Postby dave-r » 20 Jul 2006 8:36

On the subject of American parts quality this is my experiance looking from this side of the Atlantic.

I find most parts made in the USA by SMALL companies are made to good standards.

The bigger the company and the bigger their output the more chance quality can slip. I understand your frustration.
You buy MP parts and then have to modify them to actually fit or work. Done that quite a few times.
Or get a Firm Feel power steering box that has more play than the old one you just took off.
Or buy an expensive "Be-Cool" bolt-in replacement radiator and find it does not bolt in at all but needs the holes re-drilled and the brackets cut.

But it is very easy to remember the bad parts. I have had FAR MORE parts that have been VERY good quality and fit/function perfectly.

You just have to check everything though. I have heard lately that many timing sets are way out when you check the cam timing.

But do you know where it was made and who made it?

Because we live in a world market with cheap labour in third world countries that have no enviromental controls or health and safety, many companies have their parts made there so that they can compete with price.
On the whole parts made in these countries are sub-standard in my opinion.
The exception to this rule is China. They were rubbish at one time but the government there has put HUGE resorces into manufacturing. They can produce extreamly good quality parts at a fraction of what it would cost to be made in America.

So the bottom line is you just don't know what you are going to get these days. These are difficult times for traditional industries in many "western" countries. And there is not a lot we can do about it because being unable to compete many good engineers find themselves on the scrap heap.

Where i live was one of the cities that started the Industrial Revolution. The first successful steam trains were invented and built here. The steam turbine was invented and built here. The best and some of the biggest ships were built here. There were coal mines everywhere exporting quality coal (real nice smooth shiney stuff) to the whole country and even around the world. We were a world leader in heavy industry building the worlds electricity generators and even the big telescopes that look into space. Armstrong armed the world with big guns. Parsons powered every powerful ship. Even modern ship propellers were designed and built here.

All gone now. Not a single mine shaft. Not a single ship in the Yards. Nothing. I couldn't even find a place to get my crank ballanced and I would struggle to even get a half decent re-bore.

Err.. :roll: I seem to have lost the point here a bit. But what the hell. I needed to get that off my chest. :lol:
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Postby fbernard » 20 Jul 2006 9:03

72challengerorange wrote:Find a local Machine shop to assemble the parts your looking for and that way if there is a quality problem you can deal face to face not on phone/web.


From my experience, even that is not that easy. I ended up using an engine builder in England for the block and crank machine work (I live in France) and doing everything else myself. Given the number of american cars, I don't see how Spain would be better than France in this respect. There are good machine shops in England, in Germany, and further than that, it's the US. I'm not saying there are no good machine shops in France (there are plenty in the LeMans area), but they have no experience with high displacement V8s. Probably the same in Spain. How can you expect a machine shop to buy tooling (torque plate, among other things) that will only be used once?

If I were to do it again, I would probably get a machined block straight from the US (Chenoweth Racing has a 'block-in-a-bag' offer that looks very interesting - with billet mains and their girdle kit, enlarged and reangled oil pickup passage, it would make a great stroker short block).

For a wedge engine, I'd go Muscle Motors, BMRE. For a hemi or anything over 700HP, Ray Barton.
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Postby dave-r » 20 Jul 2006 10:04

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Postby dave-r » 20 Jul 2006 15:51

If I had you worried about Ray Barton then feast your eyes on this car belonging to one of our regulars at the Mopar EuroNats.

http://www.eurodragster.com/news/featur ... efault.asp

I will let you know how it goes after the 'nats at the end of the month. But it made 1100hp on the dyno. :wink:
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Postby dave-r » 20 Jul 2006 15:54

Oh. I forgot. It has already run 8.13@164mph on its first shakedown runs. :biggrin:
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Postby Misaeus » 20 Jul 2006 18:37

in some American Mopar related forums the guys recommend FHO and Best Machine for good Hemi engines built just for your needs.
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