UFO Motorsports rebuild review
 

When I had engine problems I spent a lot of time looking at different shops and getting opinions. I decided to go with UFO motorsports. I thought I would post this here so it would be easy to find for anyone looking in the future. My plan is to update this as I put miles on the car because those are the reviews I found most helpful during my search.

Anyway went for the $7500 REFRESH after IMS failure. Total was $9000 including shipping one way from Ohio to CA. UFO paid for transport back. I also paid extra for an upgraded IMS bearing.

Time was exactly 8 weeks. 1 week to ship out. 3 weeks for rebuild. 1 week for testing. 3 weeks to ship back. A little long for return shipping but since I was not paying I did not complain (OK I did a little complaining but not much).

Tim was easy to work with. Very knowledgeable. Communication was excellent. I think I called almost every day.

Car arrived and runs perfect. Sounds better than ever. He replaced the transmission fluid for free and inspected all the mounts and said everything looked good.

Engine is stock except for low temp thermostat, aftermarket IMS bearing, spin on oil filter, and magnetic drain plug.

At this point I would give the shop :thumbsup: I will keep the updates coming every few months. I drive a lot, so it should not be long for my first update.

Very glad you got your car back and its running well......but it was a refresh not a rebuild.......as long you are happy that is all that counts.

Sorry keep forgetting that. We need to come up with definition for refresh, rebuild, and reconstruct.

Congrats. I lost track. What have been repaired/replaced? Head job and bottom end as well?

I guess my ADHD is getting the best of me. I can't remember what forum I posted in and what I posted. And since this post is for future searchers I should recap the highlights.

Car ran perfect. Went to have IMS replaced after I bought the car. IMS was bad. Lots of metal in the engine. Just replaced the bearing and changed oil a lot. After a few thousand miles metal started to show back up. Car still ran perfect but decided to have it taken apart to get all the metal out.

http://i343.photobucket.com/albums/o...308773da4d.jpg
http://i343.photobucket.com/albums/o...ac/photo14.jpg
http://i343.photobucket.com/albums/o...ac/photo11.jpg
http://i343.photobucket.com/albums/o...c/photo5-1.jpg
http://i343.photobucket.com/albums/o...c/photo2-1.jpg
http://i343.photobucket.com/albums/o...CBB0F7D482.jpg

Car now runs perfecter.

that is a pretty decent price for the work.
I would like to see a good list of engine rebuilder nationwide. we always talk about the same guys, so I am glad you opened this thread to document UFO motorsports build.

Did you look into rebuilding with briefer parts instead of OEM ?

Very nice. That's a complete tear down. Why is it called a refresh and not a rebuild??

Yep. He would do whatever I wanted including the nikisil liners. I stuck with the basics because I don't believe these engines are inherently flawed and need $20K to get running right. And knowing my cylinders were good and heads not cracked I was good to go. I just needed the metal cleaned out. I guess there is a place where the shavings hide that you can't get to without take the IMS out, and with shavings floating around it could mess with the other bearings or clog the oil screen and lead to a catastrophic failure. Before he accepted the car he said it may run forever or could fail and lose the core. He had seen it go both ways. I was debating $10K now or $20K later and went with $10K now.

Because the heads were just cleaned and checked and not completely torn down.

Um...the receipt says new valve guide seals so I thought they removed the valves as well. Regardless, you get all the new major critical bottom end components anyway.

Edit: Never mind. I was thinking about the valve guides.

This is a bouble post. Would be better if the new pictures were added tonthe original thread. I already said in the original thread that the list of items indicares a simple refresh and not a rebuild. This was not a rebuild so stop calling it one. I see all the lifters in one bag, were they labeled to make sure they go back exactly where they came from?

Tried editing the title but I can't. It would just let me edit the content.

If you meant double post I know. I put the title that way and started a new thread so people searching on google would be able to find it. That's how I found the shop was with a google search.

My intent with this thread was to just add to the post from time to time about how the car was running. I found a couple threads in other forums about their car at 10K, 20K, 30K miles after their car was rebuilt and I found those the most helpful. Didn't really plan on a replying a bunch but am stuck at work all day/night/day without a lot to do.

As far as the lifters, no idea. I guess if it makes a difference I will know soon enough.

One man's refresh is another mans rebuild. They do say that if you reuse the lifters they should back in the same carrier position. I did this the first time I took off my cams. etc. Later I replaced all the lifters. The lifters should each be checked as they do tend to fail. The level of rebuild that Jake Raby does is far beyond what most other shops do, but also much more expensive. I think that what UFO does is more what traditional rebuilders do on most engines.

What do most traditional rebuilders do?

OK, so I have too much time on my hands. I found the definition of a rebuild from the AERA - Automotive Engine Rebuilders Association. By definition I had a short block rebuild.

http://www.aera.org/downloads/stdservice.pdf

Re ringing and new bearings are considered a rebuild nowdays? If the bores are not toched and the valves are not changed (properly) it is not a rebuild to me.