against my better judgement, i bought a shortblock from these guys. I went with their 396 sbc shortblock with dished pistons for my 58cc heads. I was ready to start putting it together and i thought i would check the deck height just to make sure everything was ok. to my surprise, I have 2 pistons sticking out of the bores .006" when it is supposed to be 0. the weird thing is every other piston is out of the bore .002-.0045". so I call them up ready to return the engine and chad proceeds to tell me that its ok that they stick out and production tolerances cause the variation, and blah, blah, blah. now maybe its just me, but if i shell out $4000, 0 should be 0. not plus or minus .006". all the guys who built it had to do was check it and shave the pistons down. Now I don't trust any of the clearances, so I have to take the thing apart and go through it myself. Let this be a warning to everyone else. If you want somethin done right, do it yourself.

Sorry to hear that you paid good money and did not get what you were promised. I had problems in the past with machine shops that had excellent reps that installed used rings,and bearings in a 383. I learned to do my own assembly after that.

I have a 383 that was all done by them and yet unassembled. I waited 9 weeks after dropping off my own block pistons etc and they were going to do all the machine work. I go to pick it up and they didn't do all of the balancing. I waited 4 hrs while they did it. After getting everything home I found out that the block that I got was not my origanal that I dropped off. this makes me wonder if the machine tolerances are going to fit my pistons etc. i'm thinking that they just threw my an off the shelf 383 +.030 block and not one fitted to my parts. I did double check the balance as best as I could and it seems to be all in spec. John

If anyone else has had these types of problems with Golen speak up! If they are being dishonest or doing shoddy/sloppy work, they should`nt get any more business. JFG455, did you bring your situation to the attention of the owner? Most businesses are not out to rip off customers, some are and do.

Golen has had a fairly bad reputation on TGO for quite some time. Off hand I can remember at least two or three threads that had bad experiences. I know I wouldn't use them.

No offenec intended but how did you measure the piston to deck hieght? Its pretty hard to get more accurate then .006 probably considering the piston rocks in the bore. I do under stand your concern. Personally if I was purchasing , I would expect the it at 0.000 or in the hole if I wanted 0. Atleast in the hole, wouldnt cause concern to re evaluate the piston to valve clearence if it was close , figured at 0. If there is no concern , I d prefer .006 out.

This is disheartening, to say the least.
I for one, and I know many others around the 2 countries, read GM High Tech Performance regularly. The have shops and tuners mentioned or featured in build-ups and whatnot. People read this thinking "hey, that must be a good shop/tuner/builder/etc, the mag would only use the best in the field(s) right?"
Well, I remember they had a few buildups and feature cars done by Augostino in Toronto. Anyone remember those guys? Total theif and nothing but a criminal (Nick Augostino), sold the business. Now it's just bad for all shops in Toronto, nobody knows if they can trust anyone.
And Golen Engines have been mentioned many times as well. One of the recent issues featured crate engines on the market, I think Golen was mentioned.
I wonder if the mag would print some of these stories about some of these disappointments? I suppose not, they'er usually advertisers. It's too bad, cause I bet alot of people go because a mag prints they'er good.
For shame Golen

yea, information in a mag is pretty much the same as the internet......

Interesting:
I would not be so much concerned about the .006 out of the hole, but he says he had at least one of them .045 out!! If you're only .006, or even a bit more, you can run a slightly thicker head gasket and more than make up the difference. However, having such a large difference between cylinders sets off all kinds of alarms to me: The crank is not properly machined, the rods or piston heights are different, or the block decks are not square. My experience usually points to a tolerance stack of all these items being off. Let's just say that it appears that Golen does not use top-quality parts or assembly methods. Not getting your original block back from a machine shop is unfortunately perfectly normal. I've been dismayed to find I have NEVER gotten my original block back from a machinist, even when I specifically asked for it back.

The correct way to deal with this is to square the block, and carefully measure the rods/piston pin heights, and put the "tallest" pistons with the "shortest" rods. Honestly, the engine would probably run fine as is, but will never perform at it's best or be able to be tuned accurately. Tolerable for a daily driver, but completely unacceptable for a real performance engine.

TA

No offense taken. the .006" I posted was with the piston squared in the bore. If i rock it, i can get it up to .009". I used a deck bridge and a dial indicator. the bridge was checked for flatness and the indicator has been calibrated so it is accurate. I cant run it with .006" and a .039" gasket. has anybody ever heard of running .030" piston to head clearance. chad told me that is what they recommend even though everything ive ever read, seen, or heard says that around .040" for street and .035" for a full tilt race motor is suggested. he also told me that everything on the internet is bs and he wouldnt steer me wrong. I wonder what he wouldve said if i gave him the bill for a ruined set of afrs?

Same experience here.
383 built and tuned by them ..it died 1 hour after starting.

Returned it and they stated the tune was off and not thier fault...charged another $700 plus shipping.

Reinstalled w/ new tune...lasted 2 hours wiped out all the bearings.

Stay as far away from them as possible.

wow guys that sucks to hear that. i had them build a 383 short block for me and its been about two years with no problems (knock on wood) although i dont get to drive it much.