Offshoreonly.com - Marine engine builder Chicago area

Just my $.02 here, but I've seen ALOT of engines built from different people in the Chicago area, and they've all had some kind of horror stories with them.
Mel Riggs is great if you're looking for STOCK mercury rebuild power. Anything that's a little modified from stock, and they have very little experience with it. That's why they try to talk everybody into stock Mercury power. They're excellent with that.
Rick at MPG built a 565 pontiac headed nitrous engine for my brother and I about 4 years ago. They built the whole engine, never put it on a dyno, we picked it up complete ready to start, but without a carb on it. A few months later, we traded it to a guy down in Texas for a conventional headed engine, because of a class rule change. A week later the guy that traded us for the engine called. He said that they bolted a carb on it while it was on the dyno, and when it fired up, ALL the valves hit the pistons and bent the valves. They called Rick, and he compensated them for the valves, that's it.

Honestly now, I build my own engines, but if there's anything that I can't do myself, the ONLY, and I mean ONLY person that I would trust doing anything on my stuff is a guy from Jenison Michigan. That's Dave Wesseldyk from Wesco racing engines.
I was told to go to him a few years back when I had a problem with an engine and was'nt really sure about the work that I had done by a "local" engine builder. I was really, really hesitant about driving 175 miles in march with 2 complete blower engines in the back of the truck, just to put them on his dyno. So, I took a ride to his shop with a friend of mine, just to talk to the guy, and see if I felt comfortable with what he had to say. Well, after spending a day at the shop with Dave, I was never so impressed with the shop, his work, and all the way he answered my questions. I knew that this was the place that would get ALL my business from then on.

And BTW, before we fired up the first engine on the dyno, it was Daves recomendation to pull the valve covers and give all the valve train a thorough inspection. Even though I told him that these engines were primed and ready to start, he insisted on checking. Well, let's just say, that what he found inside the engine would've totally destroyed the engine after about a few minutes of running time. I left the engines there for a week, he took them apart and changed what he felt was'nt to be correct on them. The next weekend I came back up there to see them run on the dyno, and took them back home that night.

Had I not taken that 175 mile trip to Dave, I probably would've had atleast 1 destroyed engine before I found the problem.
Since then, most all my "good" friends are using Wesco for ALL their engine, tranny, and drive needs. There's even some of my drag strip race car buddies that are starting to use him with very highly recomendations from them too.
To date, I can honestly say that I don't know of anyone that's had an engine failure with his work. I really beat the living "p i s s" out of my engines, and when I talk to Dave, he just laughs and asks me why I'm babying them so much.

You might want to give him a call before you make a decision on what to do. He might not tell you want you want to hear, but I guarantee you that he will steer you in the right direction.

His shop # is 616-662-2250, and his cell # is 616-308-5119

Good luck with whatever you decide...............Frank