do not use barr marine products
 

i saw someone in here considering buying an engine through a company associated w/ barr marine-about a year ago i built 2 fresh big blocks for my own boat and ordered new barr manifolds and risers, we built the engines on a stand and a friend was helping, so i had him bolt the risers to the manifolds, anyway, got the engines running, put it in the water and the port motor lasted 4 hours bfore it hydrolocked while running destroying a cylinder and wiping out the crank/block-so i tear it down to find that barr machined the manifold wrong- the riser mounting holes were tapped 1/8" off center of the exhaust port-so there was minimal sealing area for the water jackets- anyway, after a bunch of bs and arguing and 6 months they finally paid 1600$ for the engine-out of a 3900$ bill-so i lost quite a bit of money using there products-fortunately i had a 454 core that was rebuildable-so beware-IT ISN'T ALWAYS BETTER BUILT BY BARR!!! and top it all off my supplier tells me he will make up the difference in parts-which is the only reason i agreed to go along w/ this- and come to find out he is taking like 5% off of every purchase when i deal w/ him-instead of giving me the parts for free at purchase until balance owed to me is payed-so i got totally screwed on this deal-needless to say the parts supplier in ft ldale now gets a minimum amount of my business

Re: do not use barr marine products
 

in 25 yrs Ive never had any problems with there products but I do always double check everything when I build a motor,including pulling the plugs after about 15- 20 min to check fuel mixture and for water intrusion in this case it would have been discovered at that point

the motors they are selling are gm crate motors that I belive inmar marine is actually putting together for them and just branding it barr

again I have installed several of these branded both barr and inmar with nothing but great results

Re: do not use barr marine products
 

I've never had a problem with Barr products but I really like using Mercruiser manifolds and risers. Only use Barr on some OMC's or Crusaders. I have never used their engines. As goodt said after replacing an engine its a good idea to be very cautious, doing a cyl drop test at the very least. Usually in an aftermarket warranty situation if you have receipts they will reimburse you for all expenses, I know Sierra does.

Re: do not use barr marine products
 

sierra is fantastic concerning warranty issues, the motor ran fine on the shop floor, hittting on 8 cyls, but there was a very small section where the gasket was sealing, once the engine was out running in the boat is when it totally let go and wiped the engine-how does anyone justify what they paid???like i said, it is usually a straightforward thing to install new risers and manifolds, so i had a friend do that part, otherwise i might have caught it, it cost me 200$ just to r&r the engine in forklift fees-so tell me, is this the kind of company you want to deal w/ when it comes to warranty issues??? how about quality control, or should i say lack thereof??? i had a new sierra manifold develop an internal leak a couple of years ago on a customers boat, damaging the engine, and they promptly paid for a new engine, including install and even the oil, so you tell me which company you would deal with??? better built by barr,my ass!!!!!!!!!!!