Tiger and Alpine folks, I previously asked for information about Paeco
for performance products. I also posted the request to the autox group.
I thought you might want to see this guy's response to my question. I got
others like it, though none as bad, and I got a few who said that they
have had little experience but heard good things. But the majority of
first hand experience was pretty negative. Let's hear it for the Net and
the information age! Hopefully places like this and politicians like
_________ (fill in your choice) will cease with our ability to share
information:
FORWARDED MESSAGE from Rocky Entriken (MAIL(at)CSERVE
{INTERNET:0003006623(at)mcimail.com}) at 9/21/95 3:03p
Jay---
Advise from a *former* Paeco customer ... spend the L's and get the English
stuff. AVOID PAECO at all costs. they will take your money and sell you junk
.
This net a week or so ago heard my lengthy whine on "why I didn't win
Nationals" [leaving aside the minor matter that others drove better :-)]
detailing the woes of my $5k Stage 3 competition motor that basically was
weaker than a Stage 1 would be expected to be.
To (attempt to) recap briefly, some of the problems:
It arrived 15 months after order date, was promised in 3 months
Refused to let me cancel the order after 10 months (they already had my $$$)
This was a Spitfire motor. It came with a TR4 front plate. The Spitfire fron
t
plate has the motor mounts, the TR4's does not = no way to install the thi
ng.
The pan had several layers of what appeared to be "dried-oil dirt" in it.
Changing out front plate revealed three stripped bolt holes.
Crank pulley, supposed to be a slip fit, was pressed on; unable to remove
without damaging it.
No. 1 lifter hole had a burr in it, which froze the lifter. When the engine
was started the pushrod punched out the bottom of the lifter wrecking the
cam, etc.
Engine was shipped at a 500 lb. declared weight. Actual weight was less than
250lbs. This cost more than $100 in excess shipping charges. After learnin
g
this, and then faced with a shipper that was also a major jerk, I had to g
o
to court to get a refund of my overpayment.
I had to ship the engine back to Paeco AT MY EXPENSE for them to fix THEIR
SCREWUPS, and then it was shipped back to me AT MY EXPENSE. So now it cost
me a few hundred more to fix their errors.
I sent the engine with a specific instruction to fix that burr. When it came
back the burr was still there. This time, fortunately, we found it before
starting the motor and fixed it here. Since running the engine, we found
the "competition valve springs" were weak
and puny things that broke easily. This was discovered in a Solo I, where
I
was turning 2:25 laps on a race track I'd previously lapped at 2:10 with m
y
old motor. Six of the eight inner valve springs were broken.
One of the broken pieces got into the oil pan, then into the oil pump, break
ing
it. Luckily, I saw the oil pressure go to zero while preparing to put the
car
on the trailer at my garage. No damage to rest of motor (whew!).
Turned out the springs were not evened up for even pressure along the rocker
train. I had wildly differing spring rates. Fixing springs (stronger
ones) led to breaking rockers; fixing that ($500
roller rockers) led to breaking rocker shaft. Fixing that was a $1300
rebuild by another engine builder. First time I took the head off, it
looked like it maybe was shaved down some
,
but no other head work had been done. All edges were sharp, none was smoot
hed
off. It did not appear any work had been done in the ports at all. Certain
ly
did not look like my old head looked in type of work done (i.e. that there
WAS work as opposed to no work).
The guy that rebuilt my engine tried to get specs on the cam. Specs on the c
am
card did not match what is stated in the catalog, and a call by the builde
r
to Paeco got a third set of numbers entirely. They don't even know what th
eir
own cam does. Unusre about exactly what he was dealing with, the builder
replaced the cam.
The one time in my impoverished life I had the opportunity to spend what for
me
were some major bucks on a motor and I had the bad judgment to choose Paeco.
I
figure these guys have cost me about six years of competitiveness, and over
those years I have spent nearly as much trying to make their damn motor righ
t
that I spent in the first place to buy it.
You'd probably do better meaking a set of headers out of mailing tubes and
duct tape. I would not buy anything from Paeco what wasn't simply an over-
the-counter sale of someone else's product. If it is their work, go elsewher
e!
Oh, did I mentin that Paeco engine was sold as a 12.5:1 compression ratio an
d
when I had the guy that rebuilt it for me check, it turned out to be 10.69:1
?
No wonder I have no acceleration!
--Rocky
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
From Rocky Entriken, Salina, Ks.
#4 DP Spitfire
R.Entriken(at)mcimail.com
Windows: "Another invention of Bill Gates, designed as a security measure
to
thwart those users who are somehow able to get past DOS" --Dave Barry
CC: MAIL(at)CSERVE {INTERNET:AUTOX(at)AUTOX.TEAM.NET} ("Team.Net")
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