I don't have direct experience with Golen.....but I know about a dozen people who have.

Of the people I know (or have known) with Golen engines, I know of five who have had catastrophic engine failure within 20K miles.

In my book, that's COMPLETELY unacceptable.

KW

 

I just hate to see folks spend their hard earned money on strokers that make less power than stock shortblocks and then fail sooner than a stock shortblock would have.

I have seen guys who had to put stock engines back in cars just to keep it drivable awhile till they could afford to resolve their Golen mistake.

Maybe simpler is if KW and I agree on something it is time to listen, we don't see eye to eye on much.

 

The problem Dwayne is that most of the guys on this forum don't know much about me.....or that we've butted heads off and on for the better part of 12 years or so ....

So they don't know how rare it is when we are in complete agreement.

KW

 

I think u nailed it. The guy is allways bashing here with second or third hand information he says he heard from someone else. His information source is always from hearsay and no-name sources. Take his story of a sleeved cylinder - like a sleeved cylinder is any weeker? Sleeved blocks are raced all the time. Why would TPIS mention it unless they were charging more for that sleeving? Then it would be easy to read on the receipt but maybe they sleeved it without added charge?
Truth is he never has any good recommendation and every mfr, vendor, performance service is lousy and accused of poor quality, bad design, bad engineering and a inferior result to his car.
Personally all i can say of all those posting as Golen owners i have never a read a complaint. I have read a lot Golan owners bragging their engine but never a complaint. Why is that? And why does he say/claim i know of any owners he warned then received an confirming email (no question mark so must be a statement) - fantasizing again and detached from reality. It goes on and on as now he claims Golen strokers make less power than a stock shortblock! Like Golen is a complete idiot now incapable of anything.
As far as five catastrophic failures let alone within 20k miles that would be unacceptable - but i just don't know of any. None. So shoot me for my honesty but i would need to read/see them to believe it.

cardo

 

I'm one of those Golen customers. Two words:

****. Chad.

If you want the story go ahead and search. Keep in mind not every person who has a Golen engine posts on the internet. I know of two guys I met at Atco Raceway back in the mid 2000s that ultimately had problems on newer engines. If you choose not to believe that Golen is flawed then that's your problem but the fact remains - they have a proven record of being flat-out UNreliable.

You guys always **** and moan and cry about what everyone has to say. Dwayne might not have the best delivery but his advice (more often than not) is good (and NOT out of a book or article). Perhaps if he handed out lollipops with each post you'd appreciate it a bit more?

 

^^^This

 

They better be damn good lollypops, I'm a pretty emotional fella.

 

Not true. 96caprice will gladly give a reach around to anyone using AI parts.

 

The point about the sleeved motor from TPIS was the sleeve failed, then he had to supply a second block. On the plus side it makes so little power the cast Scat crank has survived just fine.

It is a car I worked on, helped tune, he even used to post here.

Far as the Golen stuff guys with direct experience are saying it here, it just isn't what you WANT to hear.

 

Hell must be hitting freezing temps. OK, maybe just cooling off a bit. I don't want to push it.

 

How much power did your friends car make, and what was the engine specs? When I talked to Tpis they guarnteed a 383 LT4 (GM) setup with AFR 210cc heads and a 24x conversion would get 520-530 on the dyno, which they will do the tune and do the dyno. Which thats what im looking for is something in the 500 range and I know thats not RWHP.

 

www.ellweinengines.com

 

Guaranteed, like when it doesn't make the power, its free?

Otherwise, you will have the biggest dyno slip on the block and just be the coolest kid evaaarr!!!!

 

That would be nice, whoever I go with I would want some type of agreement!

Thanks sweetbmxrider, I will give them a call.

 

500 on the dyno or a free reach around??

 

Okay there's one unhappy customer. And its the same guy that claimed his 11"x7.5" B&M transcooler was the exact same cooler as my PCM for less 4"x24" transcooler but half the price - what a story teller. Said it fit in same location above the core support air dam - thats almost as funny as his lollipop joke. So he trashed his Golen engine - yeh i can believe that. He's another bad mouthing regular here that hates facts from legitimate sources too. So does he run a vlv lofting cam also?? Some more great advice from another obvious expert.

Ok so i do search on Golen - on another forum to be more objective/less subjective - and actually find a Golen 383 LTX with a bad lifter: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-t...e-step-in.html.
But a bad lifter could happen to any builder.

I read a lot of happy Golen owners, funny though most were just LT1 short blocks from Golen.

Heres a happy Golen long block customer: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c4-t...internals.html.

That was after 2 hours of searching every post that came up for "Golen engines" on that forum.

Truth is if as many Golen engines destructed as the near 50% claimed lawsuits and repair claims would have put them out of business. If someone has a bad experience with Golen then just post it.
Why all Golen and TPIS bashing on this forum points to the same "experts" that bash everyone else here.
cardo

 

I mean I thought the lollipop joke was pretty funny.

Cry cardo cry.

 

More expert advice. Something thats really gonn'a help the OP at all.
U act like this is your personal forum where u can bad mouth anyone and claim your always right because u have some fictitious amount of experience. Not!

 

Here's a few I found in 20 minutes. Didn't dig too deep.

https://ls1tech.com/forums/9631629-post17.html
https://ls1tech.com/forums/7278960-post18.html
https://ls1tech.com/forums/11247488-post9.html
https://ls1tech.com/forums/11254914-post60.html
https://ls1tech.com/forums/11255271-post66.html
https://ls1tech.com/forums/11258668-post73.html
https://ls1tech.com/forums/8579196-post9.html
https://ls1tech.com/forums/lt1-lt4-m...e-problem.html
http://ltxtech.com/forums/showthread...ll=1#post39718
http://www.camaroz28.com/forums/lt1-...1/#post4018449
http://www.camaroz28.com/forums/lt1-...8/#post4240631
http://www.camaroz28.com/forums/lt1-...0/#post4145785
http://www.camaroz28.com/forums/lt1-...8/#post4379265
http://www.camaroz28.com/forums/lt1-...3/#post6164118
http://www.camaroz28.com/forums/lt1-...3/#post6173356

 

So i looked at your links and most were just hearsay - no owners themselves. Why is that? Because your fast to bad mouth and rather post something hoping no one will question it.

First link secondhand info/hearsay: "but my friend does have one of their 383s in his Clone SS (b-body)."

2nd link is meaningless: " here I will admit golen's engine packages are not the greatest and are in no way meant for someone looking for a high hp drop in engine,...."I personally havent heard anything bad about them or there engines so i'm curious to the "issues" with them since i've been working with chad for the past yr getting the high hp quality parts needed for my SR396."

3rd link actually praises Golan: "My crank broke off at the balancer, in hindsight it had nothing to do with Golen but he stood up anyway and fixed it."

4th link again second hand hearsay: "Had a local guy go run his 383 golen LT1 at the track last thursday. The balancer flew off on the 2nd pass."

5th link car was slow but who's fault - who knows: The longblock came from Golen. Factory ported heads, lumpy cam. I'm not going to get into a pissing match like a couple pages ago, but the times/numbers its put down arent that impressive.

6th link again second hand hearsay: "The guy who built my engine installed a golen engine into a camaro a few years back. It smoked from the time it started to this day, golen would not fix it, they told him to run the **** out of it. (not sure if them are exact words, this is what he said).

7th link more hearsay from our local "expert": Before this thread goes too far off course I'll just add that I haven't seen too many fast Golen motors around nor many that have lasted a long time...Like Dwayne said above whats high quality to some isn't necessarily to others......

8th link was damage from someone else's headwork - but u want to blame Golen for that to? "Update: I think we found the culprit!! The little springs around the valve seals all popped off on the passenger side and went down in the motor!! Found some of the springs in the oil filter, not good... Anyways just wanted to update this thread because Golen is not at fault in this case.

9th link had nothing but good to say for Golen.

Well thats enough and anyone can get the picture of where your information comes from - hearsay.

cardo