NEW update on the intakes.

If seems I have no luck what so ever. Is it any wonder why I have gray hair and ulcers.

They started machining the intakes last Monday, but before they completed the second one, a piece of tooling broke. Evidently it broke because it wasn't the right part for the job, but being the only thing they had, they tried to make it work.

According to the owner, when they tap the water bosses, the tooling bottoms out and binds, which snapped it in half on the second intake. As a result, they had to shut down and order a new one. Rather than ordering a stock replacement, which they could have gotten in one day, they decided to have custom tooling made so they don't run into the same problem. As much as I dislike the delay, I agreed with the call.

However, the timing couldn't have been worse. Both the foundry, who is doing the machining, and the tooling company work 4-10 work weeks. With the holidays, this means both companies are only working two days this week and next. Knowing how important this is to me, and all the other problems we've had to work through, the owner of the foundry called the owner of the tooling company and asked for a special favor. Normally it takes several weeks to get custom tooling made, but they promised to have it done by the end of the week, even if meant having someone come in and work on it today to get it done. Plans are to overnight it on Monday, so it will be there 1st thing Wed morning.

If, and this seems to be a big if, the tooling arrives on time they will start working on the intakes right after the holiday. He thinks they can run one every fifteen minutes, or four per hour. That means its going to take 25-26 hours to get the first batch done. Therefore they should complete them sometime Monday afternoon, the 7th. However, this is based on the tooling arriving on Wed morning as planned. They said they would call me Wed afternoon or Thursday morning and let me know how its going.

As such, my current plans are to drive down Monday afternoon (the 7th), and pick them up Tuesday morning. I also need to stop and pick up a crate full of custom oil pans, carb adaptors, t-stats, and a few other bits and pieces from Australia. But I should be on the road home Tuesday afternoon, which means I'll be shipping intakes on Wed, the 9th.

Sorry for the delay. Dare I ask "What next"?

I wonder if this is a sign.

I will send you a PM.

Ric.

See below..

No problem, this is all about working with sub contractors ;-).

That water port is critical, and when you go for an EPA stamp for emissions certification sometime in the future, know that any intake has to be a workalike version of the Aussie one. Having US 1972 emissions compliance on any cylinder head will be handy when you can show the Feds that 1973 to 1976 2V Falcons passed the same standards you guys had for 49 states 1972 cars. And its not hard to get Unleaded US 1975, California 1978 and US 1981 compliance since all carb 3.3 and 4.1 Falcons used just water heat and an exhast EGR port to preheat the carb, and were still making emissions legal, unleaded carburated OHV alloy heads in 1993.


I can see a 4180 Holley 630 cfm carb on a 250 with your alloy head, passing the same standards a 1984 H.O 302 had to in 195 hp form, just with that manifold an a modified version of that adaptor, Mike.


As an asside....I choose, in all my work, to use subcontractors, and pass on the cost and time value of money because two companies with mutaual trust for one another are like a gasoline engine and a turbo. Every subcontractor is a turbo, able to fan into flame the native spark of truly inspired intiative. The up front costs are not the same as the actual ones, but when you optimise a 100 to 500 order build, you are making the future units very reliable and you are helping Americans gain leverage on a market which has been eroded by very suspect the morals of "it's money that matters". Unit cost is not the resolvable be all and end all, its the whole of life production cost, plus rework.

Rework before the customer gets the product is just fine, even to the point of bankruptcy....rework resuting form problems after the point of sale is disrespect to the customer. Never, ever play Fords money morals by building a product down to a price unless you factor in the cost of post sale failures on what that does to reputation. Anytime Ford builds down to a price and wins, its because of one thing...superb operational people who are technically sub contractors, who are bold enough to throw people and equipment at the problem. As I say to people when I do roading investigations....People and equipment are ultimately money, and anyone afraid of the cost will never do a thing. Contractors hate that, because they know its true, and ultimately want an easier option. But newsflash!...take it from Henry Ford....there is none, for nomater if he caged his ignition guys up in a power house to nut out a specif problem, or subcontracted Bud to build the first 100 panels for the 1928 Model A, he ultimately paid for it, and gained huge returns for the honour.


I remember my road roughness meter back in 2002, based on an ancient General Motors May's meter design. I had a deadline for October 2002 for operation, while I was sitting exams and designing the a low cost data ligging system from proprietry parts. We missed the deadline by three months...December 12 was my first commerical job with the device. As a result of the overrun, I just rang my physical and electronic suppliers each week and left a chearful, nicely toned message, and told them, "hey, I'm good to you...you get paid in advance, and every day you don't deliver, while I loose finger nails and trust amoung my peers, and I am able to work on a whole bunch of other projects I want you to complete next year". That scared the crap out of them, because they had margins of about 0% on the first meter, and then a plan to make it up on later projects. I had, (and still have) unsweving faith in both people, and both know that I wouldn't work with anyone else. The machinist did my AOD transmission adaptor over Xmas, and another special ignition cutout which used a standard Explorer engine crankshaft spacer. Since that time, the machinist has swapped jobs twice, and he is still my preferred supplier. He thinks I'm nuts, but everytime he does a job, he learns heaps, and contributes to a knowledge bank which I will draw on. Same with my other profile supplier for adaptors. I give him the details the way he wants it, and it's done in a heartbeat. And everytime it's made in the solid, I then intiate heaps of little, fiddly changes which I pay for in the next rework, and he performs again with zeal. Both my machinsit and profile cutter trust me, because I trust them, and anyone up the supply chain, like my customers, or the electronics guys, get told that these people are worthy of my trust. In the case of two of my three adaptors, I failed to deliver not because of my supplier, but because I had decided to give my supplier a rest, and do the homework myself. 5 years of it! That is the gap where 11 grand worth of investment is held up in the Process Ready Prototype, and I just sit around looking like a stupid marsupial until I do the development. Your fortunate, Mike...you'll get a return before I do!

Back to you plight, Mike. The issue is that it wasn't really unforseen from the suppliers perspective... he played the percentage cost and lost. If the tendered risk schedule was to supply all reasonable risk, you'd be paying a motsa right now, and some other problem would never have been discussed with you, the casting people would cover it, and you'd loose margin. What happened happened, and all the explainations don't actually help you out.

Pass on the costs, and remember not to follow the rule that cost is more important than the customer. If you think that the customer only respects a low cost, then you won't make a continued return year after year. When the initial customer (you Mike) is respected by your supplier, you get quality, and the extra time won't hurt, even if you existing inventory is unsaleable for a time. And both of us know what the cost is on interest if you can't make a return on your investment quickly. That's why I'm working four jobs!

The rains should be over by the time you come here but beware of the crazy California drivers.

Trail blazing isn't easy by a long shot but I'm sure a lot of folks appreciate what you're doing.

Thanks!

Dean T