Counterfeit Parts

[Steve Stasko]

Originally Posted by Kevin Panzino

Regarding one speedmaster product.. A customer brought over an LS block for me to hone. He also brought his new speedmaster head studs to use with my deck plate. I was absolutely stunned at the low quality of those studs. No efffing way they were anywhere near 190,000 psi or the properly hardened material. The torque response felt odd, quite 'spongy' and sure enough when I removed the deck plate and the studs over half of them had started rolling the threads and almost all the nuts could not be spun off by hand after loosening, had to run them off with a socket the rest of the way. And all of the black oxide was gone in the thread area. Total and complete junk.

I had the same issue with a 440 Chrysler main girdle kit I bought for a street motor. The girdle itself was fine, but the main studs did exactly what you described. Some of the nuts were so tight on the studs that backing them off with a socket just turned the entire stud out. The company that sold this kit stated the studs were made for them by a leading US manufacturer who's stuff is used in probably every engine raced on this forum.

I would have never found the problem had I just assembled the motor off the machinist's clearances after the line hone. I found tolerances varying +/- .005 on every main cap when I mic'd them. I replaced the studs with known ARP pieces and had the exact same, and correct clearance down every main. I'm sure the machinist had these pieces in and out of the block to have correctly performed the line hone, but they were only seemingly good for one use.

[Dan Bennett]

Not sure of the origin of the studs you describe, but a while back I ran across something that made things a lot clearer.

There is actually a single word in Chinese which translates to "good enough" and is considered a wise business practice. It's profitable to change dimensions, processing, and manufacturing to get something that sort of works - at least long enough that people who aren't paying attention don't notice.

Again, in another field I've found that there are some machine shops there that turn out very good items - but of course they are more expensive. Sadly, it looks like the current state of racing doesn't choose to do that.

And yes, I am a strong believer in buying American and avoid buying anything from there when I can. But as their lower prices have gained them market share, it's getting really hard to do so.

[sst7250]

I see a rebranding coming soon....again....

[Dennisdallas188]

Just heard from a friend who works at Summit that they’ve officially dropped Speedmaster.

[J.R. Haddad]

sst7250, you are right. However, for them to change company names, order new packaging, re package, re inventory, change part #'s to make them look different, is a complete, expensive pain in the azz. If we can catch them again right out of the chute, we'll aggravate them into submission. is this going away anytime soon, NO. But we can all help give them the fight of their corporate lives.

J.R.

[pmrphil]

Well, when they changed names LAST time (from Pro Comp Engineering) they were ballsy enough to leave all the part numbers with the "PCE" prefix - easy enough to spot. Packaging won't take them that long, shipping both ways will probably take longer, but they'll be back. Too much invested to let it all go away, they already know the profit margin in peddling junk.

[dragracerray]

Has this company, and others like it, been allowed at PRI? I would hope with a reputation like this they would not be allowed in. PRI implies a level of honest that would cause people to trust them. Ray

[pmrphil]

Yup, they were there #3233, and they are currently on the list for 2024
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