Be careful buying a Blueprint motor from Rocket Industries

[Edz66Vert]

This is a warning to Mustech members - I bought a Blueprint crate engine from Rocket Industries and after it ran hot all the time for 3 years it eventually seized No 1.

This is the add I posted to warn people against buying one:

For sale - 1 x 'Blueprint brand' Ford 408 Stroker Piston from a Rocket Industries Crate Engine - mine turned out to be what can only seem to be described as Chinese junk that only lasts 2000 km after overheating constantly.

Warning - if you buy one of these crate engines from Rocket Industries, please be aware they are cheaply made in the USA from what I (and my engine rebuilder ) imagine are all Chinese parts. The only name brand component that I could see in this motor are the ARP head-bolts and the oil pump (which has USA on it), I imagine that is because the head bolts are visible on the outside and when you see them you think you are buying a quality motor! ;-) You will probably need a couple of new pistons at some point like I did. I ended up having to buy a full set of 8 for my rebuild and get it all rebalanced.

If you have one of these motors and buy one of my pistons now you'll have a spare for when you need it (note when, not if!!!).

After only 2000 kms, No 1 piston had badly seized and destroyed No 1 cylinder. 6 of the valve stem guides were badly worn and had to be replaced. The engine builder said he’d seen this many times before with Chinese heads as the brass used for the valve guides is very soft. He also had to port the intakes on the heads as they had large casting ridges in them which disrupted the airflow.

I am selling the 7 leftover pistons from my $8600 motor (now selling for $10,500 on Rocket's website) after I had to spend $7.1k getting it rebuilt which included re-sleeving no 1 cylinder. I could have built a nice motor with name brand parts like Scat crank and rods for around $12K, a lot less than the $15,700 it finally cost me and I still have no-name parts inside.

7 pistons available in total, however 2 of them have some minor scuff wear which can be sanded away (8 available if you want to buy my seized one for garage art which is hanging on the wall!!!).

These motors come with a dyno sheet, but I have been reliably told that they dyno one motor and then build hundreds more and just wet test them by starting them and making sure there are no noises before shipping them out.

If you buy one of these motors, from my experience, you will need pistons sooner rather than later when one seizes like mine did due to bad tolerances when built. My motor ran hot from day one and after only 2000km it started a knocking sound. When I removed the heads I could see that no 1 cylinder had major scoring from seizing up which explained the constant overheating.

Rocket showed no interest in helping me when I contacted them and when I left negative feedback about this motor on their website it magically disappears in 24 hours.

As I said, from my bad experience with these motors, do not buy a Blueprint (brand) crate engine from Rocket Industries or you will waste a lot of money.

Get a motor built at a quality engine builder and save yourself a lot of money and heartache.

[mungus]

Thanks for the heads up. At least your shelf can look like Burt Munro's now...

[Pinto-Pete]

Not good Ed, but at least you've sorted it now, you are not the first and wont be the last..... as they say in Rome, caveat emptor..

[Ausjacko]

From my perspective the issue here is the Australian vendor selling the products should be prepared to stand behind what they are selling. If it was not up to scratch (scoring pun there) then engage with the purchaser and get it fixed. If you are not prepared to do so, then don't sell the stuff, irrespective of what it is. If you are trying to increase your margin buy selling inferior stuff then increased warranty claims is a business risk. Either that or be prepared for your business name/ reputation and 'good will' (that booked item) to take a hit.
Jacko

[Pinto-Pete]

Time's the killer Jacko, they offer a 3 month warranty and state that unless you notify them within that period they basically aren't interested, so unless Ed notified them of his issues within that time frame 3 years down the track is just to long for them to do anything about it.

[Ausjacko]

true Pete.

[mungus]

All true.

I have found that the better companies value their reputation enough that they are happy to back date the date of warranty commencement to entry into service, not date of payment. I've had dud components replaced in that way before. They know that especially these days, the web can badly damage their reputation in a very short time. And rightly so IMHO.

We do the same thing in aviation, but that's far easier to police as all operating hours are kept in a logbook and its legally binding on all parties involved in that record keeping. You can leave an engine on the shelf for years and the warranty is still good. I guess when lives matter, the BS of manufacturers walking away isn't acceptable.

Personally I'd be loathed to give thousands to a crate engine builder unless its someone I know or trust like Fataz.

[hybrid]

To be fair mungus, the cost of rebuilding an aviation engine probably allows for that return/warranty period as well. They are seriously expensive.

[Edz66Vert]

Yes, time was the killer however, Rocket didn't even want to help first-time when I initially bought the motor and removed the rocker cover and found some chunks of cast iron on the heads leftover from their wet-test. Nuts pulled the heads and sump for me to check the motor and found it had done no damage but one of the valve seats was fitted crooked and holding a valve open. As it was 5 months since I'd bought it (but not fitted yet) Rocket weren't interested in doing anything. I contacted Blueprint in the states and they told Rocket to fix it at their expense. I've heard of numerous bad stories from people dealing with Rocket over the years, getting wrong stuff sent etc and having trouble with returns. I remember reading an article in Street Machine magazine where they interviewed the owner of Rocket a number of years ago when they started sponsoring the drags and he was complaining about the number of people who bought direct from the US instead of supporting a local Australian company. That was in the good old days when the dollar was $1.07 US but even so they still had people complaining about poor service as well.

To give Blueprint some positive feedback, they did also come to the party when i rebuilt the motor by supplying a set of brand name pistons, rings and gudgeons if I paid freight. Initially I said no because they quoted freight at US$720 which means it would have cost me AU$1100 (plus customs) and I could get a set delivered from Summit (including paying for the pistons) for AU$800. Then Nuts put me onto Auspost Shopmate who are a freight forwarder in the US. Blueprint posted the piston kit for free to there and listed it as a warranty replacement so it only cost me $120 to have them posted.

Anyway, hindsight is wonderful, but I have what I have with a warranty so hopefully the overheating is gone and it's reliable (and fast!).

[mungus]

To be fair mungus, the cost of rebuilding an aviation engine probably allows for that return/warranty period as well. They are seriously expensive.

Possibly some of it, but also to be fair, aviation engines rarely break. And its the culture that determines that. We don't tolerate BS products and those caught using them get prosecuted. But then the whole chain, from manufacturer to end user is documented by licensed personnel. So its not a problem recognizing entry into service times, and we safely use NOS/reman'd stuff thats decades old. Even mothballing has procedures. Things are made properly and use is recorded. (in the west anyway).

The auto industry does disappoint sometimes. While we don't have the same documentation these are still engineers (of a sort) building this crap. Couple of examples; rebuilding a mates buggered Indian made Enfield motorbike engine; found both gudgeon circlips absent, (nice big slot in the barrel), or a "rebuilt" smokey head another mate dropped off, all its valve stem seals were missing. Built either by idiots or people who just don't care.

In the end building it yourself or spending on reputation is the only safe way with motors.

[Dwayne]

To be fair mungus, the cost of rebuilding an aviation engine probably allows for that return/warranty period as well. They are seriously expensive.

Possibly some of it, but also to be fair, aviation engines rarely break. And its the culture that determines that. We don't tolerate BS products and those caught using them get prosecuted. But then the whole chain, from manufacturer to end user is documented by licensed personnel. So its not a problem recognizing entry into service times, and we safely use NOS/reman'd stuff thats decades old. Even mothballing has procedures. Things are made properly and use is recorded. (in the west anyway).

I ran the aircraft maintenance division of a small regional airline that was into Administration about 14yrs ago. After seeing how OCD those guys are about EVERYTHING, I never feel worried about getting on a plane

[hybrid]

Yeah and they need to be OCD. As has been mentioned, they have peoples lives on the line.
But comparing to the auto industry isn't really fair. How many people would be happy rebuilding their engine for 60k?
Look in the history of my build and I was having a whinge about the short block build

[Pinto-Pete]

I ran the aircraft maintenance division of a small regional airline that was into Administration about 14yrs ago. After seeing how OCD those guys are about EVERYTHING, I never feel worried about getting on a plane

I used to service helicopters and everything was checked and rechecked and you did your best to make sure it was right because you and the pilot were the first to fly when the work was completed.....

[nassi]

Yes the aircraft industry has a very good reputation. After all, they haven't left one up there yet.