S and J Engines - Remanufactured

[Willie 66]

Hey all,

Has anybody heard of S and J Engines? Looking at purchasing a reman'd inline 6 from them. Pretty sure I destroyed mine a few weekends ago, so I'm not looking at doing a rebuild.

They say their engines have a 7-year/100,000 mile warranty, which is a heckuva lot longer than the rest of my truck will last! That's one of the main reasons I'm looking into it.

Other recommended builders are also highly appreciated. Thanks in advance for the responses!

[TJ's Chevy]

Don't see why not! I'd give them a shot! What exactly happened to your inline 6? It may not be past rebuild. Pending on the price of S and J a rebuild alot of times is cheaper than a reman engine. I'd get the 292 reman engine if that's what you don't have.....more power!

[Captainfab]

If you are talking about the S&J Engines in Spokane WA, yes I have heard of them. My son had them custom build his turbo'd 4.3 and has not had any issues, and he's hard on his stuff. A friend of mine put one of their engines in his boat last year. Again no issues.

[Jcox68rt]

I have heard of them through a friend who used them once a while ago. He was happy with the engine he got. Has since sold the car but had it for several years with no issues. I'm contemplating them building my Cadi 390 for my Studebaker truck build... But I'm still undecided.

[MLC66GMC]

I recently had my 292 rebuilt by them. There are some things about the process I didn't like, but the engine runs great so far. I'd buy an engine from them.

[68gmsee]

Personally, before going that route, I'd look and ask around for a good, reputable rebuilder there in Houston. From what I see advertised here in my area there's quite a few them there. The main reason I'd go local is for convenience and warranty and maybe cost. It's easier to deal with a reputable local builder than one thousands of miles away.

If your block is beyond repair, a lot of machine shops have some already in stock.

Just my opinion.

[dwcsr]

There are several here in Houston, Scroggins Machine has an A+ from the BBB
Bear Creek Automotive Machine is on the Katy/Houston line, I have used them with good results.

[Willie 66]

The reason I'm looking into completely "new" engines is because I think I seized a piston due to overheating... Going to check compression and do some other checks tonight to fully diagnose. If something like this happened, can one of these things be rebuilt? I don't know if the cylinders on these 292's are sleeved or not. Also, it's one of those Target Master motors. Anybody know about the quality of these? From what I've seen, people either love or hate the Target Master 350's, but I haven't heard either way on the sixes.

[GRX]

"I think I seized a piston due to overheating"

Yes. An engine like that could be rebuilt. The cylinders in the 292 are integral - no separate sleeves. If seized, likely the cylinder wall is damaged. In that case all 6 could be bored over size with new pistons installed. Very likely that is what you would be getting from S&J anyway.

[Willie 66]

That makes me feel a little better.

dwcsr: Thanks for the tips. I'll be looking into both of them since they are local.

Thanks again everyone!

[TJ's Chevy]

Your gonna want to have the head and block magnafluxed and checked for cracks before you even purchase parts for a rebuild if it overheated. Just for insurance.

[Willie 66]

Just spoke to the guys at Bear Creek, they say it would be guaranteed to be upwards of $1500 for a rebuild, perhaps a lot more. Told them the same things I've posted here. Yeesh, for that price I can just buy the S and J engine outright. Is this an average price, or way high?

[GRX]

Speaking as a machinist, it is hard to give a quote over the phone since there is no way telling condition or what it needs until time is spent tearing it down. So you expect the worst & quote accordingly. Could also be the local shop is spending more on better quality rebuild parts.

[Willie 66]

Even so, sounds super high. But then again I'm not a machinist!

Anyway, I ran a compression test and I had 2 cylinders at 120 psi, 2 at 110 psi, 1 at 112ish and one at 100 psi. So maybe a piston hasn't seized after all! Cylinder 6 was one of those that had 120 psi, but had a lot of oil on the spark plug. The oil came up slightly beyond the threads and was even on the outside of the engine near the hole. I put it all back together and went to start it back up, and after a few rotations it went BANG! Being that it's now 9:pm, I figured my neighbors might hate me if I continued to make that noise and stopped work for the evening. What could be causing that misfire? There's no water in the oil, and it was running mostly fine for the better part of the last year. It chugs when it's been running for a while and it's hot outside, but other than that no problems. Timing issue maybe? Oil pump, water pump...?

[68gmsee]

"...and after a few rotations it went BANG!"

lol.. I had that happen on my old 69 right after the 9/11 twin tower attack. The loud bang blew my muffler and the neighbor came running out of his house with a shotgun. Though we were being attacked.

Anyway, what caused mine was a badly fouled spark plug. A lot of raw gas gets into the exhaust system and any spark from another cylinder will ignite the fumes.

In you case, a good overhaul will bring your engine back to normal. Oil in the spark plugs could be bad rings or valve guides. You won't regret keeping the engine -especially if it's a 292. They're hard to come by and desired by a lot vintage truckers.

[TJ's Chevy]

100 pounds shows a sign of weak rings. Just from Many years of use. My old 292 had 95 pounds in all the cylinders. I put another 1500 miles on that engine before it really started having problems. Even then it Still chugged along!