Anyone have a good source for a rebuilt or crate motor that isn't a million dollars?

[edporch]

I had a sweet Polara. It would make you cry.

Cool.
That reminds me of a Dodge Polara "Pursuit" car a guy I knew in the early 70's bought.

It had a Dodge 440 Magnum engine that said "Pursuit" either on the air cleaner or valve covers.
(been 50 years so my memory is a bit faded)

It was the first publicized "pursuit" car the local police department bought in my small hometown in the late 1960's.
It was really fast for the time.

The transmission had trouble so they just sold it for sealed bids as was common back then.
The guy I know got the car for $250!

The engine still had a lot of life left in it with just a bad transmission.
He replaced the transmission and ended up with a pretty fast car with little money in it.
Almost a dream for a 20 year old because it looked stock but was really fast.

 

[tmcindy]

Maybe things have changed, my friend that was a supervisor left because he was frustrated with the crappy workers. He always said he wouldn't even put one of their engines in his demo cars.

They don't drug test our dock workers anymore. lol

 

[mom45]

Things happened while I was at work today....

 

[mom45]

Got the hood back on today. Drove her around the block but need to change out the harmonic balancer as the old one doesn't work to get the timing set right. Ordered the one recommended by Blueprint motors for this engine and should have it Tuesday. She sounds good.

 

[WebSnyper]

Things happened while I was at work today....


View attachment 215250

I wish that kind of stuff happened at my house while I was at work.

 

[mom45]

New harmonic balancer arrived yesterday at 10:30. It was installed by 11:00 as he had everything taken off that needed to be removed to put it on. UPS handed it to him, he put it on and had it running in no time. When I got home from work, we drove it to the bar for dinner. Put the car seats back in it when we got home so I can drive it today and pick up the grandbabies from the sitter tonight. Cole is excited that he is going to be picked up in the red truck again. He loves riding in it. With no head rest on the front seat, he can see everything from his car seat.

 

[mom45]

Update:. 5,118 miles on the new Blueprint engine, and I have a blown head gasket and/or a defective head. So far, the warranty department is not impressing me.

I will update more as this gets addressed if anyone is interested.

 

[hopper68]

Update:. 5,118 miles on the new Blueprint engine, and I have a blown head gasket and/or a defective head. So far, the warranty department is not impressing me.

I will update more as this gets addressed if anyone is interested.

Delay on getting an engine? I know right now some stuff is a month or slightly longer wait as places try to keep up with orders. It is getting better. A year ago 2 months was not unheard of.

 

[mom45]

Delay on getting an engine? I know right now some stuff is a month or slightly longer wait as places try to keep up with orders. It is getting better. A year ago 2 months was not unheard of.

I got it last July and it was installed in early August. $5,000 for an engine that has a three year 50k warranty and here we are....

 

[mom45]

Update: Blueprint has no shops in our area that do warranty work on their engines. The local guy we talked to quoted $1,100 to change the head gaskets. Blueprint said their rate for it was $500. My husband assured them that he was quite capable of doing it but really wasn't excited about the need to do this on a new engine.

They sent the gaskets and in tearing it down to change them, it was discovered that two head bolts were not tight...causing the leaks. We have learned that loose head bolts are a common issue in their assembly process. At any rate, they are properly installed now and there was no damage to the engine that we could find.

They did send a check for $500 for hubby doing the labor to change the gaskets. He also changed the intake manifold gaskets since he had it all torn down and wanted to inspect things thoroughly. They offered to send new heads in case these were warped or defective, but the loose head bolts seemed to be the cause of the problem so we declined that for now. I've been driving it for a few weeks now with no leaks or loss of antifreeze.

The engine runs great and has plenty of power, but I'm not sure how I feel about the warranty process. If my husband was unable to work on it in the future, I'm not sure where that leaves me.

 

[hopper68]

Usually labor is based off of a preset hourly rates x a labor time guide. Sometimes a remanufacturer will offer a upgrade plan to increase labor rate and offer other coverages such as towing or rental.
Professional curiosity on the head bolt issue. Are they using cheaper head gaskets that need retorqued after so many miles or was it builder error?

My thoughts, you should have got some diagnostic time, at least 1 hour. And intake gaskets should have been sent with the head or reimbursed since they needed to be removed to remove the heads.

 

[mom45]

Usually labor is based off of a preset hourly rates x a labor time guide. Sometimes a remanufacturer will offer a upgrade plan to increase labor rate and offer other coverages such as towing or rental.
Professional curiosity on the head bolt issue. Are they using cheaper head gaskets that need retorqued after so many miles or was it builder error?

My thoughts, you should have got some diagnostic time, at least 1 hour. And intake gaskets should have been sent with the head or reimbursed since they needed to be removed to remove the heads.

We didn't use their gaskets. We bought the ones my husband prefers. He watched some YouTube videos on their production process and the head bolts are not torqued by hand but by computer/robotics. It is interesting that the warranty paperwork requires the buyer to retorque them at various intervals...not something everyone knows how to do.

Blueprint engines are not remans. They are new. They do use aluminum heads so if this happens again, we plan to replace them with cast iron heads. Summit has some that will fit for under $1,000. The set we bought for my old engine that he rebuilt were about $900.

He thought about putting that engine back in my truck, but he already has other plans for it...that may be a new thread.

 

[hopper68]

Back when I worked at a shop, customer bought a cheap rebuild and it said in the paperwork to retorque the head bolts after the engine had been ran and warmed up and after another specific interval. All the money he saved on the cost of the engine was lost on additional labor. I hate fly by night engines.

The computer torquing bolts can be a good thing if set up properly. The associate still holds the torque wrench and the computer has specs preprogrammed and in the order of build. Helps eliminate the human factor. And a scheduled regular testing to make sure the calibration has not slipped helps maintain quality.

 

[mom45]

Back when I worked at a shop, customer bought a cheap rebuild and it said in the paperwork to retorque the head bolts after the engine had been ran and warmed up and after another specific interval. All the money he saved on the cost of the engine was lost on additional labor. I hate fly by night engines.

The computer torquing bolts can be a good thing if set up properly. The associate still holds the torque wrench and the computer has specs preprogrammed and in the order of build. Helps eliminate the human factor. And a scheduled regular testing to make sure the calibration has not slipped helps maintain quality.

Blueprint has been in business quite a while. The check I got was actually issued from Marshall Engines. They make high performance engines and have mostly good reviews. I got the 350, but most of their buyers seem to be ordering bigger engines and wait a long time to get them. My 350 has about 80 more HP than stock. Dyno sheet was actually a bit higher at the highest RPM.