West Coast Engines

[72K5CSTDarkOlive]

I wanted to share my experience with West Coast Engines (website:https://www.westcoastengines.com/)

They are essentially a middle man for this company: motor works (website - http://www.motorworksengines.com/ )

They are one of those mass production engine builders. Now, with any mass production engine builder, you're bound to get a bad apple here and there. I happen to be one of them.

I purchased the engine 3 years ago through Brady from West Coast engines. It was there stage 2 350.

My K5 took a lot longer to restore so the engine sat for 3 years. From what I've been told, an engine sitting wouldn't have any affect on the problems I had with this engine.

The motor has about 1500 miles so far. One day I started the truck and heard a loud knocking noise so I go ahead an pop the hood and noticed a big crack in my valve cover.

The rocker arm sheared right in half. I replaced the rocker arm and it did it again immediately.

This time, I call motor works directly and explain to them what is happening and that this is most likely incorrect springs. I also noticed the cylinder heads are Hecho en Mexico. They advertise that they use all "Made In USA" parts.

They then proceed to tell me the cylinder heads are out of warranty because it's been 3 years. They advertise 5 year / 50K miles, but come to find out, that is only for the block. The heads are warranty for 3 years.

I decided to pull the motor and replace the heads for some aluminum heads and upgrade the camshaft to match the new heads.

Once we pulled the camshaft out we noticed sever damage to the lobes and the cam bearing showed signs of excessive wear.

Other findings we noticed including the following:
1. Detonation
2. Head Gasket leak
3. We found a piece of something sitting inside the water jacket (must have fallen in during the build.
4. Overall poor machine work was done.
5. timing chain showed signs of wear.

I sent pictures to Motorworks and they reviewed everything and told me the following:

1. Detonation was most likely a carb issue.
2. No explanation for the piece found inside water jacket
3. the line/marking in the cylinder bore is normal
4. Timing chain marks are normal.
5. cam bearing is normal to look like it does.
6. Camshaft - they said they are not sure why it got damaged.

They offer to give me a new camshaft and gaskets to put it back together. No offer for the labor it is going to cost me.

Bottom line, I do not trust this motor to go back in my truck and I refuse to slap a bandaid on it. I will NEVER buy a motor from the internet ever again. I'm using a local shop to build my next motor.

Anyways, I just thought I would share with everyone my experience with West Coast Engines

[72K5CSTDarkOlive]

Pics
1. rocker arm stud
2. Head Gasket leak
3. Detonation
4. Piece found inside water jacket
5. Timing chain

[72K5CSTDarkOlive]

One of the machinist I had look at this said this was poor/lazy machine work. You can see the line/marking in the center of the bore. I'm not sure if it's normal or not, but that's what I was told.

[Ventanakaz]

I was thinking of buying from them, But there are some bad reviews, Also was thinking of Summit Racing, I have bought alot of parts from them, and like the ease of return if the part is not right, I was also told the engine in my 67 C10 was the original 307 and I found out that a 307 is a 283 engine with a 327 crankshaft, not sure if that's true, The other thing I was thinking about was to find someone local and have them build up my 307 with more horsepower and torque. Would like some opinions from you guys that have been through the engine swap or rebuild thing, Oh and BTW I'm going to go old school and not even thinking about LS swap :-)

[geezer#99]

Your 67 wouldn’t have had a 307 as the stock motor. The 307 came out in 68. You need to figure out what you got.
Here’s a couple links to some info on small blocks and pics and info to determine what your engine is.
Here’s a sb wiki.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chev...l-block_engine

Here’s the place to look for the pics. Look in casting locations.

https://www.mortec.com/

Once you know what you got then you can decide on a motor plan.

[Ventanakaz]

The guy I bought it from told me it was a barn find, and I was told it could be a truck that was bought late in the year of 67, so that's why it might be a 307, But like you said I'll have to get some numbers off the block, The ones on the front of the engine are easy to read, But the ones on the back are impossible to see, There still is the build sheet on the glove compartment door, that is in tack and very readable, I wonder if that will help with what I got ?

[geezer#99]

Sometimes the spid will work.
Spid is the sheet in the glove box.
If you clean the crap off the casting number behind the head with a wire brush you could take a pic with your phone.
What’s the numbers/letters on the pad in front?

[Ventanakaz]

Got some pics after cleaning crap off the back lip of engine

[Ventanakaz]

Couldn't upload pics, gonna try tapatalk

[Ventanakaz]

Is this group on Facebook ?

[Ventanakaz]

Couldn't find you guys on tapatalk

[geezer#99]

Here’s how to post pics.

https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...d.php?t=712252

[Ventanakaz]

I don't have a computer, I have a note 9 phone, I'll try again

[geezer#99]

Or just post the numbers and I’ll figure them out for you.

[Ventanakaz]

Pic

[Ventanakaz]

Pic

[geezer#99]

Congrats!
It’s a boy!!
Sorry, just kidding.
It’s a 307 all right. Of 69-73 origin.

https://www.mortec.com/castnum.htm

[Ventanakaz]

LOL, So the guy I bought it from was right. Not sure what I'm gonna do, Not sure if it's worth rebuilding, Wanted to get 400 horses in the bay, and was thinking about putting in a 383 from Summit Racing or Jegs high performance ?

[Ventanakaz]

Pic

[geezer#99]

You can rebuild it but would be tuff getting lots of hp.
You’d need heads, cam, intake etc.
Cost prohibitive.
Better to start with this motor. Easy to make close to 400 ponies with a cam change.
It has all the good stuff already. Good compression ratio, matched cam, good heads.
And priced well.

https://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/059/0282/10002/-1

[Ventanakaz]

Just took this pic with hood up,

[Ventanakaz]

I have new parts on this engine that I'm gonna transfer over to the new engine, it came with a 2 barrel and stock exhaust manifolds, I put an eldelbrock dual plane manifold with eldelbrock 650 four barrel carb, and Sanderson mid length Ceramic coated headers.

[Ventanakaz]

It also has that great lifter noise that you like to hear, More than one. It goes away after a couple minutes of warming up.

[geezer#99]

Looks good!

[geezer#99]

I’m thinking you should start a new thread in the 67-72 section or engine and drivetrain section.
You’ll get a lot more info for your intended motor needs.