They Took Our Jobs!

I am having a difficult time getting the power cylinder (rotating assembly) components ordered for my Mustang. The block has been hot tanked, magnafluxed, crank bore checked, and bored 0.030 over with torque plates. They are ready to hone the block and deck it, but require the rotating assembly to do so.

Which brings me to my problem. They Took Our Jobs! Many of the aftermarket racing components offered by American companies are now being sourced overseas. China being the key source. There are still a few companies that offer premier components which are manufactured in the US, if you don't mind paying more. Which I don't. However, to the best of my knowledge no one is making H-Beam connecting rods in the US anymore. My focus on this whole thing is on the crankshaft.

I am attempting to buy a Scat or Callies crankshaft for my car. The issue is that Scat offers rotating assemblies for a competitive price, but they offer them in compression ratios either higher or lower than what I want, and high tension oil rings which don't do much more than rob horsepower. I have called in several times to talk to their tech support (read sales engineer [read some guy making $10/hour that read the catalog]) that really isn't much help. Both times I have called in, the Scat guy questions why I am doing something other than what he has listed in my catalog and kinda blows it off, and I never get the quote that I am looking for. Pisses me off. I keep trying to deal with him because if I were to buy the components I want outside of the kit, it would cost me almost twice as much.

So I have turned to Callies. I deal with them through work and have some good contacts, and have toured their plant. Callies cost more than everyone, but they are essentially the end-all name in racing crankshafts. They will have to machine my crankshaft custom, as they do not make Ford crankshafts in volume, but I am willing to pay for the quality. . . to a point. I'll let you know what they tell me.