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Submitted by: Kenneth Radigan

One of the biggest complications in the performance automotive engine building sector is tracking down the ideal internal engine components to accomplish a comprehensive build. Even though many replacement internal engine component producers are available, over the past several years we have observed a major expansion in overseas production. This presents specific challenges for professional engine rebuilders and vehicle owners.

There’s no debating that a worldwide transfer of manufacturing capacity has taken place. China is the main benefactor of the decrease in USA production. Although this delivers visible short-term financial relief for people repairing their motors, the long lasting ramifications are reduced parts accessibility, quality declines and lengthier delays to obtain purchased components.

The tolerances of engine components made overseas typically aren’t held to the same specifications as they are in the USA. Whether it’s tool wear from mass production, or an inability to carry out finish work, lots of the machined automotive parts originating from China are inferior and well outside satisfactory tolerances. This causes many stateside machine shops to complete the finish work themselves to ensure their remanufactured engines will run properly and endure years of use.

Recently, we had a brand new engine block arrive at our automotive machine shop which originated from China. There was casting sand in certain non-critical regions of the engine block. The piston cylinder bores were outside of acceptable tolerances and there was a little bit of rust on the main caps. Although these issues were easily remedied, the expense to the customer increased drastically since the engine block had to be bored and honed once again. Thankfully this customer did not buy pistons in advance, because standard bore pistons wouldn’t work in the engine block after we bored it oversize.

The difficulty with buying engine blocks, and related engine parts from offshore firms, is that they are not nearby whenever a problem occurs. Certainly we could have sent the engine block back, however the price to send it back to China would be more expensive then the repairs we made. With no alternative block suppliers nationally, this ultimately leaves many automotive machine shops at the mercy of offshore companies. In many cases, the quality control utilized by these companies is substandard as compared to typical tolerances acceptable in the United States.

The inability to call on an area or nationwide company to support parts used in engines is a challenging problem for many specialized automotive machine shops. Lots of these shops strive to produce very high quality engines. But when faced with a shrinking domestic manufacturing base, they’re discovering that delivering quality work is becoming more challenging and more costly in the end for their valued customers. This is part of the reason why a lot of local machine shops are letting their customers know that by building their engines locally, and supporting domestic engine part producers when able, each customer is helping to sustain an industry that can be utilized by future generations of automotive enthusiasts.

About the Author: As an engine machinist, this writer has helped many automotive enthusiasts buy engine blocks and other internal engine parts. More information about selecting a used engine block can be found at

engine-blocks.com

Source:

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