CURRENTLY TRENDING
As I visit machine shops around the state, I notice some common trends. Shops have downsized to some extent over the years. Many of the shops no longer want to assemble engines. They claim that they don’t want the liability of assembling engines with customer supplied parts, so they choose to no longer assemble engines all together. This revenue loss is twofold. They have lost the profit from the parts sale and the assembly labor which is generally greater than the man-hours of an employee. They put the burden of checking the specs at assembly back on the repair shop, or worse yet, the consumer. These people generally don’t have the tools and or knowledge to correctly check the clearance and specifications. This leads to more engine failures which in turn hurts our industry. In many cases, it is easier for the customer to buy a crate engine, which costs us all. The machine shop has the equipment and knowledge to correctly build an engine and should wrap it’s arms around as much of the job as possible to retain profits for the shop and ensure a properly assembled engine. The shop can bundle the machining and assembly labor and offer a discount when parts are purchased, to keep the whole job in his shop.

Mark D. Sarine
Sterling Bearing
Dania Beach, FL
May, 2015