Any good, how is their customer service, delivery time and most important product?
Any issues on quality or service I should know?

 

Last I heard ARE was going under(this was a few months ago). Havn't heard much since. Have you done a search on them, that will answer alot of questions.

 

 

yeah, I heard about some issues, but I see some sponsors still carrying their motors so I was wondering.
I know ChrisARE385 has a killer set up.

 

There are to many other good sponsors to worry about going through someone with as many problems.

 

Are you serious?

 

Exactly. That's probably the best response one could give.

 

I read, this morning, that they are moving the shop to another location, near Toronto.

 

A search in the Sponsor Feedback forum will send you running and screaming away from ARE.

 

It's to bad about ARE, they made some really good motor's, good quality, Etc. I fortunately got a shortblock when they were doing well and highly respected. Back then, there were only a couple people to choose from, MTI, ARE, and MMS. Now you don't here from two of those three...

Dan

 

From another board:

 

i would be soo pissed...i would find those people and give them the beatings they deserve...or at least take all their stuff

 

They got me for tens of thousands of dollars recently.I can confidently say hundreds of thousands of dollars were stolen from members of this board by the crew up north.I'll leave it at that.

 

Ummm.....

Unless you enjoy being bent over the shop table while simultaneously having your ***** put into a vise, and then repeatedly rammed in the *** over a period of several months, and then kicked out the door without a kiss....

Stay away from ARE

 

is it the motors that are ****, or all their prodcuts, or the customer service? I just bought some of their Stage 3 heads, I talked to Peter, they seem like good people They are moving their shop, it's near the shop they are in now, but that's all I know.....

 

they went through restructuring last year and changed location in the last few weeks.
I've had my car in there in the middle of the ordeal, but got a great setup.
They quality and worksmanship is great... just that some people that used to be there did some BIG screw ups and screwed lots of people... hence why they no longer there. As an example, call it coincidence if you wish, my TNT-DP +LS6 intake kit went missing through the ordeal, but ARE is making it right and getting me what went missing.
My 385 is great, and really love it... I had way more issues with Diamond pistons that shipped the wrong ones, and wouldn't take them back, and UPS that lost my 3" duals twice in the Chicago area, than ARE.
True that it took much longer than expected... but they were going through a crisis.
I believe they are overcoming it well, and taking care of all customers that got hurt in the way.

I'm looking forward to going back this spring and have the DP installed as it was intended. 1 Thing I know for sure is that Nick will stick to his word... no matter what... and he'll do things right... he could've just closed the shop and said: "screw everyone" but instead, he did not want to have his name dirtied because of some bastards.
They'll be back on top... just a question of some time.

When I get a Vette, I'll go there for another engine... that's for sure.

 

I contracted ARE to build me a motor in February, they told me that I'd have it by the end of May at the latest. When all was said and done, I didn't get my motor until October. Throughout that time I'd call to check every two weeks and all I got were excusses. They got the wrong parts, they got someone elses parts, the machine shop was closed, they even told me once that they crated my motor up and accidently shipped it to someone else! The biggest thing that made me mad was I'd leave message after message on their voice mail or with people at the shop on the VERY rare times I'd get someone besideds the machine and they NEVER returned my call. I had to keep calling. I told Nick this and he seemed unaware of it. I only got my motor after I talked to Nick directly and threatened to cancel my order (which I wish I would have done). When I finally did receive my motor, there was no build sheet to tell me what was put into the motor. I called Nick and he promised to fax it to me. It never came. I called for 3 weeks straight and never heard a peep from them or got anything. It's a freakin' one page fax! How hard can that be to send? I've noticed now that their toll free number has been disconnected.

From talking with some other people who bought ARE motors, many have had the wrong parts installed, cheaper parts installed than were paid for, missing parts, etc. My motor may be perfect, but I have no confidence that it was put together correctly or with the right parts and now I will probably have to pay someone like MTI to tear it down, inspect it, and rebuild it again. So I'm out more money and time. I should have gone with MTI to start with. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Matt

 

I have also heard bad things about ARE, but I do believe they make quality stuff. However, their screw ups have really earned them a horrible reputation. Months ago I just assumed they were done for until I read this thread. Give it time, I am sure they will come back around.

On a side note, I just had a longblock built by HPE (Horsepower Engineering) and it took roughly 2 months and is in the mail as of today!
Pretty quick if you ask me, and it would have been sooner if I hadn't needed the pistons I got.
They have been completely hands down the best bunch of guys I have dealt with. Particularly Erik, their main builder. Any time I would contact him, he would give me straight up honest answers, and whenever I did not contact him, he would email or call with the latest updates.
..Just giving you an alternative to consider...

 

I had a 422 built by ARE this year. It took about 4 years off my life. I probably called them 200 times, and got a person 10 times, and 8 of those 10 were 'call back later we dont know'. I even drove up there from Illinois, and nobody knew what was going on. I was flipping out.

I did get the car back, DELIVERED to my front door on a trailer in Peoria, Illinois. The engine is perfect. I have not had one issue. It makes a ton of power. My build sheet was different than I expected...

diamond pistons instead of ross they said they were going to use
cola crank instead of calles
ohio rods instead of eagle
Sleeved 5.3L block
My old zo6 heads instead of new 6.0 they said they'd use
248/248 cam instead of 254/254 (the 248 is plenty on a 110 + 2!!!!)
oem lifters instead of comp r (and they used 977 springs!?!?!?)

I got a SUPERB deal. 9300 installed/tuned and delivered for a built 422 with main/head studs, yella terras, new oil pump/chain/lifters/etc

I could not recommend them at this point in time. I did it, but as I said it was nerve wracking. When they dont answer phones for weeks at a time, you think you have been f'ed. When I finally got Nick involved, things started happening and he made good on his word.

I think they make a great motor, but their customer service is nil.

 

I guess I'll jump in here too. I got my ARE 436 about 2 1/2 years ago after a comp cam spring failure (comp 918). ARE gave me a pretty good break on costs, when comp didn't come through. That was the good news. The bad was: took forever, burnt oil horrendously, was tough to tune.

After suffering with this, and failing to receive any help from them, I bit the bullet and rebuilt the heads (all sorts of issues). That helped with tuning, performance and did little for oil consumption.

I'm now again biting the bullet: the car's at Cartek for a full breakdown and rebuild. I very much fear I'll be told they installed all sorts of suboptimal parts, and that I'll have to do quite a bit to resurrect this engine. All in all I'm out much more money than budgeted.

The phrase buyer beware comes to mind: the net is a good source of info but its also a place where enthusiastic and/or uninformed opinion can lead us down the garden path. There have been innumerable examples of vendors who first looked good, then didn't live up to expectation or worse. Its hard to tell what's what when you're 2000 miles from the shop doing the work.

In any event, ARE's issues are classic for a business in over its head and trying to cover its costs with day to day short cuts. Does Hennessy ring a bell?

I think you'd have to be nuts to go back to them unless something truly miraculous happens. Good luck to all.