LMK on the MiniRam

OOTB, fully assembled AFR heads really aren't all that spectacular. They use crap crap components, and if you trust their supplied springs and don't check the installed height; you're pitching a tent on valvetrain geometry disaster. Their castings are superb, but you really need to take the time after the fact and either have them professionally setup, or do it yourself.


Just what I've heard from Jay Allen @ Camshaft Innovations :_paranoid

Well be checkin everything this time around, you can be sure of that!

i have installed a pair of TPIS prepared afr heads ane they werent that wonderfull.. they changed the plug angle and the weld plug came out of one of the old plug holes.. when i sent pictures they claimed to eb able to see from the tan color of the combustion chambers that the timomg was wrong so they refused to exchange them.. so ill never buy AFR again...

the issues with your motor sounds like the ring fit was off or the bores were too smooth... and perhaps he neglected to grease the rear seal prior to instalation..

anyway, good luck with the rebuild

The motor has been tore down, so here's a list of the damage: The windage screen was trashed with about 8 pieces in the bottom of the pan. Turned out that when the pan was bolted on it shoved it up into the rods. The oil pump was studed but it hung up on the main stud and was'nt seating properly, probably lost some pressure and flow. The worst being the piston to bore clearance, instead of boring the cylinders .30 over he went .33 and the piston rocked back and forth scoring the piston skirts and cylinder walls. Not to mention the extra load the rings received. He also decked the block so that the piston came out of the hole .010 raising the compression on my blower motor, would of thought .010-.020 in the hole would of been better for the compression.

The heads checked out fine, could see the results of all the blow by, but valve and guides are fine.

So now I have 8 Ross pistons that might as well be paper weights and a block I don't know if we can salvage. I'm going to see the builder tommorow, but don't expect much from him. He probably won't be happy to here someone else tore it down, but I can't imagine him admitting to the damage. Problem is that if after seeing all the things that were wrong even if he offered to fix it, I would'nt want to take the chance of going through this in another 1000 or so miles!! we'll see how tommorow goes!

Good luck Jack. I hope he owns up to it and atleast offers some part replacement.

That sucks Jack. The good news is, the motor will be tight and run right this time. I can only imagine what it was like to have such a fantastic car and such a messed up motor. Must of been a real buzz kill.

wow that is a bummer. sorry to hear....

small claims possibly with the guy if he won't agree to any compensation?

Sorry guys I got to vent:mad: Went yesterday and spoke with the engine builder, went exactly as expected he blamed everything but himself. He told me the piston scuff on the skirts and above the rings were from metal from the windage screen coming apart. The screen failed from bad welding and metal fatigue. At one point he said the motor was made in Mexico and could have some soft alloys spots. In the closing after about two hours of rambling, he told me to take the piston to Total Seal and talk to them about it. They are only a couple of miles from the house, so I did today.

The guys at total Seal were great, Ed Law one of the sales tech was glad to help. Basically He and others stated the obvious, which looked to be too much piston to wall clearance. So Ed called Pat Oneill at Ross and discussed the piston specs and bores. The pistons are 4.025 and the cylinders are 4.033 with a .008 clearance. Pat recommended a .006 for my application(blown street) Ed even offered to help me out on another set of rings as I was leaving, cool guys.:thumbsup:

So now I call Timm the builder and tell him what the manufactures said and his reply was "Did you take them the Block?" and "It is Obvious the other shop I took the motor to does'nt know how to read a bore guage." Every other person in the trade can look at the piston and tell what happened.
So obviously the conversation went nowhere and I said my peace and hung up on the idiot!

By the way for you Phx guys here's the name of the shop is Tuf-Enuf Performance Engines and the builders name is Timm Jurancie. I can strongly recommend not wasting your time or money with him!! I think he mainly builds boat motors now, probably burnt to many customers in the car related scene. I think he's still writing tech for Hot Boat Magazine, maybe I should post a question or two to the mag, huh?

Thanks for letting me vent!:D

That really sucks Jack. Not enough accountability in this and many industries.

Small claims is free and pretty easy to do. Can't hurt!