[GREATGTO]

I'm just posting to let anyone know what they can expect for a waiting period for a custom billet crank. I got my Moldex Billet crank today 5-3-05, I ordered it 10-5-04, so I hope you have better luck in getting yours in a timely fashion, by looking at the crank I do believe it was worth the wait though

[GREATGTO]

I'm just posting to let anyone know what they can expect for a waiting period for a custom billet crank. I got my Moldex Billet crank today 5-3-05, I ordered it 10-5-04, so I hope you have better luck in getting yours in a timely fashion, by looking at the crank I do believe it was worth the wait though

[Tom Vaught]

You need to post a couple of reasons why it took a year also.

1) Good steel was very hard to acquire

2) Every month the steel was late the orders for cranks kept getting larger.

Tom McQueen has a crank on order with them that should have been finished
but we agreed that a quality steel crank was still worth the wait.

JMO.

Tom V.

[Rob]

Yep look through the archives, me and Tom had a discussion about this a while back.

Moldex and Crower have made the most Pontiacs, Bryant and Hank the Crank have showed a little interest when I called them...Crankshafts are tough to get.

-Rob

[Tom Vaught]

Rob,

I recently heard from a Ford Guy that Scat would make a billit Pontiac crank (USA steel and
USA machined) along with the normal chinese stuff they sell.

Apparently it is a typical high dollor piece but it might be another source.

Tom V.

["Mike Kasparian]

i just ordered a bryant crank 5/2/05 and was told 12-14 weeks but i'm sure it will take longer.they said they already have taken a couple of orders and have one almost finished.i am not that crazy about being one of the first
pontiac cranks they have done but i know they make a good product.i let you know in 6 months.
mk sr.

[cgeise]

Last one I got took about 12-14 weeks, it was ordered 9/04 and got it in late Dec. It was a moldex -- don't know if "WHO" you order it from makes any difference or not.I keep hearing that a forging is just around the corner -- but if I told you who said it --- I would have to kill you.
Good luck.

[Robert C.]

You can buy 4150 steel all day long. Waiting for good steel, Bull crap.

We are getting the shaft because vendors look at the Pontiac racer as a Pain in the A$$. To them we are just a hobby and a bunch of nuts.

AllPontiac.com would like to change this from a hobby to an industry and make the larger manufactures take notice that we are here and will buy their parts. We are willing to work with every one of the current manufactures of Pontiac parts and other to show that we are and can be a larger part of their business. Waiting for 14 weeks for a part is bull SH!t.

That is why Frank and I are here to make parts that are as good as or better that the Chevy parts out there. And to bring the Pontiac car back to life with a Pontiac engine.

Our motto may be: ''You ant cool until you run a Pontiac in a Pontiac''

Vendors like Butlers, Kauffmans, BOP, Spotts, Wenslers, Pontiac Dude, Performance Years and all other vendors on the west coast and the racers and people on this board and other boards are heroes to the Pontiac racer with out them, we would not have half of the parts we have today. We are not here to compete head to head with anyone of them, but to support them with better parts to make our hobby better and more fun.

And have some fun along the way.

See you all at Pontiac in the part at VMP

[Silver Judge]

Trans Am Bob,
I like your style, you're an asset to this hobby !

[rumair]

Trans Am Bob...never liked him.

[Scott Rex]

Still waiting for my Moldex.....14 weeks and counting. They "ran out of steel".

Latest delivery quote: 4-6 more weeks....Only after David Butler found a billet blank (from a competitor) and told them he would drop ship it directly to them so they could get it started....They suddenly found some steel at their shop.

[tom s]

guys,if anyone wants to build a short stroke pontiac,I have a 366 pontiac forging I got from Tom and will not be using.I have $400 in it.It is on ebay now.Tom

[Tom Vaught]

The Moldex people are only a few miles from where I work.

I go by their shop several times in a month and always stop in.

I have know Bob Gillian (the owner for over 25 years). He is a good man and honest.

Concerning steels:

For a project at work I needed to buy 4340 steel.

I had a company, we have machine work done by, order steel from a normal vendor.

We used that steel and had a failure even though it was 4340 steel.

I later ordered Timkin 4340 steel and did a comparison of the quality of the two steels
in Ford's Research Lab by a Research metallurgist. The amount of "dirt" in the normal
4340 steel was amazing vs the Good Timkin steel.

I am not arguing with Bob but I can state that there are good steels and really good steels
from a personal basis.

JMO.

Tom V.

[dutch injun]

Wouldn't a group purchace or something like that shorten the waiting time? I'm sure there are several orders at Moldex for Pontiacs at this time. I just put in an order for a 4" stroke crank a couple of weeks ago (actually the Dude is building me an IA2 billet crank engine setup for boost). I am really not looking forward to waiting a year. Sooo much can happen in a year. Isn't there SOMETHING that can be done about this?????

[kennyg1669]

You guys need to check out www.allvac.com. I work there and we can make any steel, nickle or Titanium metal that anybody would need.It does cost! $

[Rob]

I agree with Tom there's plenty of difference in steels.

All the crank cutters like machining 25 of the same cranks and not re-setting their lathes and mills for 1-2 "Pontiac Cranks". If you've ever trammed in a machine for a job, you learn really quick how nice it is to leave it there. That and Pontiac nuts that want BBC or Hemi Snouts so I can put RCD stuff on the front or super lightweight Pro-Stock Pontiac crankshafts...Yea I know I'm not always helping when I ask for those things.

Bob and Frank are on the right track in organizing some fairly standardized high end Pontiac parts. Crankshaft waiting is nuts...we could get to the scary point of organizing a group purchase of a crank roughing machine...seriously!!!

-Rob

[Tiger Paw]

Great GTO, I once had to order 20 crankshafts for a Ford Nascar engine project from Bryant. The first few cranks arrived in about 18 weeks the rest tricked in, with the order being completed in 24 weeks. Keep in mind that was for just one program, among many that buy custom cranks. And believe that tere are many other companies that make large orders of custom cranks.

Moldex is a small crank company and provides most custom cranks for GM, Ford and Chrysler's prototype engines. I would believe that the people at Moldex will take real googd care of the hand that feeds them, the Big 3. They provide a good product considerably cheaper than companies such as Bryant and Crower. While 28 weeks is kind of long, when you have ordered something out of the norm I am not suprised.

Be happy that you have a top quality crank to put in your pride and joy.

[Tom Vaught]

Butler typically has a 5 to 7 crankshaft order with Moldex in the "cue" everytime I have been there.

I agree on the prototype cranks being a big part of their business but if you ever visited their
shop you would be amazed at the number and variety of crank work they do each month.

About 40 percent I believe is prototype work, 15 percent is special "one off" cranks like 12 cylinder/ diesel/ restoration stuff, and the last 45 percent is custom billets/ forgings/ repairs for the racers.

And they are a very small shop compared to a Roush, Watson Engineering, Cosworth, etc shop
that the OEMs typically deal with.

Getting a good forging would eliminate a lot of this waiting for a Better crank than the eagle/ other stuff and would leave time for the billet stuff for the high end guys.

Hopefully one is coming soon.

Tom V.

[GREATGTO]

When I ordered my crankshaft I was told 12 to 14 weeks also , thats pretty common. I Ordered it through Butler and they just passed on whatever Moldex told them, so I in no way hold them responsible for the waiting period, they have always been the best at getting me my parts and I pretty much only deal with the Butlers, very good people. We probably could get cranks sooner with group purchases but its not too easy to find 10 to 20 pontiac people ready to buy a 2700 dollar billet crank. I think the sooner a good forged steel crank can be made the better it will be for the pontiac racer, we got the blocks and heads, now lets get cranks and intakes to complete the list of quality parts needed to run with anyone.