Over the last 10 years we have on occasion, needed to purchase engines to meet the needs of our business. When I have just purchased a Thing for the business and put it into service, sometimes the engines are less than happy with their new home.

If we don’t have one of our engines ready to go we have to purchase them to get through the summer. I have purchased about 15 engines from GEX over the years. I started with Dick Flowers, the sales rep, back in 92. We have had generally good results from GEX, with just a few problems in the last two years. One engine came to me out of time (the crank was indexed wrong to the cam). Anymore, I am loathe to recommend ANY particular engine re-builder as they are all spotty in the quality and attention to detail.

I have tried the hydraulic engines starting back in 1992, and have never been satisfied with them. I bought two, and built two myself. Some real horror stories there. I do know of a few hydraulics that are working for some folks and am glad for them. May the force be with them! Details upon request.

Larry Green’s Thing has a Bernie Bergman engine that we had to take apart and correct to get it to run. When Larry got it, it was a 1776 hydraulic that just would not idle. Larry ended up removing the hydraulic lifters and the cam, and installing the Chevy 350 solids. We also found the cam was not indexed to the crank properly. It was 5 teeth off. After correcting this, he took the car on our Rallye in 1997, to the Little Bighorn Battlefield. The car ran HOTTER than a 3 dollar pistol, and had no end of problems. To make a long story short, Larry now has a mere shadow of his former engine that he paid $1800.00 for. We have done a few modifications to this engine to get it to run well.