The Saga of the Engine Builder
In the early days of my search for an engine builder I often found myself admiring some shiny, big horsepower engines for sale on Ebay. The prices seemed lower than most, they had features I liked and they posted videos of their engines being run on their dyno. I looked up some reviews and found they were mixed. Using the videos I tracked some customers and found many were not happy with the quality of the off-brand parts that were used. It was during that search that I stumbled on nearly identical videos posted by a business with a nearly identical name located in the same town. And I came into contact with two people who had bought engines from White Performance and Machine.
The people who bought engines from White Performance and Machine had owned them for two or three years and were happy with both the quality of the engines and customer service from the company. Based on that, I contacted White Performance and Machine about building an engine for me.
When I placed my order for a custom built engine and made a down payment of half the amount to White Performance and Machine in mid April 2018, I took some comfort when I was advised that it would be about 14 weeks before it would be shipped. I took that as a sign that the business had lots of customers and was likely honest about the time required for the build. After all, who would lie about taking 14 weeks to build an engine. If they were going to lie, surely they would claim something sooner like six weeks. So I set a reminder for July 18, 2018, the estimated shipping date. Here’s what happened.
April 12, 2018: Placed order for a complete engine. Paid half the cost up front. Estimated build time: 14 weeks (July 18, 2018)
July 18, 2018: Called to check on engine. Was told it would be shipped in two weeks (August 1, 2018)
August 14, 2018: Calls to check on engine were not returned. Sent a Facebook Message to check on engine. Received reply promising a call back on August 15.
August 15, 2018: Received call back telling me work would begin on my engine and it would ship on August 24.
August 21, 2018: Received a call asking for clarification on engine components.
August 22, 2018: Received call confirming engine components.
August 23, 2018: Received call advising that work on engine had commenced and next call would be to provide me with tracking number for shipping.
August 30, 2018: I sent a message asking for an update. I was told “Don’t worry.” I later received a call telling me to expect the engine to be on the dyno by September 4.
August 31, 2018: I received a call and a brief fuzzy video informing me the engine was on the dyno and would be shipped on September 4. I made the last half payment via charge card.
September 5, 2018: Having heard nothing, I sent a message asking if the engine would be shipped today. Four hours passed without a reply. I called and asked for an update. I was promised the engine would be shipped and a video provided by September 7.
September 7, 2018 (Friday) at 3:15 PM Tennessee time: Having heard nothing I spent some time trying to learn more about White Performance and Machine. And that's when I stumbled across a magazine article that shed light on the problem. The founder of the company was an avid drag racer. And it enjoyed a good reputation under his guidance. But in 2016 he sold the business to his accountant, and it appears things began to change after that. The positive customer reviews I had received were for business dealings under the original owner. That's not who I was dealing with.
Armed with the new owners name, I sent him a brief message describing my experience and threatening to challenge the charge card payment I had made just a week before. Minutes later I received a call from the shop foreman promising a video of the engine on the dyno being made within the hour. I didn't mention that I had been told the same thing exactly one week earlier. He also promised to crate the engine on Saturday so it could be shipped on Monday. I had no confidence that either promise would be kept, but by 5:30 the video had been posted. I decided to wait until Monday to challenge the charge card payment.
September 10, 2018 (Monday): Shortly after lunch I received a call proudly announcing that the engine was ready to ship and they gave me a tracking number. However, a few minutes later I received a second call about a part I had ordered that they had failed to acquire in a timely manner. I was assured that the part would arrive the next day and they wanted my ok to delay shipping one more day so the delayed part would not have to be shipped separately. I approved the request. A later check of the tracking number revealed the shipping company had no record of that number in their system.
September 11, 2018: The shipper indicates the engine was picked up for shipping. IAFT.
Number of times I was given a shipping date that was not met: 7
Total days from order to shipping: 151
Number of days longer than the original estimate: 53
When a business tells me things that turn out to be untrue about one aspect of their operation, I begin to wonder if they lie about other aspects of their operation as well. I can understand that unforeseen circumstances may make it impossible to meet an expected deadline, but to repeatedly mislead a customer about when a job will be started and completed reflects either deceptive business practices, incompetent management or both.
Sadly, if the engine I receive develops any kind of problem, I will immediately suspect shoddy work by the company that built it. If, on the other hand, it runs long and strong, I will always wonder whether they are unreliable business people who build reliable engines, or I just got lucky with the engine. So, if you hear nothing more from me about my engine, consider that I got lucky, but I am not recommending anyone do business with this company. If the engine turns out badly, I will be back to say more.
I'd like to add one more thing. For the first four months I was waiting for this engine I was looking forward to talking to people about it. I wanted to tell friends and strangers about what components were inside, how much power it produced on the dyno, and how it had been built by a top quality shop known for its racing engines. Now I'm just hoping no one asks much about it because I surely can't recommend the company that built it. And if people ask why I have to explain why I'm uncertain whether I got a high quality product or paid way too much for a pig in a poke. This company has provided an engine but it has taken all of the joy out of what should have been a terriffic part of this car building project. I would not want anyone else to suffer the same disappointment I have.
Epilogue:
September 14, 2018: When the engine arrived I discovered the part that had allegedly delayed shipping for a day (a distributor) was missing. I called and was told it would be drop shipped directly to me.
September 21, 2018: The distributor had not arrived so I called about it. I was told I would receive the distributor promptly or a refund. That breathing sound you hear is me not holding my breath.
After two more calls, the distributor arrived about two weeks later.
2nd Epilogue
October 18, 2020: The shop that did the final body work and paint was even slower than the engine builder, so the engine was finally started for the first time since I received it about a week ago. I've been chasing oil leaks since then, some of them of my own making (e.g., oil pressure sender). But as I identified and fixed each leak, the oil continued to appear. Today I discovered it is coming from the rear seal of the intake manifold near the distributor. So I'll be removing the intake to locate and fix the leak. Given my previous experience with the engine builder, I found this news disappointing but not in the least surprising.
January 3, 2021
Further examination revealed two more problems that the engine builder should have prevented. The rear main oil seal leaked. Of course that only became apparent after the engine was installed in the car. After pulling the engine and transmission back out, separating them, putting the engine on the engine stand, removing the oil pan, oil pump and rear cap, I replaced the rear seal and reassembled everything. I then moved it to the engine run stand to check it yet again before putting it back into the car. It was when I was preparing to install the distributor that I began to wonder what else they screwed up. So I measured the distributor and discovered it engaged the oil pump shaft by a mere 1/16". It turns out my $350 distributor will not work because I need one with a slip collar to get proper oil pump shaft engagement.
The thing that pisses me off the most about all these problems is that I specified the distributor they were to use and paid extra for the engine to be broken in and run on their dyno with that distributor. They did not use the distributor I specified and so did not notice the problem. My expectation was that they woud either use their experience to prevent such problems, or observe the various oil leaks after the engine run and fix them. They did neither. The only positive thing I can say is that it appears they used the parts I paid for in the engine. But their skill at engine building appears as suspect as their business practices.
In the early days of my search for an engine builder I often found myself admiring some shiny, big horsepower engines for sale on Ebay. The prices seemed lower than most, they had features I liked and they posted videos of their engines being run on their dyno. I looked up some reviews and found they were mixed. Using the videos I tracked some customers and found many were not happy with the quality of the off-brand parts that were used. It was during that search that I stumbled on nearly identical videos posted by a business with a nearly identical name located in the same town. And I came into contact with two people who had bought engines from White Performance and Machine.
The people who bought engines from White Performance and Machine had owned them for two or three years and were happy with both the quality of the engines and customer service from the company. Based on that, I contacted White Performance and Machine about building an engine for me.
When I placed my order for a custom built engine and made a down payment of half the amount to White Performance and Machine in mid April 2018, I took some comfort when I was advised that it would be about 14 weeks before it would be shipped. I took that as a sign that the business had lots of customers and was likely honest about the time required for the build. After all, who would lie about taking 14 weeks to build an engine. If they were going to lie, surely they would claim something sooner like six weeks. So I set a reminder for July 18, 2018, the estimated shipping date. Here’s what happened.
April 12, 2018: Placed order for a complete engine. Paid half the cost up front. Estimated build time: 14 weeks (July 18, 2018)
July 18, 2018: Called to check on engine. Was told it would be shipped in two weeks (August 1, 2018)
August 14, 2018: Calls to check on engine were not returned. Sent a Facebook Message to check on engine. Received reply promising a call back on August 15.
August 15, 2018: Received call back telling me work would begin on my engine and it would ship on August 24.
August 21, 2018: Received a call asking for clarification on engine components.
August 22, 2018: Received call confirming engine components.
August 23, 2018: Received call advising that work on engine had commenced and next call would be to provide me with tracking number for shipping.
August 30, 2018: I sent a message asking for an update. I was told “Don’t worry.” I later received a call telling me to expect the engine to be on the dyno by September 4.
August 31, 2018: I received a call and a brief fuzzy video informing me the engine was on the dyno and would be shipped on September 4. I made the last half payment via charge card.
September 5, 2018: Having heard nothing, I sent a message asking if the engine would be shipped today. Four hours passed without a reply. I called and asked for an update. I was promised the engine would be shipped and a video provided by September 7.
September 7, 2018 (Friday) at 3:15 PM Tennessee time: Having heard nothing I spent some time trying to learn more about White Performance and Machine. And that's when I stumbled across a magazine article that shed light on the problem. The founder of the company was an avid drag racer. And it enjoyed a good reputation under his guidance. But in 2016 he sold the business to his accountant, and it appears things began to change after that. The positive customer reviews I had received were for business dealings under the original owner. That's not who I was dealing with.
Armed with the new owners name, I sent him a brief message describing my experience and threatening to challenge the charge card payment I had made just a week before. Minutes later I received a call from the shop foreman promising a video of the engine on the dyno being made within the hour. I didn't mention that I had been told the same thing exactly one week earlier. He also promised to crate the engine on Saturday so it could be shipped on Monday. I had no confidence that either promise would be kept, but by 5:30 the video had been posted. I decided to wait until Monday to challenge the charge card payment.
September 10, 2018 (Monday): Shortly after lunch I received a call proudly announcing that the engine was ready to ship and they gave me a tracking number. However, a few minutes later I received a second call about a part I had ordered that they had failed to acquire in a timely manner. I was assured that the part would arrive the next day and they wanted my ok to delay shipping one more day so the delayed part would not have to be shipped separately. I approved the request. A later check of the tracking number revealed the shipping company had no record of that number in their system.
September 11, 2018: The shipper indicates the engine was picked up for shipping. IAFT.
Number of times I was given a shipping date that was not met: 7
Total days from order to shipping: 151
Number of days longer than the original estimate: 53
When a business tells me things that turn out to be untrue about one aspect of their operation, I begin to wonder if they lie about other aspects of their operation as well. I can understand that unforeseen circumstances may make it impossible to meet an expected deadline, but to repeatedly mislead a customer about when a job will be started and completed reflects either deceptive business practices, incompetent management or both.
Sadly, if the engine I receive develops any kind of problem, I will immediately suspect shoddy work by the company that built it. If, on the other hand, it runs long and strong, I will always wonder whether they are unreliable business people who build reliable engines, or I just got lucky with the engine. So, if you hear nothing more from me about my engine, consider that I got lucky, but I am not recommending anyone do business with this company. If the engine turns out badly, I will be back to say more.
I'd like to add one more thing. For the first four months I was waiting for this engine I was looking forward to talking to people about it. I wanted to tell friends and strangers about what components were inside, how much power it produced on the dyno, and how it had been built by a top quality shop known for its racing engines. Now I'm just hoping no one asks much about it because I surely can't recommend the company that built it. And if people ask why I have to explain why I'm uncertain whether I got a high quality product or paid way too much for a pig in a poke. This company has provided an engine but it has taken all of the joy out of what should have been a terriffic part of this car building project. I would not want anyone else to suffer the same disappointment I have.
Epilogue:
September 14, 2018: When the engine arrived I discovered the part that had allegedly delayed shipping for a day (a distributor) was missing. I called and was told it would be drop shipped directly to me.
September 21, 2018: The distributor had not arrived so I called about it. I was told I would receive the distributor promptly or a refund. That breathing sound you hear is me not holding my breath.
After two more calls, the distributor arrived about two weeks later.
2nd Epilogue
October 18, 2020: The shop that did the final body work and paint was even slower than the engine builder, so the engine was finally started for the first time since I received it about a week ago. I've been chasing oil leaks since then, some of them of my own making (e.g., oil pressure sender). But as I identified and fixed each leak, the oil continued to appear. Today I discovered it is coming from the rear seal of the intake manifold near the distributor. So I'll be removing the intake to locate and fix the leak. Given my previous experience with the engine builder, I found this news disappointing but not in the least surprising.
January 3, 2021
Further examination revealed two more problems that the engine builder should have prevented. The rear main oil seal leaked. Of course that only became apparent after the engine was installed in the car. After pulling the engine and transmission back out, separating them, putting the engine on the engine stand, removing the oil pan, oil pump and rear cap, I replaced the rear seal and reassembled everything. I then moved it to the engine run stand to check it yet again before putting it back into the car. It was when I was preparing to install the distributor that I began to wonder what else they screwed up. So I measured the distributor and discovered it engaged the oil pump shaft by a mere 1/16". It turns out my $350 distributor will not work because I need one with a slip collar to get proper oil pump shaft engagement.
The thing that pisses me off the most about all these problems is that I specified the distributor they were to use and paid extra for the engine to be broken in and run on their dyno with that distributor. They did not use the distributor I specified and so did not notice the problem. My expectation was that they woud either use their experience to prevent such problems, or observe the various oil leaks after the engine run and fix them. They did neither. The only positive thing I can say is that it appears they used the parts I paid for in the engine. But their skill at engine building appears as suspect as their business practices.