[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by Dragncar

Years ago I bought one of the first Eagle cast stroker cranks for 450$ and sent it to Dan. It was bent .004 and had .001 tapper on the jornals, not to mention the very rough thrust surface. So I had his crank guy straighten it, grind it .010 and polish the thrust surface. So I have 800$ into as cast crank (2 actually)
Cut my loss and traded it and bought a Scat forged.

Years ago that was probably a good move. Now BOTH AFR and Scat are owned by the same equity group that specializes in "Salsa and Novelty Socks".

[PAUL K]

NONE! ZERO! Not a single one of these "equity groups" have anything but profits and losses at the top of their priority list!

[Formulajones]

It's probably an evil conspiracy to suck these businesses dry so we can't have our cars anymore

[grivera]

2 years ago I wouldn’t have believed it but today…

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by grivera

2 years ago I wouldn’t have believed it but today…

LOL I meant that as a joke but after I posted it I thought, damn that doesn't sound too far fetched does it........

[Dragncar]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

Years ago that was probably a good move. Now BOTH AFR and Scat are owned by the same equity group that specializes in "Salsa and Novelty Socks".

One of my Scats is from the original batch to All Pontiac and the other is about 3 years old from All Pontiac.
Still kicking myself for selling a 4" stroke 3" main Scat years ago.
How long had this holding group owned Scat ? When did they start to have issues ?
Sad, maybe Molnar is one of the few offshore rod and crank companies making good stuff.
Tom Molnar told me is any of his parts are even the slightest off spec he will send a call tag and replace it on his dime.
Good enough for me.

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by Dragncar

One of my Scats is from the original batch to All Pontiac and the other is about 3 years old from All Pontiac.
Still kicking myself for selling a 4" stroke 3" main Scat years ago.
How long had this holding group owned Scat ? When did they start to have issues ?
Sad, maybe Molnar is one of the few offshore rod and crank companies making good stuff.
Tom Molnar told me is any of his parts are even the slightest off spec he will send a call tag and replace it on his dime.
Good enough for me.

Taglich Equity has had SCAT and AFR for about a year? Not aware of any specific issues with either company yet. That is the important point. Just check everything from this point forward extra carefully. In every case I have followed in the last 20 years, the pattern is the same. Find a company with a sterling reputation and a good reliable following. Buy the company. Immediately fire EVERYONE involved in engineering, R&D and loyal to the original owners. Compress the product line to fast selling, high volume parts. Look for ways to outsource and produce the product at reduced cost. Eliminate innovation, new product ideas and improvements on existing products. Put emphasis on marketing, advertising and discounts. Show your investors how you are producing a great ROI for them. Milk the company until it's dry. Sell what's left in 5-7 years. Move on to ruin another company Wash, rinse, repeat. It's the way modern business is done I guess.

[Dragncar]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

Taglich Equity has had SCAT and AFR for about a year? Not aware of any specific issues with either company yet. That is the important point. Just check everything from this point forward extra carefully. In every case I have followed in the last 20 years, the pattern is the same. Find a company with a sterling reputation and a good reliable following. Buy the company. Immediately fire EVERYONE involved in engineering, R&D and loyal to the original owners. Compress the product line to fast selling, high volume parts. Look for ways to outsource and produce the product at reduced cost. Eliminate innovation, new product ideas and improvements on existing products. Put emphasis on marketing, advertising and discounts. Show your investors how you are producing a great ROI for them. Milk the company until it's dry. Sell what's left in 5-7 years. Move on to ruin another company Wash, rinse, repeat. It's the way modern business is done I guess.

Thanks for the info. We will know its all over when Mr Crower sells out.
Best company in aftermarket racing parts IMO.

[Skip Fix]

My Eagle 4" 409 Chevy stroker had so much taper that my Chinese mikes could easily pick it up. Snout miked OK but I had to get a "hone to fit" ATI hub for the balancer as it was too loose as it came. Cometic 409 head gaskets(as well as Felpros) dowel holes were too close I had to punch new holes. Stef's 409 oil pan -even with a 409 block-bolt holes were off-they did redo that for free.

Comp Pontiac XE 262 that was going in a 400 for the 81 TA outer journal was 0.002 to big to fit and larger than any cam I had on the shelf. A set of Comp dual roller springs came with just singles in the box.

Hedman 1 7/8 roundport second gen headers the collectors pointed in so far they hit the transmission. The 1 3/4 the last tubes both hit the firewall-those they said I had moved the motor back!

Got to check every thing! And even the big names screw up.

[Richie Hoffman]

It seems all I do is check and fix most aftermarket parts getting worse

[77 TRASHCAN]

Originally Posted by Formulajones

It's probably an evil conspiracy to suck these businesses dry so we can't have our cars anymore

Absolutely!!!

We don't EVEN have to go into the Who's, How's and Why's!!!

[hurryinhoosier62]

Originally Posted by Richie Hoffman

It seems all I do is check and fix most aftermarket parts getting worse

Yep. Years ago when I was still grinding cranks the powers that be thought purchasing cast BBC cranks from Competition Products was a good idea, until we had to start grinding brand new cranks so they would meet our specs. Had one crank with one throw .040 out of stroke. Most had .002-.003 taper in all the journals.

[SRR]

I've worked in a parts store for 16 years and here's my take on it. CHECK everything! I have seen motor mounts fresh off the shelf without mounting holes drilled, sensors that aren't keyed correctly. Most batteries I warranty are less than three years old. Optimas are the worst! If you have to turn in a core, do it AFTER you have installed the part and have no problems. It's not just car parts ether! I just bought a Go-pro camera off amazon and it was dead right out of a sealed box. High lift trans jack missing hardware. Took three tries to get a grill for my Mercury Grand Marquis that wasn't cracked.

[Gach]

I’m on my third Optima battery, Optima are now made in Mexico. Who knows when they moved their operation to Mexico. One thing I learned is to check the born date. First one was already 2 years old, so sitting on shelf for 2 years before they sold it to me. Third one been fine had it for 2 years now. Born date on that one was only 1 month old. Welcome to America

[Cliff R]

Many times it's not the fault of the company selling the parts because they are having someone else make them.

I started having Quadrajet parts made about 20 years ago because I simply was NOT happy with many of the parts I was getting from the two main suppliers. Instead of asking them to improve the product I found that it was easier just to have it made. So what started out as attempts to make my carburetors builds dead solid reliable turned into a parts business. That is the main reason I no longer do rebuilds and restorations as I can't keep up with parts sales let alone do much of anything else.

Currently about 30 parts that I sell are NOT available anywhere else unless that company is buying them from me, which some do. A few of these parts I make in-house, but most of them are made by USA based companies. The good and the bad with using USA based companies to make parts is that most will hang up on you when you call to discuss having a part made if you aren't wanting tens of thousands of them.

I still remember a call I made a few years back wanting some of the Wolverine 5059 cams made so I could use and sell them. I couldn't get past the gal at the front desk because I wasn't wanting at least 1000 of them made. Who out there is willing to put up $100,000 or a bit more for a project like that? Very few if any is probably the answer.

Anyhow, my story with "defective" parts happened about 10 years ago. I was hand fitting some Total Seal standard type rings for a 455 build. I file fitted the entire set, then installed the rings on the pistons. I broke every single one of the second rings with my fingers just trying to open them up enough to get them on the pistons. Some actually shattered into several pieces. I put in a call to Total Seal, had a very brief discussion about it and barely hung up the phone and UPS was delivering a new set. The new set was fine and no problem at all installing them on the pistons.

They obviously knew about the issues and were prepared to correct the problems without a bunch of bellyaching and making the customer jump thru a bunch of hoops, etc.......

[JSchmitz]

Originally Posted by Gach

I’m on my third Optima battery, Optima are now made in Mexico. Who knows when they moved their operation to Mexico. One thing I learned is to check the born date. First one was already 2 years old, so sitting on shelf for 2 years before they sold it to me. Third one been fine had it for 2 years now. Born date on that one was only 1 month old. Welcome to America

I bought one Optima red top battery. High price and short life. That's was it for me.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by JSchmitz

I bought one Optima red top battery. High price and short life. That's was it for me.

I never liked them because they never fit any of the battery trays and hold down systems my cars have so I voided them to start with.

[Joe-Touring]

Originally Posted by JSchmitz

I bought one Optima red top battery. High price and short life. That's was it for me.

Red tops, for whatever reason, do not like being discharged. If it has a draw or sits for too long without a trickle charge, they’ll die fast. I recommend anyone who wants an optima to buy a yellow top. It’s labeled as a deep cycle and can actually handle being treated like a normal battery. I don’t have any optima batteries anymore but the charger is great.

[MarkS57]

Originally Posted by Dragncar

Thanks for the info. We will know its all over when Mr Crower sells out.
Best company in aftermarket racing parts IMO.

Bruce Crower passed in 2019. Bloomberg says Doug Evans is CEO today.

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/201...ower-1930-2019

He & Harvey Crane were fierce competitors but respected one another. Unfortunately, we won't likely see anyone like them again, and that is a loss for sure.

[misterp266]

This guy’s still with us!
He’s 101!


Won’t be long before all the real automotive hero’s will be gone and all our parts will be made in China by some big conglomerate who have no idea but know how to make money.

The glory days for hot rods has come and gone, us older folks can pretend it ain’t over but it is, sad but true.

EVTTFMF!