Need an engine machine shop in Dallas Area...

Ok, so I got some rods for this motor I am building and they turned out to be RACE rods that are over 40grams lighter, all on the heavy end of the rod. This means my rotating assembly needs to be balanced and the only shop I have dealt with in the past is VT for my race motor, and Houston Performance. I really don't feel like shipping this stuff around because it is so heavy.

So, I need suggestions for a shop here in DFW area that can balance a crank and rods/pistons for me. It's a zero balance just like a small block chevy. Anyone got any leads? Is this something Richard Painter can do?

Thanks!

MW

http://www.waynecalvertengines.com/

Richard uses the above shop for balance work.

Matt,

I'll be in DFW this weekend to pick up #718. Monday, I have to drop it in Houston and will be 5 minutes from Houston Performance. My truck has plenty of room, if you need it for transport.

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Originally Posted by rpoz27

Matt,

I'll be in DFW this weekend to pick up #718. Monday, I have to drop it in Houston and will be 5 minutes from Houston Performance. My truck has plenty of room, if you need it for transport.

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Thanks for the offer Misty, however, HPP, one of my primary go to guys works directly with Houston Performance and makes a couple trips a week down there with motors and such. That is plan C for now.

I will give Calvert a call and see how much the ol' man charges.

Thanks.

Hate to say it but Carvert's quality has been lacking as of late. His son has been doing most of the work and it has not been up to par. Dave Schwarze's engine is evidence. His 347 lasted 1/2 day at the track after it was rebuilt at Carverts. He balanced it by taking all the weight out of the flywheel and balancer and none from the crank which lead to the crank failure. The heads were redone and some problems were found there as well. Calvert replaced the valves with SBC valves on one of the heads. Since they are longer the spring pressure was too light. Also a couple of the valve seats were installed crooked and they were ground any way during the valve job.

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Originally Posted by BSharp

Hate to say it but Carvert's quality has been lacking as of late. His son has been doing most of the work and it has not been up to par. Dave Schwarze's engine is evidence. His 347 lasted 1/2 day at the track after it was rebuilt at Carverts. He balanced it by taking all the weight out of the flywheel and balancer and none from the crank which lead to the crank failure. The heads were redone and some problems were found there as well. Calvert replaced the valves with SBC valves on one of the heads. Since they are longer the spring pressure was too light. Also a couple of the valve seats were installed crooked and they were ground any way during the valve job.

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Interesting... This job should be pretty simple given it's a zero balance setup so the flywheel and the balancer are out of the picture. What I have found is that the lighter cast crank and lighter rods are going to result in nearly a 3lb loss of rotating mass in the internals. Percentage wise, a pretty substantial amount. I am doing the rest of the build so that further reduces the potential for screw up on his part.

Thanks for the input Bud!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BSharp

Hate to say it but Carvert's quality has been lacking as of late. His son has been doing most of the work and it has not been up to par. Dave Schwarze's engine is evidence. His 347 lasted 1/2 day at the track after it was rebuilt at Carverts. He balanced it by taking all the weight out of the flywheel and balancer and none from the crank which lead to the crank failure. The heads were redone and some problems were found there as well. Calvert replaced the valves with SBC valves on one of the heads. Since they are longer the spring pressure was too light. Also a couple of the valve seats were installed crooked and they were ground any way during the valve job.

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Ouch!

The 1/2 dozen times I've been up there, I've seen Wayne "over-seeing" my engine build.

He's shown me exactly what's being done, he knows exactly how much is being milled, the parts being used, sharing ideas on getting the most out of the rule set I have to play with, the calculations on volume and CR ... everything.

I've never seen Randy in the shop. Maybe (hopefully) Randy is selling vacumn cleaners now.

:shock:

The folks I've talked with about calvert have told me about a botched job that came out of his shop recently. But no one could tell me about more than one. Maybe this was the one?

Wayne did introduce me to a young guy (mid 20s) that was doing all the head work now. We chatted for a while about NOT touching the ports at all.

Interesting ...

I just came from Painter's shop.
He has the motor above in now cleaning up the mess.
Call him if you want the 411.
He is aware of the circumstances an sees the need for another proficient balance facility.
He aspires to fill the need in the future.

jb

I forgot to mention Richard is fixing the heads.

Oil pressure issues and stripped bellhousing threads from Painter's shop is the reason I decided on Calvert.

I guess they all have their "days".

<fingers crossed>

A shop that completely slipped my mind is Automotive Machine and Supply in Downtown Ft. Worth.

Steve built a nice LS1 for me several years ago and they now have a nifty 5 axis CNC machine.

Some local bike shop uses AMS exclusively to port all thier stroker motors. And the shop is spotless clean.

Another data point.

Wells Racing in Duncanville is where we had the heads done on our mod motor and I believe they also do balancing.

The are familiar with the platform and that is always a plus.

http://www.wellsracing.com/

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Originally Posted by oz98cobra

Wells Racing in Duncanville is where we had the heads done on our mod motor and I believe they also do balancing.

The are familiar with the platform and that is always a plus.

http://www.wellsracing.com/

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Thanks Daron. I was going to call you tonight about it. Found the stock rods weighed about 607g and the ones I bought were advertised to weigh 605g....well, they showed up and weigh 560g... :roll:

(killed quote hoping b.s. comments above get edited)

Ouch! That'll leave a mark.
Bridge napalmed.
It's always someone else's fault ;)

jb

Matt: Every shop has skeletons, it's the nature of the business. I've had a bomb out of Keith Craft, wrong bearings out of Chase Me Racing, silicone blobs out of Wicked Peformance... my list is much longer but you sould get the idea from the short list. Bottom line is that you need to use a builder you are comfortable with and be very specific on what you want and what he intends to give you.

I talked to several of the guys in our group and heard what they had to say about the local builders. They all had valid input. Personally, I chose Richard Painter for my motor. I liked his honesty and service level. First, he picked my car up from my house as I was out of town and then called me to see if I wanted it delivered back after he pulled the motor. Then he called to let me know that he couldn't find core heads except for 1 pair that was $50 more than he typically pays. That's honesty when a guy spends my money like his own. I'm not infering that any builders are dishonest, I'm only telling you what I used to make my choice.

Boudy

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Originally Posted by Boudy

Matt: Every shop has skeletons, it's the nature of the business. I've had a bomb out of Keith Craft, wrong bearings out of Chase Me Racing, silicone blobs out of Wicked Peformance... my list is much longer but you sould get the idea from the short list. Bottom line is that you need to use a builder you are comfortable with and be very specific on what you want and what he intends to give you.
Boudy

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Well, this wasn't the only place I posted the question and you are right, I had 50 bad stories from each of the builders in the area. Stories of walking into a smoke filled pot house at Kim Barr, to very close story about David's motor. I listened to all the negatives posted but searched for the positives where I could to decide on who to pick. I am having the stuff taken up to Calvert tomorrow and since I am supplying all the parts and pieces which I have already "blueprinted", all he needs to do is load up the bob weights and balance the crank. I got all the piston/rod assemblies to within +/- 1 gram and he will have the rings and rod bearing as well. Should be pretty easy and I already know the parts are good. Crank came out of the stock motor I pulled from the race car with 22k miles on it, rods are new, bearings are all new and pistons will be reused and look great! I was amazed that the stock Ford Pistons were all within a gram of each other! I think I did a pretty damn good job on this as I got the heavy ends of the rods all identical in weight. Motor should be freak'n smooth! Just finished the valve stem seals and I can say that 32V motors are great....till you have to freakin' do valve stem seals! Took me and my dad about 4 hours to disassemble, clean and get everything together. It's nice to have 4 hands sometimes!!!

I have everything else to start slapping it back together as soon as I get the crank/assembly back. I have spent the better part of 3 weeks just cleaning all this stuff and I am STILL finding stuff to clean. I just hope it runs soon so I can enjoy this weather with the top down!!!

Thanks all.

update for those interested... Calvert turned it around in two days and charged $155...had to take a bunch off the crank due to the lighter rods but other than that he said it was a piece of cake.

New daily driver coming soon!!! :P