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PAECO
2400-M Mountain Drive
Birmingham, AL 35226
800-326-6401
205-323-8376
205-823-7278 (205-823-PART)

[2003/Apr/28] A few years ago I ordered a "fast road" (Stage 3, 11.0-1 CR) from PAECO out of their catalog. This motor was to to be professionally installed by Expert Auto Service in my home town of Stamford, CT. The installer is of impeccable reputation and history. The product was paid for in advance, was delivered on time and installed. Upon initial running it was found to be leaking oil profusely from the front of the engine. Additonally, the engine was found to exhibit loud knocking noises from within. Later inspection would reveal PAECO had sent me the improper product as the engine ordered came with Flat-top pistons. The engine I received came with very high compression pistons (domed) suitable for racing as advertised in the PAECO catalog (Stage 4+). Mr. Stringfellow allowed as I could return the engine for "repair" under the warranty, shipping to be paid both ways by me. I advised Carl Stringfellow he had shipped me the wrong engine to begin with and thus, I had no idea of what he was talking about in terms of "repair". Why would he want to "repair" the wrong engine? I had obviously recieved the improper product. I asked that he provide me with the product I had ordered as described in the PAECO catalog and as the error was obviously his, PAECO should pay all further shipping costs in providing the correct engine. Mr. Stringfellow would not budge from his position so we proceeded to litigation. Just before trial date, Mr. Stringfellow "caved" and returned my money in full, with 1/3 going to my lawyer. Litigation took less than 1 year. By that time we had stripped the PAECO engine provided. All work done was noted and errors (of which there were many) documented by two professional, state licensed mechanics. Pistons and valves were damaged but the pistons were of the wrong type anyway. Far too high a compression ratio for the street and pump octanes available. Other clearancing problems too numerous to mention were also found...everywhere! The cam was of a "Sprint" grind with duration approaching 300 degrees! PAECO had indeed shipped the wrong motor. All salvageable parts including block, crank, conrods and head were sent out for machining and together with a more suitable cam for the application. All was reassembled along with other new parts ordered as required. At last I had the motor I had originally ordered from PAECO!! Cost me a little more time, inconvenience and money than I planned thanks to PAECO. Why Mr. Stringfellow didn't simply provide the product as ordered from his catalog or simply replace the "wrong" motor with the "right" one remains a mystery to this day. Very strange people but certainly not a firm I would do business with again or recommend to others. Steer clear! -- Robert E. Shlafer <PilotRob@webtv.net>

[2002/May/08] Avoid Paeco! Someone suggested I should add my story, and once here I see someone has already made note of it. So I will fill in some details. It is probably fair to note this bad experience goes back many years, but it was so bad I will not deal with them ever again even to buy off-the-shelf parts. After several years of thrift, I finally scraped together $5000 to buy a "competition" Spitfire engine from Paeco, Carl Stringfellow, who had done minor bits of engine work for me on several prior occasions without problems. The engine was an utter disaster: *It was promised in three months. It took 15 months. *His excuse was that he had to get cam bearings, and it took that long before the bearing manufacturer made another run of them. Had he told me that up front, I had a set on my shelf I could have sent him. *Paeco demanded payment in advance. When after 9 months or so I tried to cancel the order, Stringfellow refused to return my money. *It arrived COD for the shipping. I later learned he rated the shipment at 500 pounds which cost me a whole lot more for the shipping than it should have (in the crate it is more like 250#). I had to sue the trucking company in small claims court to resolve the shipping overcharge (I won). *When the engine finally arrived, I took off the oil pan and found inside it what looked like dried oil-soaked dirt, layered like shale. Enough to fill a #10 envelope. *I could not mount the engine in my Spitfire because it had the front plate from a TR6(?). Apparently the front plates are interchangeable except for the minor detail that the Spitfire engine mounts are on the front plate and the TR6's are not. *So I had to disassemble the entire front end and replace the plate. In so doing, I found two attachment bolts in which the threads had been stripped and not repaired. *With the engine finally in the car, I took it out to test it. Within half a mile, it broke. We discovered there was a burr in the #1 lifter hole that jammed the lifter. The pushrod then punched through the bottom of the lifter, destroying lifter, pushrod, cam, etc. *The engine had to be sent back to Paeco -- at MY expense (both ways), as they would not go the shipping charge to fix their screwup. This, BTW, is how I found I had been grossly overcharged on the original shipping. *The engine came back, new lifter, pushrod, cam -- but the burr WAS STILL THERE. They had specifically been told of the burr and were told to fix that. They did not, merely reassembled with new parts. *We had to disassemble the engine and file out the burr with a rattail file before it would run. *It never did seem to be the killer "competition" engine I thought I'd ordered. But it was all I had. Over intervening years, both Duane Dunham and Steve Wolf had hands on it, and their work at least made it somewhat reliable if not quick. Steve, finally, took some measurements of the motor and reported to me that an engine I expected to be somewhere about 12.5:1 compression ratio was actually 10.69:1! Barely better than stock! Some "Stage 3" competition engine. *I now have two GOOD engines built for me by the Able Co. in Grand Rapids, Mich. The second one was built off the Paeco block -- which was deemed so little prepared that it was still a perfectly good core from which to build a REAL performance engine. However, a new head was put on it because the work done by Paeco actually made the old head less efficient. *With my limited finances at the time, I figure Paeco essentially rendered me uncompetitive for nearly 10 years because I could not afford to just throw the engine away and go have another built. I trusted them with my one opportunity (then) to be competitive. They took the money and ran. The proof that my uncompetitiveness was virtually 100% the engine is shown in my Able motors, which have me up where I should have been for years. And BTW, the Able price, even years later, was almost the same as what Paeco charged. -- Rocky Entriken <rocky@tri.net>

Almost everyone I talk to says to steer clear of Paeco, especially for engine work. There have been many problems dealing with these folks, both technical and business. Rocky posted a sob story about and engine job they blew for him a while back, and cost him a lot of $$ and time. - Roger Garnett

For Healeys: Engine rebuild services, short blocks, engine parts, high performance parts, clutch & brake parts, Webers, SU parts, air cleaners,headers, oil coolers, roll bars. - from Healey list

Their catalogue has pictures of linkages, exploded views of carbs etc. I remember seeing those ball-end type linkages in their catalogue. - unknown This is largely an SCCA production-car place. Lots of go-fast goodies. Don't buy their swaybars, they are ADDCO, which are cheaper at J. C. Whitney. - Phil Ethier

Race parts for British cars. Decent selection and price, occasional sales. Much of what they sell is just resale of Addco, Monza, etc. Beware of bait-and- switch in their catalog - parts shipped may not meet the drawing on the catalog page. Ask lots of questions if there are any doubts. I ordered what I thought was going to be a nice cast Mocal oil cooler adapter and ended up with a $60 hunk of aluminum with badly threaded 1/2NPT adapters. - Chris Kent Kantarjiev <cak@parc.xerox.com>

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