Last year I had a light knock in the left side of my motor. Thought it was bad gas or mabybe a bad spark plug. No dice so I dropped the boat off at Derebery's and Leon thought the knock was in the block and I thought it was in the head, so we came to the conclusion that they would do a leak down and see what was up. Two weeks passed and NO ONE would call me back or talk to me. Finnaly someone came to the phone and stated that the motor was fubared and needed to be rebuilt. I drove to the shop (2 1/2 hours from my home) and found my motor completley tore down to the shortblock. Reason for the complete tear down??????? A busted head stud in the left head! I asked why the motor was torn down and Leon stated that the "tolerences were shot and that he figured I wanted it done". I was going to let them do the rebuild untill they started quoting huge prices and wanting me to buy two new heads. I picked up the boat and all my parts in boxes. I had the head fixed for $280 and the entire motor rebuild by someone I trusted. The machine shop stated my shortblock was in perfect condition before Derebery tore it down. While my boat was in the shop they moved it around with the cover on and ripped all my straps and tore most of the seems. Drianed all the oil from the motor in the bildge even though I have a drain on the hull. Allowed the motor to swing foward and hit the brace thats gell coated in front of the crank pully and crack. I had to replace a full cover, have the engine bay fixed and re-gelled, and pay Derebery $1600 for the labor they performed. On top of the rebuild for my shortblock.

Be aware before you do business with some people.

That sucks. Maybe others will chime in about their experiences.

I have since met two more eliminator owners with similar Derebery experiences. Live and learn.

Sorry to hear that....

Nothing I have not heard here on this board many times before.

I did not know of the board at the time or I would of checked him out.

Ouch........ Thanks for the info. If I was going to have an engine built I would have done it there because they are so close. I thought they were professional after reading a Hot Boat article on the company (no suprise there). They are supposed to have some very high tech equipment, but I guess that don't mean jack***t unless you got good people running running the show. I heard of one other incident, but I thought it was an isolated one.

I have never had Dereberry do any new engine work for me, but I bought a Cafe Racer that had his / their motors in it and they were bullet broof and turn key. Granted, they were mild ( 502 / SC600's ) but still, no issues.

The only thing that rubbed me the wrong way was when I called them to get dyno sheets or spec sheets on the engines and they declined to send me either, fully knowing the boat and engines at the time of the conversation. They would "rebuild them the same way though when I was ready."

There was a thread on Derebery a while back. Half the guys thought he walked on water. The other half thought he belonged at the bottom of the lake.

theres two sides to every story, every builder has there issues.