Or, can I put a deposit down now to hold a spot for when it needs it or I could sell that spot with the car if I ever sell it or better yet to a friend for almost free. Just like it is for the new GT3’s. sorry, in Mexico with nothing to do but lay in the sun and too much time on my hands

We are blessed to stay “super busy”. For over a decade we have maintained a 9+ month backlog. Before that my aircooled program was typically 15 months backlogged. Today my aircooled program is my therapy..

That said, we know how to manage this backlog, and its all about scheduling, and a 64 step spreadsheet that governs each engine as it’s sole builder takes it through all the steps. Here, the person that extracts the engine from the car is the same person who disassembles it, inspects it, machines it, balances it, re- assembles it, re-installs it back into the car, and fires it up for the first time. This is NOT a team effort. One pair of hands, and one mind performs all the work on each engine. l assign the builder when the proposal is signed, and l base the builder l choose on the engine application, and etc. There’s 4 builders under the roof, including me, and the “newest” one of them has been here 13 years, the oldest has been here 21 years. The person that’s been here 21 years has been sent home early one time due to a lack of work.. Like l said, l have been blessed.

I try very hard not to have an engine exchange program. Why? Well, thats what mass producers do. We will never become mass producers, and this business will never grow larger than it is today. With higher volumes always comes a lack of quality, and today’s workforce sucks so bad that l don’t want to hire any new employees. As each one retires, we’ll scale things back until its my turn...l’m the youngest person here!

Last year some “business guy” showed up and said he wanted to speak to me about buying the business. The fact that he felt like he was important enough to sit at the gate and blow his horn pissed me off from the beginning... Then he followed the UPS truck into the gate, and I went into “mode”. His first question was “have you considered growing the business?”
My response: “Have you considered minding your own damn business?” Then l kicked him off the property.
His hands looked like he gets a weekly manicure, so there’s no way in hell he could run this place. l own this place so l can build engines and do them my way, not to sit at a desk, and rake in cash.

That said, typically an elective build only requires us to have the car on site for 3 months. That is a small price to pay time wise to have your existing, matching numbers engine reconstructed, and installed back into your car with a complete new character.

I refuse to rush. You can rush failure, but you cannot rush success. It takes as long as it takes, and the two things you will not find in my work space is a calendar, and a clock. Time does not matter here.

Although there are times when people just can’t wait... So sometimes l prepare engines in advance, fully spec them out, photo document the assembly, and give them full blueprints. l keep these engines on hand for the guy that can’t wait, and is willing to pay a +15% price of admission to have the car back in action in less than 2 weeks. These usually sell out by mid- spring, and the only 9a1 l have in stock is a Cayman spec 3.4 based engine. The Canadians love this program...

We always work from a “pre- order” perspective. The calendar starts the day the proposal is executed. We are always on- time, or early with completions. Three equal payments of 1/3 occur, one at the onset of the project, one at mid- term, and one at maturity.

If you have an elective build, things are easy, and you can drive the car for most of you are waiting. The modern human has a problem with waiting for good things to happen, but l never designed this program to be for everyone. Instant gratification doesn’t really happen here. This is how we end up with the results that we have.

So, l have one 2019 completion date available, in November. After that l am booked till March 15, 2020 for a completion. Who wants November?

I like your system Jake. When I’ve saved up enough for an elective 4.0L build I’ll hit you up. Will not in 2019 though, most likely 2020. Hoping to learn from this thread how to better take care of our engines in the meantime from your report / video.

Thank you. It was easier to attain the reputation, than it has been to retain the reputation.

The backlog isn’t so great because the engines are failing at a great pace. The fact is l don’t accept many failed engines these days to work with. The vast majority of our work is elective builds, and failures take away my abiity to give the owner an absolute final price for the work at the very beginning. If we are performing elective work, we know eactly what recipe will used, and know exactly what that will cost frm day #1.

Something like a failed cylinder is about the only failure l will accept to work with these days.

The focus here is on the quality of the product, and also the quality of the process for the vehicle owner. We over- communicate, and set realistic timelines for completion. If we are “on time” with a build, l consider that we are already late. l take the most pride in doing what l say that l will do, and being done on- time, every time.

@Wayne Smith
Keep in mind that the 3 months that the car is here is not al spent working on this one engine. The preparation of the car owner’s engine block is what takes the longest amount of time during this 3 month period. The engine block is at LN Engineering for just over two of these three months. The work flow here is worked out so the builder will remove an engine, and disassemble it, then send the block out. Once the block is gone, he will then spend 2 weeks assembling an engine that just returned from LN, and has all it’s components ready to be assembled- by schedule. After that engine is finished, he will then install it into the car, and my testing process begins. While l am testing that vehicle, he will disassemble another project, and send it away, then the process starts all over again.The three other builders do things the same way, and everything is staggered, so lifts and the engine, and chassis dynos are not clogged with engines. This all works like one well- oiled machine, over and over again.

On average we complete 24 engines per year, and have maintained this average for around a decade. Personally l build about 5 engines per year, none of them are normal, and sane.. Keep in mind that my work day is 15-18 hours, not 8 hours. l don’t quit when l am tired, l quit when l am done.

Yes, we all get older, and things change. My longest time employee told me. few months ago that he’d be retiring in 6 years, and would be here until then. l looked at him and told him that we’d go out together, since he has been here since my first year in business, and he was my first employee. As for transition, well this work isn’t the target of younger talent, and l’d hate to see what l have created go to someone who would run it by trying to “make more money”. At the end of the day that person would have bought a business, and not earned it. They won’t ever respect it like l do. Perhaps when the time comes the other employees will take over to finish their time, time will tell.
l started this business in a barn with a dirt floor, and a crate of old VW engine parts. it had no power, except the extension cord that ran almost 200’ to the nearest power source. By the time the power got to the barn all that could be powered was a broken lamp tossed over a rafter. My work bench was an old chest type freezer, and the broken lamp hung right above it. l built my first 914 engine for a customer at the age of 13. Today that barn isn’t the same.... Its the building on the right side of Petza914’s photo... Yes, thats the same building 30 years later, minus the hogs and chickens.

If marketed correctly, there are 1 in 500 millennials - you know, the artsy-fartsy types - whose souls were from a different generation, who would be totally into rebuilding engines of high quality. Kind of like the new mellenial audiophiles out there. Rare indeed, but they are out there.

And I would argue there are more than 1 in 500. I think millennials catch a lot of flak for a lot of things and unfairly so, but that’s an argument for another forum. As for Flat 6 (and I don’t mean any disrespect) if the company goes away someone will step in to fill the gap. LN Engineering is not going anywhere I don’t think. There’s Hartech across the pond and I wouldn’t rule out new players. It’ll also be the age of the electric 911, hopefully less of a burden to carry by that time.

The copy cats will try to “fill the gap”. The issue is that they can’t, just like they can’t compete today. Their businesses are ran sloppily, they don’t communicate, they change names 3 times in one year, and they are in debt up to their ears. They try to do more volume, and the caveat to that is a less than pleasurable experience for the buyer, and poor performance all around as the end result. They don’t develop, and they imitate, rather than originate.

l have one millennial assistant that has been here for 4 years. He works directly under me, and is a great employee. We work hand in hand everyday. He learns a lot every week, and l constantly challenge and quiz him. He must pass a 250 answer, practical application, and written test before l will let him move on to any assembly tasks. It must be passed with 100% effectiveness. l don’t accept a “99 percenter”.

We’ll see where things are in 7 years.. If l never had to deal with business, and people l’d be here till the day l died, and you couldn’t beat me away with a stick. My place is in the shop, way, way, way away from the things that are associated with modern business, marketing, and interaction.