Cricket Engines Performance

Everybody I just wanted to let you know that Cricket Engines Performance is the place to get any type of work done , weather it's rebuilding a moter to pulling a dent out of your vehicle. There friendly and meet all customer standards and customer satisfaction is there # 1 thing. If I could give more stars then I'd give them a 💯.

I love this place and my dad will always try to make every person feel like home and meet ur standards

I am extremely please with my 347 stroker engine. I have had zero issues. I could not have found a better place to buy this engine for my 65 Mustang. Professionally built and arrived on time. Thanks I will definitely be buying another engine from Cricket Engine performance for my next project.

Cricket Engines is a great place . They take pride in their engines . The staff are great. All around good honest professional company . Give them a try . Judge for yourself . You won't be disappointed .

Awesome staff . Owner Allen Baker builds very impressive motors . He is dedicated to his customers and is very much a hands on owner. Genuine person . They have a great team .

I live next door. Y'all should see the killer rides that come out of this place. The engines sound fantastic.

Great place to get a motor built the way u would like. your old classic cars can look like a star

Good prices and great buyer interaction. Think I'm gonna buy an engine???

They always do their best for their customers.

Sweet hot rod shop

I'm torn on this review. If I was going based on worker personality the rating would be better. I recently bought an engine from Cricket and it looks great and the price seemed right. I bought it after I heard it run for a few seconds on the stand, it ran great on the stand. I got the engine home and put it in my car and things weren't running 100% correct. First fire-up when I got it home blew out the cork gasket under the valve covers. A trip to the parts store to get new gaskets and I was on my way. The engine came under carbed, but I was told this so an 870 Holley was added. I then took it to another reputable shop to have it tuned again closer to home. While there they determined that the intake is horrible and wouldn't allow the throttle to completely open so it needed to be shaved down on the side, plus the casting is so poor on it in the inside, not only that but the distributor is unable to be bolted down tight to it due to loose fittings between the intake and distributor so it won't hold a time. The fuel pump will put 6psi in at startup but after the engine warms up fuel pressure drops considerably. Needless to say I'll have an extra $1000 in to the engine to get parts that are of better quality and more reliable and hopefully I'll be good to go after that.

Where do i start?
I ordered an engine from Allan in late 2014 I recieved the engine early in 2015. It currently sits in pieces after only 1500 miles in a 1949 chevy truck.
It was a 383 stroker turn key, with all the pretty parts and a TCI transmission with a few other parts. It took me a little over a year to get the truck finished and start the motor for the first time.

Finally, truck is driveable, time to start the break in. I followed the poorly written start up directions.

I drive like a person that cares about his classic car. Changed the oil, added zinc, set timing the way he instructed, drove it like the instructions said for break in.

I get that he can't control the environment or circumstances surrounding this build but this engine turns out to be far from a custom engine i feel that there was not enough care, or pride in craftsmanship that goes into these builds.

First, he says he used patriot heads. Wrong, he used, procomp aluminum heads. The cheapest on the market. He used the wrong head gasket for quench calcs, cheap soft steel push rods, i had to replace mine from the excessive wear in less than 1500 miles. They were damaged so severely from contact with the guides that the steel had spalled and curled little metal shavings off into the oil and damaged the block and heads.

I started to dig deeper. I checked push rod length, they are factory 350 length. They are too short top be used with the roller rockers he supplied. The rockers are riding about 25* off center. The valve guide seals are substandard, allowing oil into the head, constantly fouling plugs.

I removed the heads, cylinder walls are scared pretty bad and now needs to be re-bored and potentially a new rotating assembly.

Now the trust is gone. I have pulled the engine out of the truck. Pulled the pistons out, and inspected the rotating rotating assembly. There are misaligned rings on 2 of the pistons. The rod bearings have enough wear that they should be replaced. I'll have the crank inspected for wear. Looks another 2 -3k to spend on a "turn key" 100k mile motor.

I have pictures and video documenting the issues, and the tear down. When more discoveries of poor quality/good quality are revealed I'll update this review.

They are happy to talk to you about the motor, start up procedures, and care. I have recently spoken to allan and he is willing to help in this repair but takes little to no responsibility for the errors. The current offer is that i can buy replacement parts at his cost. ? Small claims seems like a better idea.

Bottom line, I give 1 star for the product and 1 star for the customer service. they aren't bad people, they are there to help (albeit very little) when needed. Even 3.5 years later.