This is the story of one thing leads to another. As most everyone else on the board, I was looking for a little more power for my 34' DCB Mach F-34 which has great running reliable Teague 575hp. 509's. My wife says that it runs fine why change? The answer to this is there really is no good answer I just want to.
The build began last year when I found some 594 N/A motors for sale in NJ. They were built by a reputable builder in NJ that I won't name because I'm going to say bad things about them. The motors were supposed to be in running condition just not started in 2 years. I was suspicious but I got a good reference by a member of this board who I won't name either. The motors were supposed to have very few hours on a complete rebuild. We came to a deal of 15K for the pair. I thought to good of a deal to be true. 594c.i. bowtie tall decks, lunati crank, oliver rods, big chief heads with T&D rockers, jesel belt drives, all the best parts.
I knew enough that I wouldn't want to go to the expense of installing the motors until they had at least a top end rebuild, so I planned on doing this. I thought I could do it myself... So I pulled the trigger on the motors and the owners of the motors delivered them. It came to a great surprise to the NJ guys that we had more than a few gas stations in Kentucky. He was surprised that we had so many paved roads, and was ready to move to Kentucky by the time he left. My initial impression of the motors was not great. I made mention to one of the brothers that I might just fire them up and he said, I........wouldn't do that. My gut instinct was to tell them to head back to NJ with there crap. But my friend said that there would be enough value in the parts. And I also knew after those guys drove that far that I would have also had to be prepared to open up some good ole Kentucky whoop a... on them. Turns out that would have been good idea.
I removed the plugs and shot some oil in the cylinders and tried to move the crank, one reluctantly moved the other wouldn't budge. I dissassembled the motors and found one push rod wasn't even there tie bar was broken several cylinders with evidence of water intrusion and scuffing of cylinder walls. There was corrosion and pitting of exhaust ports inside and outside which I thought was weird until I remember the owners telling me that their reputable builder took a sledge hammer to their new CMI's to bend them in so they would fit side by side into the Cigarette. Don't try this as it will crack the headers and water will fill cylinders and drip down the outside of the motors.....Water in the oil pans....I knew I had more than I could rebuild. I called Eddie Young and asked him if he could rebuild the short blocks and sent the Big Chiefs to Jim Valako to have him look at them.
More later.......

Ok....when later???

I contacted Bob Madera about the possibility of switching to a hydraulic roller valve train. Eddie and Bob told me the brutal truth about the big chiefs which is that they make a ton of power but at a higher than desireable RPM range than I wanted for a pleasure application. Eddie told me that longevity of valve train components was very short and cost of the components was very expensive. This was all bad to hear but it got worse. Eddie said that the short block needed much more than typical rebuild. The skirts of the pistons had been knurled to try to snug them up in the bores. The pistons had too much clearance time for new pistons. The cylinder walls needed only cleaned up. Bearing sets were mismatched. Jim told me heads needed welding and lots of work.

Sorry to read about your nightmare ...... dont stop now Oh do tell Eric

KYELIM,sorry to hear your delimma,usually,if a deal seams to good to be true,it usually is.keep us informed on what happens next.good luck with your project.

This stuff makes my blood boil. Any recoarse with these a!!holes?? Your friend owes you some money!!! What a bunch of low lifes.

Another "makes me sick story".. Sorry to hear about this! I am sure Jim and Eddie can fix it up for you..

Dick

Eric, there's no reason why you can't mention my name.... I set you up with the "brothers" because I had known them for a while and the last time the boat was running the engines were in good shape....

I'm not a liar, cheater or a stealer.... I gave you what I thought was my honest assessment of the engines and you bought them site unseen....

I feel bad for your losses because I put you in touch with the borthers but I don't feel responsible for what took place... I told you as much info as I knew about them, you should have done more due diligence.... Lesson learned I suppose.

On my end, I haven't spoke to the brothers since your incedent because they have impacted my credibility...

Good luck on your project and I hope to see you on the water sometime soon.

What a bummer.

15 K for a pair of engines fitting that description seems a little bit like sea monkeys & xray goggles - too good to be true.

Why not post the guys names that sold you the engines along with the description they gave of their theoretical condition?

This way we all know what we may be dealing with if they come along again.

Uncle Dave

wow just goes to show us that even motors that appear to be running good can be junk

Good luck with the project