I have been lucky to know two very talented engine builders in my life, one was a older man who was a engineer/engine builder/racer named Swede Stromsted, hwe was any old flat bottom racer/record holder retired to FL in the mid 70's from the Chain O' Lakes area of IL. He built everything from Flatheads to 392 Hemi's to Late Model big cube engines, naturaly asperated & Supercharged, had a reputation for building bullet proof engines
that won races

Just had a engine built be Bruce Baker of EXPRESS, also a
racer/engine builder and I am VERY pleased with his work, very
anal about everything, drives in the Outlaw Class for Team Velocity. I would recomend him to anyone.

I'm sorry for your bad luck but latley for every good engine built there are several horror stories, always go with the best you won't be sorry, if you don't you will pay more in the long run, than you would have in the first place

There are ALOT of Morons out there............ BEWARE!

Brad
You and I are in agrement about Hans and Randy. I have known
Hans and Randy several yrs, they are both straight up guys. Hans knows how to build hp. also he built the worlds fastest
small block.

Not a big deal, just an example, L.D. at lake Texoma tried to charge me 700 bucks to reprogram my ecu, I sent it to AZ speed and marine after Brad telling me a few storys and paid 300:eek:

I have to agree with DanL. I don't think something like that would go over well whether they are paid advertisers or not. There would be too much of a potential for deception and it could get distorted.

Anyway, some of these guys I wouldn't trust to build my lawn mower engine! :rolleyes:

If what DanL says is true then OSO is controlling our exchange of information....its like reading Power Boat or any other magazine... all one sided( if your a paying advertiser your un- touchable) thatts what makes this board great the free exchange of info....

Dyno,
 

I don't think this is the utopia you speak of.... It's a GREAT place, but it has it's limits. I'm sure Jefferey is not doing this for his health! It's a business (wonderful one it is), and like any other it has it's agenda. As soon as it starts making money, it's agenda forms. Unless somebody can find a way to make all feel that it's fair and still a good place to advertise (and make money), it ain't gonna happen here. It sounded great when I said it needed to happen here, but there would be too much conflict of interest. A side note: I doubt that too many of the quality advertisers here would get beat up too bad though. I think the main ones that bite us are several tiers down on a more local level.

It's not all negative, you do see auto makers bragging about their consumer report ratings when they perform well.

Maybe this needs to be taken outside of this venue, in a totally neutral place. It wouldn't make money anytime soon, but if we all used it, it would serve it's purpose.

Just some 'storming: It would seem to me that to make reviews valid, contact info from the reviewer should be availiable. That might keep the potshots down. What do the rest of you think? Is it worth persueing?

Hey 1100,
 

I met Hans when I took a ride with a buddy that had to return a short block to him. My buddy bragged about how clean and well run his shop was. Then his new motor started knocking! When I went with him to return it, Hans looked at it and said that the crank oiling holes had not been deburred and it tore up the mains. He said that when that block was assembled, he had some extra help that was no longer there. He absolutely took responsibility and said he would make it right. He put in a new crank and rebuilt the short block within a week.

Since then, I have never seen anyone but Randy assembling motors with Hans. They have a meticulus machinist too.

That along with his no BS attitude went a long way with me.

I've gone back several times since and have always been impressed with their work.

accidents can happen anywhere, it's how you make them right that counts.;)

Hey Brad,
which one are you referring to being a psycho?
Can't speak for Jim but Bob is one of the most honest, conservative and fair (sometimes too fair) people I know!

Just clarifying so that someone doesn't get bad press by accident:cool:

Also, the oil cooler you sold me is still going strong:D
Later,
Dave

:mad: :mad:

Man sorry to hear about your engine there D.K. hope they make it right, if not I have the OSO bat in hand!!! also in the houston area Owen's racing engines has a good bill of health for quality work, let us know how it turns out
Mark

this is why we could save every one trouble with a rating system. if they don't go to the bad builders, then no one gets mad.

i have been talkling to a buddy about buying a local machine shop for some time. he just emailed me today with some info about it. i may just have to do all my own work from now on.

Hey Nordic heat (Dave)
 

Glad it's working well for you!

Sorry for the mixup, I was definitely talking about Jimbo, not Bob.

There are several others on this board that have had similar experiences with Regency that weren't exactly positive. I kept going back because I think the guy knows his STOCK stuff. He's pricey, no gettin past that. Problem is that his ego is SOOO huge, that unless he's working on your pontoon boat, he constantly kicks you in the nuts from the moment you walk in. I don't mind massaging warped personalities for a reason, but he got explosively defensive when I asked what I broke in my drive.

Turns out that there was almost no damage to the drive and his enlarged estimate of $900 was off by about $500. Hell, I would have paid it. That's the wierd part. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

I have referred many stock machinery friends to him over the years, and they have all come away with good results, although noticing him being off base a little.:confused:

LOL, Brad have you ever met Clay? :D

Just kidding Clay. I just couldn't resist!

clay is one of a kind ;) i think he was voted the new king of devil's cove this year.

Hey Searay Jim,

We're almost neighbors! I'm in Double oak.

No kidding! I'm NW of 2499 and 1171 so we're closer than you think! Not in Bridlewood but surounded by it.

Since you're close by, I hear there is a guy that does great glass work. The shop is on Shiloh on the curve about a mile north of 1171. I'm not sure if that's Flower Mound, Bartonville or Double Oak. I think the borders all connect right around there. Usually a few boats sitting outside. Do you know anything about him?

Is that a good thing or a bad thing??? :p

Ya gonna admit, Devil's Cove can be a FUN PLACE! :D

Clay,

OSO wants to know how you got that title!!!

Searay,

He is on that circle you described. I live in the neighborhood just north of him. I have watched his guys do their thing for some time. I started doing a little myself when modifying my boat for a blower and got tips from them. He seemed a little slippery, but maybe you have to be in that business. He does a lot of work for dealers. His work looks good to me, and I'm sure he will stand behind it. A friend on this board is getting some cosmetic work done there next week.

I probably pass your house on the way to grapevine.

Probably right down Bruton Orand? Pretty Close. We don't go to Grapevine much and it's even closer than Lewisville. Probably partly becasue we keep our boat up in Corinth. Sure would like to pick up a little piece of land around here and put up a storage facility close to home!

Have you ever looked at ray roberts? It's not a party lake, but it's the size of lavon or lewisville, not too far from you and has real nice facilities.

DUDE, NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING THE KING !!!!:D

Brad,

That's one lake we wanted to get to and just didn't. We've heard it was a well kept secret. One thing about it, we can get to Murray in not much more time just because of the roads. Almost the same with Texoma. Although, we got in a rut and spend most of the time on Lewisville, I guess because it's familiar. Full of idiots on most days but familiar idiots :D

Two of the best "bring your own party" lakes are Lake Ray Roberts and Lake Bridgeport. When we lived in McKinney, we made many trips to those lakes. There was never a "party cove" at those lakes, but it was nice to meet friends there.

The best party lakes (in the Dallas area) are Lake Lewisville and Lake Texoma. We like Texoma MUCH better than Lewisville.

However, the BEST DAMN LAKE IN TEXAS is Lake Travis in Austin. It is over 50 miles long with clear water, great marinas, an awesome party cove (Devil's cove) and great people with fun boats. We are very blessed to live only 5 miles from the dam.

Just my two-cents...

roger that clay !

Yeah, I think Lake Travis has the best water I've ever seen. Haven't traveled much of the length though.

Clay,


Hope to meet up with y'all next summer, hopefully we will make it down to dunk to boat on Travis for a weekend, any slips to stay overnight in? which are the best/reasonably priced?

DallasHeat

I keep my boat iun Lakeway, wet slips, when we overnight there I think it is like 15 buck, and it is also a nice hotel and resturant and gas dock

there are quite a few people from lake travis on here. who does your work in the area and why?

Any of you Lake Traviss guys familiar with a boating accident some time ago? The boat was a 34 Super Hawaii that possibly ran aground and there were fatalities? Maybe 3-4 years back?

Full Throttle Marine - (830) 693-5591
 

At the risk of repeating myself...

My current mechanic is Bob Lloyd of Full Throttle Marine. I trust him with everything on my boat, and I have ALWAYS been happy with the work.

I HIGHLY recommend the shop to anyone with marine propulsion questions. Bob does the BBC work and Dusty (his partner) does the outboard and PWC work. Together they are an unbeatable team!

Give them a call today! :D

Full Throttle Marine - (830) 693-5591

thanks clay. i wanted people to see some postive feedback and to know that there are a few good builders out there.

I'll second that about Bob and Full Throttle Marine. Again, he's got mine in his shop right now! I know I'm not near as far away from Bob as some people that will be making the trip for winter projects, but I pulled mine from DFW!

He's got some great winterization specials. Depending on which special you go with, you can drop her off this fall/winter and when you take her out in the spring, she could be running 10-15 MPH faster! :D

I heard of a 42 or so apache running aground with motors wfo until they burned up

the apache was a 36 that ran aground this may during a poker run. no one was hurt badly.

thats some scary $hit

The Apache incident happened right down from my house. It wasn't during the poker run, but after when the owners were on their way back home. They hooked the boat in a turn at high speed and ejected everyone out of the boat. No kill switch lanyard are life jackets. Fortunately the boat just ran ashore and smoked the enginess. Help arrived quickly and got the people out of the water with no injuries. Really lucky. Sure reminded me to wear my lanyard when running hard. I don't remember anything about the other accident mentioned. Seems like there is a serious one every couple of years. Usually folks running at night after partying all day and running aground at speed.

Been off for a while but was told of this thread.

The quote that L.D. is a Crew Chief for a SuperCat isn't true.

He WAS Crew Chief... until he was dismissed early in the season for adding unauthorized costs to the racing effort of said SuperCat team. Wouldn't get on the same page according to the 1st hand source who told me himself during the Corpus Christi race weekend.

DredgeKing: Wish it werent' true! Unfortunately know others who've spent gobs of $$ with him and he doesn't treat them very well either. Takes forever to do the work mostly. Some of his motors have lasted long time, others... not long at all.

Brad Perry: Thanks for telling your experiences too and offering info about your builder. Might need it sometime and know others who might wish they'd have known earlier too. Thanks.

Scott

tejas i had also heared that he is no longer a crew chief. at the time he WAS the crew chief.