At Allmond Marine, one of the things we offer that few others do is engineering services to the amateur and professional engine builder. We do this because, at our core, we want to help make engines better. “That’s fair enough,” you might say, “…but why should I hire you?”
Perhaps coincidentally, or maybe otherwise, I stumbled across an interview of a CIA Operative named Andrew Bustamante. It’s interesting on its own, and I recommend you watch it later. Within the interview, he details the four categories of motivation that the CIA trains people on to understand why people do what they do, referred to as the RICE model. This framework helped me organize the reasons why someone might call us for help:
You want to be known as an expert in your field, but you’re not where you want to be
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You want to be respected among other engine builders in the industry, but you’re not where you want to be.
So many of us, myself included, are driven to achieve greatness in this field of performance engines. We’ve all spent many years working toward our profession, honing our skills. This is an admirable trait! The flipside of this coin is that none of us knows everything. This is why some of us specialize – we want to know the details, the answers to the questions others don’t know.
This is where I see many make a mistake – believing him to be an expert, they ask a manufacturer for advice on his product or his competitor’s product. With this it becomes difficult to separate what is a sales pitch and what is genuine engineering advice. Be careful – the best strategy is to ask a third party without a motivation to sell you a product.
You want to find solutions faster
– or –
You want to find solutions at a lower cost
It’s clear to all of us that the business of engine building is competitive. In every field of motorsport or recreational engine building, there are multiple options for every customer. The builder who is the most attractive is the builder who has built the best reputation. In the business of engines, if you’re not optimizing, you’re falling behind. He who finds the new solutions faster, wins, both races and new customers.
The traditional strategy has been to test things on the dyno, and many have been proponents of the A-B-A test. This is a good strategy if you have the time, but two problems arise. This first is time. We are all limited in time, and at some point it becomes important to prioritize your testing, Once you reach a certain level, it becomes important to prioritize what you test. Engineers know this challenge all too well, and can be a great aide in identifying where your largest “bang for the buck” lies. The second is money. Testing parts, especially prototype parts, costs money. Cubic dollars. An engineer equipped with the right tools can evaluate options for you faster and at less cost than you can develop and test those same solutions.
Valvetrain is unfortunate in that the entire system, and its suppliers, are disjointed. There are many experts of each individual component, but few people in the world who know how to make cams work together with springs, rockers, pushrods and lifters. We have one of those key people on our staff. Does your system need something that already exists, or do you need something that doesn’t exist yet? Optimum solutions are out there – find a guide who can point you in the right direction.
The costs of failure greatly exceed engineering costs
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You fear reputational damage
The opportunity of engine development is better performance and improved durability. The risk of development is failure. Suppose you want to try a new lifter in your engine package. The lifter company is only providing you a part – they have no idea what your loads are, and they aren’t going to warranty your failed engine. The costs of a broken lifter start in the thousands – blocks are over $4k, billet cranks are over $6k. At $100-$150/hr for your shop rate, fixing a single customer’s problem could cost you $4,000 or more. A poor choice could put your business $15,000 in the hole. Fixing multiples of the same problem could be untenable for your business. In the meantime, your customer isn’t happy, and he’s telling others about it. That could cost you future customers, and that could take you years to recover from.
Many take the risk, and some get bitten. A good engineer can perform the load and stress analysis on the lifter and provide recommendations on if the lifter is safe to run or not, buffering risk.
In summary, it’s natural and necessary to want to develop your engine packages. It’s the nature of competition and it’s what the customer wants. We have to recognize that with change comes risk. At some point, the fact that other people are using a part isn’t going to be a sufficient argument that it will work in your application. Why accept the risk alone when there is an expert who can evaluate the part and its boundary conditions and give you an expert opinion? Your livelihood likely depends on your business’ success. You wouldn’t risk your liberty in court without legal counsel. Why risk your livelihood without technical counsel?
