11-01-11 To clear up all questions concerning what is made in the USA, what is bought from China and other countries then imported to the USA and what “ALL AMERICAN” means as well as what “ALL or MADE in the USA” means.
1. Made in the USA means from the beginning to the end, it is forged here, machined hear, hardened hear, packaged here and then sold directly to the pubic here plain and simple! At the very least, machined hear, hardened here and then sold hear directly.
2. Made in China, Taiwan, India, Pakistan or any other place as a raw forging then sent over hear and real USA workers machine it, not check it and re-box it, means “All American” That is it. Most times it is just re-boxed and sold as “ALL AMERICAN”, sad but true. It would be nice if companies did machine finish it hear because this does add to our economy and employees skilled labor. Some reputable companies that have been around for over 50 years actually do this because near nothing is forged here in the USA. Try to get a real forging here in the USA and let me know where it is coming from. I was told by the largest crank company that NO CRANK FORGINGS ARE PRODUCED IN THE USA any longer. He pretty much knows, he has been doing it as long as anyone and longer than most! This practice is fine as long as honest people like this company really does the finishing machine process that we pay for. There is nothing wrong with reputable crank forgings done overseas. EN40 billet forgings have come from overseas for 10 or 15 years that I know of. So its not a bad thing unless you think your getting something that has only actually touched an AMERICAN hand, usually in re-boxing and shipping right out the front door.
3. Made in China, Taiwan, India, Pakistan, or any place else then imported hear and then re-sold here has nothing to do with USA made other than being sold here. Now, it is not even (QT) quality controlled here, and comes in the foreign countries boxes with the USA selling company’s name on it. Sometimes it is re-boxed here! That is something I guess.
4. All in all, there is very high quality overseas forgings such as crank, rods, blocks and anything else they can copy and produce. While this market has a place for such material and goods and does generate a large part of our sales. But, I have seen the block castings, crank and rod forgings and while being acceptable, they are second. DART, WORLD, BRODIX and other USA companies that actually do their own forgings are usually better and I feel any company that does that should proudly wear that label as truly made in the USA! We are forced to put every content and country where any of our food is concerning. Why not for what we produce?
5. Again, don’t get me wrong, companies like CALLIES, COMP CAMS, LUNATI, MANLEY, OHIO, SCAT, WHEELER, (just brand names for example only, these are USA owned and operated companies that employee a ton of USA people and nothing wrong with them @ all), and most all companies are forced to purchase things overseas because we have sourced and given our heritage of being a country that actually builds and makes things on home soil to all those other people needing a job. Like we don’t,but I will agree, people in the USA are spoiled and will not work in industries like these and others. So don’t get a big stick out and point at any of these or any other companies that do this. What I am concerned about is leading advertisement that makes you think your getting something made in the USA when “ALL AMERICAN” is printed as an upgrade.
10-25-11 News worth reading. As of 11-01-2011, all AWESOME ENGINES® will have an ATI SUPER DAMPER as standard equipment. With the failures of offshore products piling up, we have been forced to just upgrade our engines to one of the best DAMPERS in the world. Not to mention, you can have them rebuilt, the are manufactured right here is the USA and ATI employees a lot of people. As well, an ATI SUPER DAMPER is used on every NASCAR engine built! That is just fact. We have known for years that the quality of ATI is second to none but have always been forced to sell them as an upgrade on the lower level engines. Well, the lower level engines make a lot of power and we had to have an agreement with JIM @ ATI the we will use his product solely on our engines. So when you want the best engines with the best dampers, just give us a ring and you don’t have to pay one dime more, we have absorbed all cost upgrades even on the basic engines. Go ahead and check out our pricing, this is not a gimic, its for us to have piece of mind our engines are protected by one of the best dampers in the world!
10-20-11 We have been probing all new blocks that come threw the shop and boy what you find that is not right! You have to be careful w/bore centers, deck height and lifter placement. Most blocks are pretty close and some are just no good. We just got some blocks that we ordered in for the base line engines and found the bore centers and lifter bores out so bad, the head gasket hung over the upper side and the bottom side was -.020 moved up. Same for the lifter bores. What does this do? With lifter bores, it changes the cam timing because of placement and angle. While placement is not as bad as angle but still should be as close as possible. The bore centers being this far off will cause the already weak part of the big bore pistons on the intake valve pocket to just have to be cut another .020″ into the really thin area and surely will lift the piston.With that in mind, if your machine shop does not offer probing, you get the bad blocks and you don’t know it. Some cnc machines can’t even measure this because the table is so unsteady, the bore centers and angle of boring is off as soon as they go to work as well as the deck heights from end to end. I had one of these so called brand new CNC machines and it was so bad they had to purchase it back! If your machinist has a knee mill CNC, it is not good, it must be a BED MILL. The table will flex and twist as it is moved all the way over to the left or right. Here is the tricky part it will repeat pretty close as long as the block weight is the same and when they probe it, it will probe o.k. Because, it all moves from left to right the same as long as the knee mill does not wear. As is wears it gets worst. Check it out you will see what I mean. Our Centroid will repeat within .001 from side to side and deck height and I can go back to either 45° and take .001 and its clean as glass! There is a big difference.
05-02 2011 Block machining, accuracy and quickness has really made all the difference this year in production. With a simple program to load, the block is bored, decked, radial clearance for what ever stroke, lifter bores opened up and corrected in the matter of 1 hour. Extremely fast and I am doing something else while this is going on. Its almost scary
03-15-11 Up and running smoothly now and getting better and faster at loading and programming. What we have learned is just how slow and how out of date our previous methods of block machining really were. With the Renishaw probing, we can now verify the block in about 2 minutes. This includes dead on accurate block Zero (180°) from crank, block 45° banking, deck heights, bore sizing, angles to deck, crank and bore spacing, lifter bore sizes and angles. All this is within .0005″ in the matter of minutes. The Centroid is the only machine that has this figured out with their fourth axis programing.
Even with brand new aftermarket blocks, we have found bore centers to be out as much as .016″. Deck heights as much as .006 from end to end and .003 from side to side. Lifter bores are as much as .5° on the exhaust sides of BBC. This will affect cam timing. What amazes us is the quickness to spot all these problems with new blocks. You can not know you even have a problem if your machine shop does not have probing. You just get what you got.
The ability to spot this is one thing but is nothing to correct once you give us your deck height and bore sizes. We can correct these small, yet hp robing problems that are built into just about all blocks..
I can not stress how satisfied I am with the Centroid machining center. With that said, I am so satisfied with the people from Centroid that I can not believe how good they are with customer support. NEVER any problem with taking my calls. JOHN and JESSIE are simply put, the BEST IN THE BUSINESS when it comes to standing behind what I was promised. They have worked endlessly in helping me even my littlest concerns. If you are interested in a top of the line machining center, you will be sorely disappointed if you do not give them a shot and let them show you what a real machining center can do! (I am Bill Cannon, owner of Awesome Engines and I stand behind this statement 100%
(02-20-2011) We have now settled in pretty much with the Centroid and doing very well. Blocks are beginning to roll off the machine completely done with just a final hone for the bores and align bores. Two near dead on completed fully machined blocks per day being done is now easy, this took 2 days just to do one before. We will be trying our new additional service we offer really soon. William, IT controller is tying the logistics together as we are posting.
CENTROID BLOCK MACHINING CENTER Update 01-026-11
( 01-26-11) Jesse from Centroid Center, Bill and all the guys at the engine shop got the new block machining center in place on Monday, man was it cold and is this thing big (12,000lbs), assembled and set up on Tuesday and will be making chips on Wednesday. With the new dedicated block machining center, you will no longer have to worry if you got a block with some bad machine work. Our goal is to give you a near perfect block every time. Every machined surface and correct placement of critical areas like lifter bores, crank to head surface, 90° deck surfaces along with perfect deck heights.
Block identification is now standard with all Awesome Engines® (AE), Short blocks (SB) or just a block (B) purchase. Now standard, a complete block report with every block that will be serialized with (Awesome Engines®) in the # and cnc engraved for lifetime availability for the block information. This gives us the block identification number and all the information when the block was done, just a click away. Sounds silly but we have had at least 20 calls in the past wanting this information on private purchases. This way, you can or can’t be sold something that is or was not!
Also, something very exciting will be showing up on every ones computers real soon. This is a top secret addition to the Centroid block machining center that Bill took upon his self to purchase with the new machine. Keep watching for the news, you will be able to directly participate in your complete engine, short-block or block assembly and you will love it.
“News for January 2011″ All New B-4250 CENTROID 4-Axis Block Machining Center will take over the main load of block and head work for us.
After careful consideration on which CNC machine to acquire for our Awesome Engines customers while at the 2010 PRI in Florida, the “CENTROID” B-4250 enclosed wet or dry machining center was the very clear choice!
Fast Service on Machining Procedures or Upgrades for Our Engine Customers
- Lifter bores any size, bushed, keyed or plain
- Splayed billet cap installation on most blocks
- 55-60mm cam bearings installed in most blocks
- Radial clearance any rod and crank combination
- Block lightening & Logo Installation for most blocks
- Fully race prepped and ready to assemble or, you finish
- Any combination block work you can think of ready to go
- Blocks and heads will have serial numbers and block reports
- Custom CNC Fabrication projects as well will be handled by our Staff
With our extensive head & block inventory, our goal is to have a 1 week delivery for any block. Brands like our own AE, (Awesome Engines) or BRODIX, DART, ELIMINATOR, GM, MERLIN, PBM, WHEELER or any other block you have or need. Chevy, Ford, Chrysler, Pontiac and more will be fully race prepped. All aluminum blocks are also included. From a ready to assemble or you finish machining it, we will make it happen in any stage.
Awesome Engines® strives to produce the most powerful well equipped racing engines in the market. We start with products from AFR, BRODIX, CALLIES, COMP CAMS, DART, EAGLE, JESEL, LPC, LUNATI, MANLEY, MERLIN, MOROSO, PRECISION, PROFILER, PBM, SCAT, T&D, TREND, WHEELER, WISECO, WORLD and many more companies that produce quality hard core parts.
Keep watching for another Centroid A532-5-Axis dedicated head machine just for advanced cylinder head porting in 2012! Its coming.