Visceral

iTrader: (1)

Man oh man.... it seems really a trip that some folks (noone here that Im aware of) used to go on aand on about MTI being expensive.

Based on my experiences with ARE and the experiences y'all have had with JPR and MMS...

MTI is the bargain of the century. Its why I send my car and work there from OREGON.

I feel bad for each of you. I ended up in a similar, but not quite as expensive situation with ARE. I have never regretted cutting all ties adn just handing my car over to the most qualified shop I could find, reguardless of price.

In the end, the cheapest rarely *is* the cheapest.

Bear

iTrader: (1)

Agreed, IN THE END, the cheapest isnt always the cvheapest. I am finding out the hard way. Its costing me $3500 plus parts for the damage that was done. This is crazy. Add parts and we are at $4500-$5000 more.

11 Bravo

iTrader: (3)

I know you gotta be bumming, Bear. It will work out in the end. I have a bunch more parts on the way, and my heads are going to TEA to get flowed before I get them. I am getting cosmetic gaskets with them so I should be good, right? Will run NPG for sure.

ChevyGoldfinger

Just an FYI for you Ken. . . when the machine shop that was doing the finish work on my 427 Darton sleeved Super Stroker, (sleeves installed by Steve @ Race Engineering) they tried to get the Diamond pistons to work with my setup, and after much frustration with the finish work on them, they opted to send them back and went with JE pistons in my motor instead. Not sure of all the details on why they went this way, but they build engines for the NASCAR truck racing series team here in Vegas, along with many other high dollar stuff, so I was in a different league than JPR like Bear.

Sure glad to hear about Bear (and others) finally getting their motors straigtened out and done correctly. There sure were a bunch of pitfalls just waiting to bite people in the *** on these wet sleeved strokers, I.E., the Cometic gasket vs. Fel Pro fiasco. I guess this was a learning process for everyone, including Darton and others. I got caught up in the middle of it with my 427, but seem to have dodged the bullets and found out about the problem areas in time to avoid them. I was familiar with Evans coolant from other projects, and insisted on it before they ever manufactured the race type, and had to send my regular NPG back in and trade it for the new thinner viscosity racing coolant. Also went with one of there first WP setups, and the Evans 160* Stat, when they got it done. Anyone contemplating one of these Darton sleeved strokers now, have the benefit of many trial & error problems from the beginning, and have folks like Bear and others to thank for blazing the trail at great personal expense and GRIEF/STRESS

Hopefully the road ahead will be much smoother from now on out. It has been blood, sweat & tears up until now.

Bear

iTrader: (1)

Here are the pics that a fellow JPR'r took for me. It is hard to see the sleeve damage on these pics, but the piston damage.....

Scalpel

iTrader: (4)

Shouldn't the clearanced piston have been clearanced more "neatly" than that? For example, smoothing out the jagged edges, etc?

I can definately see the scored liners.

Bear

iTrader: (1)

Cannibal, if u wanna know how to link 16 rooms of Audio/Video equipment, Im your man. I wear a shirt and tie for a living. God blessed me with a BIG ******* mouth. I can talk for days on end about nothing to anyone, Its who I am. I am not terribly gifted with tools or my hands. More like retarded if you ask anyone whose ever had the "pleasure" of installing my 16 room AV link systems. My Dad on the other hand was a sheet metal mechanic his whole life. He could fix anything if he had the tools. I need help with my car, I am no fool, I choose to pay people to do something I cant.

In answer to your question, I have no ******* idea about what a clearanced pistion should look like!!!!

JS

iTrader: (4)

Thats an abortion.Pistons are supposed to be machined and smoothed neatly and wegihed to make sure they are within a certain weight.Are all 8 clearence or just this one piston.Looks like the reluctor wheel got that baby,This was and is SHOTTY work,An absolute discrace.Ask Steve about this stuff bear or the guys at esp,The will tell u there own opinion of that mess,It was thrown together with no concern to detial.

Get your 1000 bucks and start over.
Its a terrible lesson learned,Stay away from HACKS.

10secondZ

iTrader: (24)

Very nicely put! and No..those are just straight up stress risers..they should be smoothed....by the looks of it though..kinda seems like the reluctor wheel did a little clearancing of it's own?

Carter

OSR 1

Gold finger
I use Diamond pistons in all my motors and we clearance #8 because on the 4 inch strokes it is not clearanced enough but with a little work it clears fine ( we made 850 hp and went 8.90 with a diamond piston in our LS1 car
Joe prince must of saw that it was machined and never checked the clearance
because all those marks are from the reluctor wheel (I wonder if Joe Prince was a drinker)

11 Bravo

iTrader: (3)

FWIW, when Joe sent me my Diamond pistons a month ago, he wrote a note reminding me to check the clearance on #8. So it would seem that he would have checked it on Bears motor. I don't know the real deal either way, just thought I'd throw that out there.

JS

iTrader: (4)

Easy to say that after a disaster,I hope he rebalanced all 8 after clearancing #8.Bravo I gotta hand it to u,your as blind as a bat.This is shotty crappy work,thank GOD your having someone else build your 1yr old fully paid for no warrantied stroker.

Bear OSR is gonna make that baby scream.
I wish that motor was going in my car

11 Bravo

iTrader: (3)

Actually I'm less blind than you think, bro I was told by him to check the number 8 in early May. So unless I'm mistaken (could be), he did not tell me that AFTER this disaster with Bears was discovered. I'm not defending him or anyone else or saying he did a good job building the motor. Come on dude, don't insult my intelligence. Just putting out info.

JS

iTrader: (4)

Fair enough,U actually had a gaurdian angel watching over u.Even though it took a yr to get your parts having someone else build the engine was a blessing in disquise.

11 Bravo

iTrader: (3)

You are correct there. Hopefully I will have a real bulletproof setup. I was never concerned with a warranty, cause the motor will probably have a little laughing gas run through it lol

JS

iTrader: (4)

Gotcha......

ezss

You can see the sleeve damage, although its not super clear. Looks like someone went nuts with a chisel on your #8 though.

Bear

iTrader: (1)

Well its time for an update. The motor is back from R.E.D. and is off being balanced and align honed. I had to "clean up" the block and get new pistons. I ordered a new 90mm intake and Tb since it was apart. I added a bigger, meaner cam and some small other details. I never recieved the money or main caps from JPR. I've had it with him and his BS. I left him a lovely message saying not to bother sending me money or the parts. He is a piece of **** and I want nothing more from him. I paid for the pistons myself and the damage to the block. This whole thing has taken a ridiculous amount of time because of all the bs. The pistons are a custom bore size so that took forever. The shipping of the block to and from CA was shitty. All in all this project has sidelined my car for a 2nd straight racing season. It should be done in early Oct. I am going to Amsterdam then so I plan on picking up the car when I get back around the 15th or so. Steve says that I need a solid 3000 miles on the motor to properly break it in, THEN I can race. It will be a long wait for the 3000 miles. I will also have no speedo or odometer after I get the TH400 installed, so that should be fun trying to guess how many miles I put on. Well thats my update. See you guys at the track in the spring. Later, Bear

JS

iTrader: (4)

I cant imagine what u have into this stroker..
Its gotta be sickening....

Get a GM Truck speed sensor and adapt it to the F-car so u can run the speedo.
Your in my prayers Brother...

CHRISPY

If clearance was an issue would the motor even turn over with the piston smacking like that? Does it clear but is really close or something?

wouldnt this be noticed during assembly when the motor was being turned over by hand?