High Performance Engine Work in Dallas?
 

Who in the Dallas area can be trusted to do quality motor work in Dallas other than Legend Marine?

Not knowing what needs to be done here if its internal motor work or performance installs. In DFW there is not one marine business who does any machine work in house. 95 % will not even rebuilded anything especially on the high performance end. Most will pass on itl.

The MARINE SHOPS in the area that will take it in most likely will ship the motor out or send it locally to one of the machine shops or rebuilders or just tell U it needs to be long block with a new or reman if it has anything to do with internal motor work. Most shops will want to go this route with a new long block or reman long block again if it has anything to do with internally of the motor or reman or new head work.

After that - some marine shops will reassemble heads if not already reinstalled , intake, distributor - exhaust - set timing and so forth. Even some of the marine shops in the area will have the total reassembly subbed out.

Not knowing what is needed here really hard to give any other advise. We also send our blocks and heads out but reassemble everything else and do this for a few other marine shops in DFW. What performance work is needed. DFW is not a performance area like it use to be compared to some other areas.

I found a guy in Lewisville, ! Heard he is good, the high performance Corvette shop takes there boat to him and said he is good.

His number 214 394 8480, Mikes marine not sure how good he is but yo try him.

Derebery

Reher Morrison

Had a friend tell me about D & D automotive machine shop in downtown Carrollton. Anyone know anything about them?

Plano Automotive Machine did all the machine work on my 502. Super nice man that does the work and the man who owns it was super cool.

I am relatively new to powerboats and we bought an old tired out Powerquest. After a lot of bad experiences with shops in the area, we we stumbled upon Dereberys up in Pottsboro. Great knowledge and the work was done correctly. He is not the cheapest game in town but, you get what you pay for and we are more than happy with the quality of work.

Derebery is the only one around that is full service. I had a pair of their 572ci 700HP. Put over 150 hrs on them before selling the boat. The guy that bought the boat ran it for 40 more before putting them in another hull. Never had a valve cover off.

If you have 500's let them fix them right once and move on.

Engine Work
 

I used Abyss Performance and Kim Barr Racing engine. Kim has complete machine shop and Dyno. Builds and mahine NHRA motors plus 1/4 mile race boat engines. he also runs his owe 27 or 29 Fountain. Bob Madara did the cam rebuilt 454 mag to 496 stroker

Really depends on what you want done.

If you looking for a full service for very high end Derebery is the only true "marine" guy in N. Texas area.

Now Wayne Calvert is probably the best "high performance engine" guy in N. TX he's done a few marine engines, but he'll charge you extra.

Reher Morrison in Arlington TX has to be the best in Texas hands down. They did alot of R&D for alot in the Pro Stock drag race end. Also know they did alot of testing for GM and are really tight with Dart in Michigan. They also had one of the top head porting specialist in the country working with them - Darrin Morgan. don't know if he is still there but heard at one time he went out on his own but come back to RM.

They also ran a High Performance Engine Building School for anyone that wanted to attend plus a fee of a grand or 2 if I remember correctly. I sat in on a couple of seminars at PRI with the top engine builders of the country. Very interesting what they have messed with compared to the boat end of engine builders. Some also build marine engines as well as Reher Morrison.

Again most marine shops especially around here do not have one ounce of equipment to do any machine work nor port work on motors nor even a dyno.

Also alot of marine engine builders do not have the equipment either to do machine work, They are just assemblers per say - not all but at least some have a dyno to do their testing. I'm not saying this is a bad thing at all I'm just stating some facts to be clear.

Shooter in ft worth, he did a great job on my boat, had a oil issue problem and over heating problem, fixed in a few days. He will spend hours on the phone with you if you can't get your boat to him walking you through something to get you back on the water, he even offered once to drive to my house to get a stubborn oil filter off. I highly recommend him!

Derebery does all their own porting and machining in house. They also have their own dyno. Reher Morrison is a drag racing engine company so their not going to have a lot of tools and equipment you will see at a full service marine place like Derebery's with certified merc mechanics.

Leon has all the machine tools to deck a block & line hone, balance cranks and rods, back cut valves, milling & CNC equipment and so forth. I really do not know he had that much equipment so I'm asking. I knew he had a dyno, boring & honing equipment.

R&M can build U any marine motor U would like. I'm really talking about engine building here, inwhich U know the tools / equipment to build any motor is the same.

Really do not hear about Leon as much as U use to. Seems like most high performance boaters in North TX the very few that r left and Oklahoma use Brad Smith in MO.

next with all do respect I am not green in the boat world as I been in the marine business now for 22 years so I know a thing or 2 about it and who does what. I'm just fairly new up here.

Derebery always has a yard full of bad azz boats and there are more people on this forum in North TX that use him than RM or Brad Smith. What do you do in the marine business?

If your handy and can install the motors, drives, and accessories yourself than RM is a good place to have a motor built. They won't remove and install the motors, inspect drives, or address any rigging concerns cause their not a marine shop. And if your motor eats an impeller on the dyno RM doesn't stock merc parts so you may lose a week and might have to pay another setup fee. Take it to Derebery's and be done with it. If they run into any fiberglass, rigging, or drive problems they will take care of it and get you back on the water. You'll spend twice the time and money doing it all piecemeal taking it to different shops and if something happens the different shops will be blaming each other.

www.boatsun.com

also have another location on 121 airport freeway. this is my first year not selling new boats. I have other stuff in the works on the marine end of of things.

Have installed not one or two motors in my day but hundreds of remans, rebuilds and new. 2010 was our biggest year for motor swamps - 54. As u know big freeze damage from the hard winter freeze. We send some of our stuff to Dennis Wells for machine work on the high performance end - heads, port work, valve jobs and so on. Then install it. We rarely see anything over 600 hp in Ft. Worth but once in a while will get something over that.

All marine shops and yards are busy this time of the year - to me thats does nt prove anything. All marine shops are loaded with boats in the yard. No one could use their boats last year so everyone has fuel issues with them this year. We are still 4 weeks out in repair. Can not catch up since March 1.

never dogged Leon at what he does, I have no experience with his work, thats it. Just asked if he has all the machining equipment plus U do not hear his name around like it was say 8 years ago and back.

John (Bup) knows his sh*t. Has a more marine mechanic certs than he knows what to do with. When he talks I listen, he is very dialed in with marine industry as a whole and has also been dead on with his advice.