Re: stag-digest V4 #74

[Glenn Merrell <gmerrel@domain.elided>]

Hello Larry,
	No nerve severed here, just wondering why the shop was gouging you on the labor
and parts.  Sounds like the shop makes their living doing US V8's, and is scared
to death of anything "foreign".  That is a shame.  For example, my crank only
cost $65 to grind and polish at my engine shop, but this guy only works on old,
custom, and strange engines all the time, knows his stuff.  If there is
something he does not know, he won't take it on at all if there is any doubt he
can not do it right.  Speed machine shops in Denver want $100 for a crank job. 
this guy was recommended to me by a Denver Jag service garage, where they send
their heads and blocks, and was also recommended by some other Stag owners.
	It is the old story, you don't take your Toyota to a Ford service garage for
service.  There are machine shops that specialize an just about anything and
will charge thru the nose for something they don't know.  When I see a shop like
that, I walk out the door with my parts.
	Watch out for some of those speed shop kits, sometimes they throw in crap, or
parts that are forgeries.  I had that problem with my 302 rebuild at a
"reputable" shop in Lexington KY.  Motor lasted about 8k miles before the
pistons melted through, thought I was getting TRW's performance pistons.

Glad to hear you did the Stag engine rebuild.

Regards,
Glenn  Merrell
Triumph Stag Register USA VP

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Lawrence G Miceli wrote:
> 
> Hello Glenn,
> 
> Guess I touched a nerve. Not  my intention. I was simply pointing out
> that a Stag motor is a complex motor and that it IS more expensive to
> rebuild than a standard American lump. NOTWITHSTANDING, it is worth every
> penny to put the original motor back in. I know, I just finished mine.
> BTW, the difference in costs in building the Oldsmobile motor was the
> cost of parts. You can buy a total rebuild kit from the muscle car mags
> for a fraction of the costs of parts for a Stag or even a TR6 for that
> matter. The machine work was much less expensive in the crank work and
> balancing. Why? They said because their machines were "set up" for the
> 350, and not the Stag. Now, maybe I was shafted by the machine shop, but
> I experienced the same nonsense when I had the crank trued on an XJ6
> motor. The cost was 3x what the American crank would have cost. BTW, I
> was not disagreeing with you that the car was designed around the Stag
> motor, and that every conversion I have seen has a host of compatibility
> problems; bad handling, being the primary problem, as well as hack shops
> cutting sub-frame members to "fit" the new engine in. All-in-all not
> worth it.
> 
> 
> Larry Miceli
> Gold Coast Triumph Club
> '73 Stag
> '66 Herald
> 
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