Just curious what kind of time people have been quoted vs actual delivery date on having performance Marine engines built.

I’m not trying to be an internet a$$hole and slander any buisness…I’m just getting fed up on missing another boating season and I’m curious what kind of turn around most have had with having performance marine engines built.

ive had numerous street
car engines built in the past…many I’ve assembled myself since my trusted builder retired, and typically he’d turn a full build around in 3-4 months….

Since he retired I tried elsewhere and intially I was quoted roughly 4-5 months on a pair of mild carb’d NA 540’s….nothing exotic…..that was a 1.5yrs ago….engines still haven’t been assembled….and this is from a well known performance marine engine builder….

what’s your turn around been like since deposit paid etc?

unbelievable.....have they done anything,

Had same issues with local to me performance shop- engine builder, pulled them from him and took them to Mike D. Sterling Performance. He had them for 4 months and got them back. Deposit and money invested was a dry lube job for me....

Well it is the way it is these days. It is a number of things,lack of good labor, parts supply, other projects, etc in front of your build.

I had two 565s rebuilt and quoted 6-8 weeks last year, it turned into 8 months for all the mentioned stuff. Then went to the Dyno and found out that the oil pumps were reused. One engine had a stuck pressure relieve valve and blew the oil filter off and sprayed about 1.5 galloins of oil al over the dyno room.
Had to have the pan pulled and pump replaced. Then it ran fine. The other engine after the ECU quit working and was replace from the running engine found that both heads leaked down 35-40% on several cylinders. Orders new AFR heads and was quouted 4 weeks. Got one set in 5 weeks. The other set turned into 5 months with me emailing AFR every two weeks to get them.
So even if you have the work done that will take 4 times the quoted time. There is always the issue that everthing is right and all works. So Yeah, plan on a long time to get engines done and done right.

Still have to tear then down again to replace heads with new ones. These engines have not been in the boat for 1.5 years now. They will be running this fall, finally.

This is one big reason that the Mercury outboards are everywhere. Pull them off and replace with a new one and you are running possably in the same week with a warranty.

Dropped my VR 1 off at Saris Racing, last fall total rebuild including boring 502 out to 540 changing induction, ignition to Holey HP, dyno tune, in water tune and back to me late May. Saris is fantastic.

Padraig

I've heard of everything from 2-3 months to 2 years. A friend of mine was 2 years + from a well known builder.
Most of them over promise and then they also will take care of their regular/repeat customers ahead of new customers

Engine builders, generally speaking, are getting older and older... and not many young new comers coming to the engine build scene!
so less workers means longer turn around time... we went thru that with cars motor racing engines, and turned toward the crate engines from gm. I know someone in the boat business that no longer get engines rebuild for his customers. Too long and not always reliable, so he either sells a brand new short or long block from merc, with a waranty, in a matter of days or 1-2 weeks delay... if customer feels it too expensive that way, he politely turns him out to go somewhere else and get his engine rebuild else where...

Lead time should be close to time quoted or more like will you make the upcoming season or not?
Im gonna bring up some points that haven't been touched on yet: Does engine builder own a dyno? Theres a local to me (15 miles from me) engine builder who also owns a dyno like I do and theirs a famous marine engine builder 90 miles from me who also has a dyno. Youd think this is a "good" thing right, actually they both CONSTANTLY squeeze in outside dyno jobs (customer built engines) instead of working on their current builds because its a great revenue stream . So their own customers builds languish and they make up excuses, cant get parts, machine broke, etc, etc. The guy 15 miles from me tells all his customers 3 to 4 months for builds but EVERYTHING he does takes 2+ years to move thru because hes gotta finish stuff from 2 years ago before he does new work.
Someone mentioned engine builders getting "older",
well heres another twist on THAT that Ive had discussions with other shop owners that do "projects", LARGE JOBS, not necessarily marine engine builds and Im gonna use myself for a example. When I was in my 20s, I worked my 8 hour day job, worked all night till 2,3 am, slept a few hrs and started over. When weekend came the MARATHON work sessions came, I was young, sprinted out to shop before sunrise, worked till midnight. Fast forward to today, 59 years old, body hurts, work half as fast as 20 years ago, still up at 5 am but unless Im greeting a customer early, takes me 2 1/2 hrs of drinking coffee, taking scripts, wasting time on FB and OSO before Im awake enough to go out to shop. Takes me from 7 / 8 am till 8 / 9 pm to get 7, 8 hours of work done. I recognize this and give customers HONEST time frames. There are others that still THINK they work like a young guy , in their mind they THINK oh yeah, I can squeeze this other job in or I can do these 15 builds by april, may and keep everyone happy etc when their was NEVER no ,possible way everything could get done at their pace. In 2022 I think It was, I did like 12 or 13 full marine builds, 3 or 4 race/ off road, street rod builds, 20 or so outside dyno jobs on top of dynoing/ tuning those builds I did, at least 80 to a 100 sets of injectors, 8 or 10 on water tunes plus managed the other segment of my business thats not engines and dynoing. Come june I was juggling customers, all engines got finished and out the door eventually BUT their were a couple customers who didnt have their engines in june or even first half of july. I was literally dynoing / tuning engines ON the 4th of july while everyone else was having family partys and working 12 hrs a day/ 7 days a week. Some of these other guys doing this are simply over promising because they dont admit or realize their limitations time wise, dont budget time wisely, dont give realistic delivery dates because they have this picture in their mind they can do marathon work sessions and get it all done on time when its never gonna happen. This is especially true with "shops" that are really just one guy, no structure management, bosses, multiple workers etc, regular business hours etc.
Ponzi scheme/ poor money management: 50% of shops are like me, cash flush, I can float jobs easily out of my pocket and prefer to get paid when done EXCEPT engine builds get so expensive its possible customer will not have the money when done, die, go to prison, etc so I make people put a large deposit down. The other 50% of shops, again not just marine engine builders, Ive literally had owners confide in me " I gotta finish this guys stuff, hes pissed, I still gotta buy XXX and his moneys long gone " so they need new work that they CANT get done on time either with a large deposit to finish the old work BUT the guy with new work wants to see progress so the old work gets shoved off to side, excuses made etc. Terrible way to do business, eventually the new jobs could stop and old jobs languish. I could go on and on, Smitty

I am just going to leave this right here for your viewing pleasure

Machine shop services in the Midwest - Offshoreonly.com

I feel you Smitty, going on 62 and I have noticed that in the last several years the gravity has increased here in N. Georgia as everything has gotten heavier and heavier, surely cant be me as I am as young as ever. unfortunately it seems harder to find young guys who actually want to work and learn.