Joey Griffin Engines
 

Im just curious...anyone have or had problems with engines built by Joey Griffin in the last year or two?

Thier are some here that have, Maybe they will chime in !!!!!:party-smiley-004:

Yes!
He rebuilt my 575's. On one of my motors he kept my good heads and put worn out heads on it. This resulted in hydro lock and a rebuild.

There are Other local guys here that have had problems as well. Of all they guys here that he did motor work, mine lasted the longest -120 hours. The others got 75 hrs, 30 hrs, 10 hrs. Local engine builders that have seen his work said all the motors they have seen look like the parts came from the garbage can!
I would stay FAR AWAY from him.

Btw: if you are local to Norfolk area, I can refer you to someone that does do GREAT work.

He will misrepresnt part descriptions. I have first hand experience. I would NEVER do business again.
Allan Smith
P.S. If misrepresent is not in the dictionary, insert lie instead.

Thanks for the info. I tore mine down the other week after about 45 hrs. Inside of the motor was a joke. Machine work was horrible and everything was worn out. Only thing worth a darn was the crank and cam. So it seems to be the same mess going on. Misrepresent is a good word asmith. Atleast now i will know what is in my engine.

As Bill was saying, I have experienced not once, but twice the Joey failure. I paid him to rebuild my 502, it lasted 30 hours. I took it apart and saw that it was crap, took the parts down to him, and he "rebuilt" it for free. I then sold the boat thinking it was good to go, as it ran fine at sea trials. I have since heard it lasted about 10 hours and needed a full rebuild. More claims of junk parts being used and yes, the only thing that could be salvaged was the cam and crank. The gentleman that bought my boat had another story of complete loss of two high horsepower, high dollar engines that didnt last a summer. It's a shame, he's a nice guy, but his work is unacceptable. Not sure what happened with his work...

my fountain had griffin engines in it when I got it from schogren, I called griffin at the time to see what the internals would have in them he said the good stuff, callies cranks, oliver rods, j e pistons, well when eddie young got them this fall he was blown away because they had eagle cranks & rods , the machineing was horrible, the rods were touching the bottoms of the bores and on and on , he couldnt believe they stayed togather this long. good luck !

Do a Google search on Joey Griffen Engines and this thread comes up first now...what goes around comes around. I just hope that anyone interested in having him do work just Googles his name and they'll get the scoop.

Yea, i have heard of similar conversations with Joey......"best of this, special that". Its a shame for someone who "HAD" the reputation he did. I dont understand it. It seems to be par for the course in his later motors, misrepresented, worn out and mismatched. Its sad when someone has to resort to scamming people to make money.

If you were Reggie you got good parts and a good build. From what I have seen everyone else got crap. I think now he is working on airplane engines and doesn't really mess with the boat stuff anymore.

Mental note to self: Take the train..............:eek:

Yea really, god help us

No come backs

Sounds like if Joey builds it they will come back, The motors that is !!!!!!!

I have had 6 engines done by Joey and have had great luck with all of them. The last ones were done three years ago and have over 40 hours on them. They are 502 bored to 509s and dyno at 575-580 ea with 600 torque. I have always had him do our work even when we raced with SBI. I hope nothing has changed but after reading these posts?????????

Things have evidently changed. I have a friend that has a Griffin engine in his boat and has not had trouble. That engine was built a while ago. It seems to be in the last couple years.

A friend of mine used to use a lot of his engines and from what he said the real work was done by a certain machinist down there. When that guy left/retired/died/whatever then things started to get skeezy for the boat stuff. These 2 did a lot of business together so I suspect that is pretty close to the story.

Makes sense. To say my engine lacked machine work is an understatement

Nothing has changed-- I am a Joey Griffin fan and have owned a pair of Joey's engines with no failures. Using common sense tells me that no one is perfect and has 100% success. Don't let the few comebacks of this engine builder change your mind -- he is a great engine builder.

Airplane engines!:eek:

That needs to be broadcast on some aircraft forums. Much more serious than a boat engine.

YOU may have a good one. I personally know of 4 people that had motors done by Joey - sometimes twice - NONE of them got a good motor. None of these guys run them hard either. Plus the local builders here have many many stories about EXACTLY what everyone mentions on this thread.
Where there is smoke, there is fire.

I agree Bill, i have personally experienced it. 40 some hrs on my engine and not abused. But it was worn out with misrepresented parts and came with a BS dyno sheet. My friend has personally experienced this. I have seen older Griffin engines do good but recently i have seen crap. From what I have seen, its not somebody not being "perfect" or "100%".....its someone one taking money and not giving people what they paid for. I.E. SCAM

Everyone makes mistakes, it's the misrepresentation coming out in this thread that is troublesome.

If a mistake is made then the measure of the builder (of anything) is how it's rectified. I'm a contractor of residential homes. If I make a goof I fix it. However I don't tell my clients they are getting X and deliver Y, that's deceit and that's a whole different ball game.

I have nine engines built by Joey and Chris, Big Blocks , Small Blocks , Blown and natural and have ran the pure living S#$# out of them and had one rocker arm fail. I have had two 850s that had over 80 hard hrs on them before he rebuilt them. They have four races on them now and they still run fine. I don't post much but , how did all these failures happen? Ideling out the cut, I don't think , who knows. Mine might blow up the next time i run them. Griffin has always treated me very fair and in my case, his engines make big RELIABLE Power. I suggest all you guys that have had problems go to Summit , Jegs, World and buy some Create Engines, bolt up your headers, sea pump, and ignition and give that a shot. Jeffrey McCann

He didn't build mine but I know at least one of the guys that had a Griffin motor blow rebuilt it himself.....and it's still running today. When he tells you it has Lunati crank, it blows in 30-40 hours and it has an Eagle crank as well as other parts of a lower level than you were told it doesn't matter if they drove the chit out of it....the man lied about the parts he used to build your motor. Since you are apparently a loyal, repeat customer he'd be foolish to screw you over like he would someone he doesn't expect to see again.

repeat customer he'd be foolish to screw you over like he would someone he doesn't expect to see again.:eek:

so how do you detemine who will be a repeat customer and who they would never see again ????
thnx

80 hours on 850's is nothing to brag about. Just sayin'.

up til about 5 years ago you never heard stories like this about Griffin....now I hear them all the time. Maybe times got tough and anyone new got junk....and anyone who had already been a customer got what he paid for???? (I'm speculating).

I know one twin engine boat Griffin did that lost a motor.....and was rebuilt. Soon after the other one went and the internals weren't even the same parts that were in the first motor. I don't know about you but most people rebuilding both motors tend to use the same parts in each of them.

Especially if the client is paying for the "good stuff"

dont get me started :party-smiley-004:

Hey Big Daddy, I think he already did. :eek: LMFAO

When you run them like i do between 4500 and 6500 70% of the time turning 38s. I think thats a pretty heavy load. Correct me if i'm wrong, but I don't think Merc makes a engine that turns over 5400. I have seen them come all to hell in less than an hr. Like i said , I have had a great experiance with Griffin and he will continue to do my work. Most people, like me, when they get in a boat, it's ran hard. Plus , they sound better running hard. I want all engines to stay together. It's alot more fun. Jeffrey McCann

All I know is he used to build some nice HP600's in the factory classes.

When you give him two Hp 500 EFI'S with 170hrs on them Because you want more, And after 42 hrs one loses oil psi and he tells you sorry you ran it out of oil . Then you pull it down and it has 3 sleeves in it . Then you pull the other one down and it's not the same as the other one, Rods different lifters different one intake with machine work done the other not , What is one to think ?????

I hear ya. One guy I personally know - had issues. I was there when he asked Joey to do the "right thing". Joey said "I don't wana work on you boat no more". I was there - too bad, when my friend tore it down, used parts, mismatched parts, mis matched motors, sleeves and more. That ws blatant deceit!

Btw: Joey was sued for this from an angry client years back; he lost.

pokin the bear :lolhit::ernaehrung004:

I saw 637 at one time. about ten years ago. I thought they were pleasure boat motors. Silly me, Is that why they out ran everyone?

wow i think everyone is getting off track in the main issue.. If some one says that you are getting a certain part you better be getting that part. Thats consumer fraud. But if when the motor was built and it wasnt spelled out exactly what you were getting then thats bad business on both partys. and if thats what happened and he was just going off reputation that sux...I know its a hp motor but it better last more than 10 hours...just my.02 good parts or cheap

Technically
 

Technically there Jeffrey, I think but can be mistaken Mercury doesnt build they marinize a create engine except for the pretty blue engines from HP. The 5400 is because the lifters wont take it ask the people who have had Whipple do the upgrade whats the first falure they have and it doesnt take long. And then of coarse theres my all time favorites a little bit of blue gas and 7600 cant beat that sound.

a little bit of blue gas and 7600 cant beat that sound.

:ernaehrung004::ernaehrung004: