Ron Potter.

Best in the business.

I only bought some parts from Ron Potter but he has taken my incessant phone calls, questions and me pestering him endlessly like an absolute gentleman and professional. I have found him to be extremely knowledgeable, courteous and incredibly responsive. I wouldn't hesitate to do anything with him..

One thing to consider is resale value if you were to sell your boat.
I'm using victory engines out of Cleveland Ohio and wouldn't go anywhere else. While he's not known as a "marine" specific shop, he's an endurance shop that does lots of high end circle track stuff. You don't want a guy who build drag racing stuff to work on your marine engine.


That said, a big name shop engine / engines will help to sell a boat if that time comes.

My engines were done at Goodwin competition in WI. Pretty simple stuff for them. Pair of 725hp 598 big block carbed motors. As I recall his work was about 1.5 months. Great to talk to and I could call him and if not avail he would call me back at the end of his work day. No complaints about their work.

Its pretty hard to make money and keep people happy with the rebuilding and selling new engines. If they think another engine shop will do it cheaper they are gone. And in the long run they aren't happy!
And one more thing the customer wants to help :stooges:!

Although not a builder I have to say the same thing about Bob Madara @ Marine Kinetics. I've spent countless hours on the phone with the man in the last few months about technical things. He has gone above and beyond with customer service.

I was on the phone with Bob the other day for a solid 1/2 hour to 45 Minutes... talking heads and cams, giving me solid advice, that helped me a ton and hope I can do what we talked about, his info was great!! Excellent conversation...!

+1.. have also spent a lot of time with Bob on the phone getting advice and picking his brain... another great guy!!

This is really an apples to oranges comparison but I was a heavy repair auto technician for 20 years. I rebuilt many engines within one week. That's complete rebuilds. Blocks would be sent out for boring if there was any cylinder wear, and there usually was. Heads would either be sent out or I'd grind the valves and seats myself. Now, of course, when we are talking about a high output marine engine then much more time must be spent on details and exact tolerances but this could still be done in a matter of weeks and not months and certainly not years. WTF? Years to rebuild an engine? Really?

Next time you talk to him ask him about his rod bolt calculator.