience. Stuff happens during a build for most guys because they "don't know what they don't know." Learning as much as you can before the build starts can help, but during and indeed after you will learn a TON more. Quite a bit of that learning is from our mistakes, but also learning doesn't stop until we sell the car, frankly.

If you'd like to discuss your issue, send me a PM.

:)

[Engine Factory]

Feel free to give us a ring to run through your question / concerns 1-800-704-5385

[Yama-Bro]

Guys, I am obviously biased as I am a design engineer with BluePrint Engines. While I agree with Christian from the Engine Factory that the engine business is a tough business and from what we have seen the Engine Factory is a quality outfit that does a good work. However, I would NOT refer to our engines as an economy build… We have worked with the team at Factory Five to design the engine(s) which they wanted for their customers. We have only put components in the engine which we are confident in such as Clevite bearings, felpro gasket and seals, specifically steel core on intake gaskets, BluePrint Engines crankshafts and connecting rods, Edelbrock intakes, msd ignition components, holley carbs, Blueprint Engines roller rockers and camshafts, canton oil pans, march pulley kits, tuff stuff accessories just to name a few…The reason Christian probably refers to us as economy build is because of our price. We work hard to drive our costs down and keep our prices low. We sell through Summit, Jegs and Speedway Motors, we build thousands of engines per year, this enables us to carry a bigger stick with vendors than the smaller shops and work directly with manufacturers to cut out the middle man, which help to keep the price down. If you go to the factory that produces our crankshafts you will see Scat crankshafts going down the same line. Our owner also continually reinvests in the business…to ensure we are doing things more efficiently and effectively thus keeping our costs low. As examples, we have designed, developed our own Block tooling for SBC and BBC blocks, (No Fords yet) we have also just built a new 150,000 square foot facility. We are confident that this focus on costs, quality and efficiency will allow us continued success for years to come. If anyone has any questions let me know. Also please know there is an open invitation if you are ever in Kearney, Nebraska and want to stop in for a tour of our factory, please don’t hesitate.

[David Hodgkins]

Yama-Bro I consider it bad form to chime in on another vendor's thread if you are not going to be completely constructive in your analysis. This thread is not appropriate for a BPE commercial.

Before this thread devolves, I'm shutting it down. The OP has not chimed in and this is feeling more and more like a "hit and run". EF has had a chance to respond in a reasonable manner and I think they have.

If you have any info you think is relevant send me a PM but I am shutting this thread down.

:)

EDIT: In retrospect, Yama-Bro's response, while a bit long winded - ;) should be allowed since he was mentioned by EF, and he responded with clarification and did not "turn the screws" on EF. That's why I left his post up and later added this PS.