Crank just broke in my DSS 331 Pro Bullet!!!!

1bad92lx · May 28, 2005

Well I drove the car out to Advance Auto in town to pick up some spark plugs for the tahoe and when I left I got down on it in first gear... What did I do that for...the instant the revs started to climb while it was spinning I hear this loud noise that sounds like a grenade went off under my hood, about that time the snout of the crank along with the balancer and crank pulley went flying from the front of the car and rolled about 200 ft. I instantly shut off the car and coasted into the nearby grocery store parking lot only to find that the front of the crank had snapped off. Now I'm really rethinking this whole DSS is the best thing I have heard so much. The motor only had 5,100 miles on it and now it's broke. I guess I'm gonna tear the motor down next week and pray for the best as far as the internals. Guess I'll be getting a forged crank for it now. I am extremely disappointed with DSS products. I will be calling them on tuesday and see what they say. The motor was purchased over 2 years ago and even though it wasn't hardly driven it's definitely out of warranty. Oh well, next motor will be assembled by my uncle here locally. Just a word of advice for everyone buying short blocks and long blocks........ Be careful!

N8Miller · May 28, 2005

yeah, i wish that i woiuld have opted for a forged crank too when i got my keith craft 331, but didnt. like you said, just try to hope for the best when you tear it down.

Daggar · May 28, 2005

Man... there is no reason for that. I'd call DSS and tel them to send one of their highly trained dumbasses out to your place to diagnose the cause. They've been getting very very sloppy. It seems like it's been happening slowly and started with the occational bad luck story but it's becoming WAY too common now. I haven't seen many instances where DSS has been fixing their screw ups lately either. The crank should be the LAST thing in that motor that gives way. I sure would like to see some hard numbers on how many breakage instances have come from DSS motors over the last year.

70lightning · May 28, 2005

I myself was looking at DSS for an engine, but lately too many things have happened for it to be the owners fault, Imean all these engine have low low miles on them.
so DSS in my book=Junk.

N8Miller · May 28, 2005

andy does have a good point. Tell them that if they dont fix it or give ya the parts to fix it, your gonna spread their name all over the net.
when slvr302 talked about LaRoccas a while back, they saw the thread and fixed the problem (somewhat).
Atleast call them and see what they say!
you say you have 5k miles on it, but when did you buy it? was it a long or shortblock at purchase?

Daggar · May 28, 2005

70lightning said:
I myself was looking at DSS for an engine, but lately too many things have happened for it to be the owners fault, Imean all these engine have low low miles on them.
so DSS in my book=Junk.

Yep... I'm with you. Too many instances for it to be anything other than a manufacturing and/or assembly defect.

281pony · May 28, 2005

yeah, i went with chp after reading/experiencing first hand why dss sucks.

i bought a 306 shortblock initially from a guy in michigan. it was supposed to have "300 miles" on it. i got the engine and it looked really clean so i put it in. long story short, the block was cracked, crank has a crack in it, and a couple of the rings were shot.

sorry to hear about your troubles, been there myself.

bmo37 · May 28, 2005

yep I always liked chp too dss had to many things happen, dss engines i feel in the consumer end aren't prepped as well or assembled with the same care as their racing ones.

ratrapp · May 28, 2005

thats why i'm going to purchase a new from ford 5.0 shortblock for my car in the next few weeks.it seems when a company is small and starting out they do a better job.when they get big their work goes to crap just to get more parts out the door.

just4bob50 · May 28, 2005

has any one had any experience or opinions on Central Coast Mustang. I see alot of their motors use din magazine build ups

Grn92LX · May 28, 2005

Who makes dss crankshafts? This sucks man and I hope it works out for ya. You had a killer combo. I disagree that a forged crank is needed. Maybe it was a bad batch of cranks or maybe poor workmanship by dss. Either way, this is another reason I don't like mass produced shortblocks.

Piston on here recently broke his dss 331. Maybe talk to him about how thats going? He was having dss take a look at the broken engine.

qplk11 · May 28, 2005

I was highly considering a DSS but will have Rick91GT build me a motor. Nice guy, very knowledgeable, and you can't beat his prices.

qplk11 · May 28, 2005

BTW, sorry about your motor. Let us know what DSS says.

1bad92lx · May 28, 2005

It was a DSS 331 Pro Bullet shortblock. It was originally purchased in August 2002. It was broken in properly by what the DSS literature says to do. Primed the oil pump and got oil in the motor prior to starting. Everything was followed properly as far as break in. The car has mainly just been driven on weekends and run at the local test and tune nights. It barely had 5,000 miles on it. Granted the last couple thousand were hard miles at the track but even then, care has been taken as far as maintenance, oil changes, plug changes and everything. I tore down the top of the motor this evening and we are going to take the shortblock out on tuesday and pull the pan and take a look and see if the block can be salvaged or not. I highly doubt it will be any good. I'm hoping that the rods and pistons are okay. It does have the DSS pro-lite pistons with forged H-Beam rods, but only a cast steel stroker crank. The whole snout of the crank broke right at the timing gear. I'm going to call DSS first thing on tuesday and talk to Tom himself and see if anything can be done. Even though the motor only had a little over 5,000 miles on it, they are probably just going to say it's not their fault and send me on my way. If that's so, then I will be ordering me a crank from Scat and maybe a sportsman block also. And I will never recommend DSS EVER AGAIN! I had been so happy with this motor and I was bragging about DSS to everyone and now look at it, it's got a broken crank and it didn't even break under severe abuse either. The car was no where near redline when it broke. Rick I might be getting in touch with you to build me a sportsman or Dart block setup in the future. Oh well that's my luck, when it rains it pours I guess..............

Michael Yount · May 28, 2005

Well - a couple thousand hard track miles -- that's the rest of the story. I guess I'll play devil's advocate. There are many racers out there that would KILL to get 2000 miles out of a race motor. Granted, I wouldn't think the crank would break - but, if you really got 2000 hard track miles out it over 2 years -- well, I don't know anyone who builds/sells something that's guaranteed to be indestructible when continually run at the limit. Be prepared to tell DSS the whole truth about how the engine was used.

AND - most important - I hope it works out the way you want it to. It's never any fun to lose an engine. Good luck with the next one.

Stang8URMPRT · May 28, 2005

Hey! Check it out! I had the exact same thing happen to me! My cause was the cam bolt came loose, which I havent' a clue why, but oh well.... I'm sure your crank will look much like this.

View attachment 513299

The block, pistons, rods, and everything else didn't fair too well either.

View attachment 513301

Venom351R · May 28, 2005

Michael Yount said:
Well - a couple thousand hard track miles -- that's the rest of the story. I guess I'll play devil's advocate. There are many racers out there that would KILL to get 2000 miles out of a race motor..

According to his sig hes running low 11's w/ a N/A 331 combo, I wouldent call that a hard drivin race motor. Stock 5.0 motos see lots of 11 sec passes while getting the juice or Boost and they seem to do just fine. No reason for a aftermarket short block busting under those conditions.

1bad92lx · May 28, 2005

I'm sorry Michael, what I meant to say was that there was some hard track miles within the last couple thousand miles. I use this car for mostly street use. I go to the local cruise in's and such with it. I just have fun with the car with the occasional 1320 pass on it. I'm not by any means "extremely hard on it". I do drive with common sense when driving on the street. I'm with Striped5.0 on this one. I think the motor should have lasted a lot longer than it did. There is just no excuse for the crank to break on this motor considering all the factors at hand. My brother's 347 runs 11.30's with a stock block with no girdle and no special preparation like DSS says they do, and his motor lasted for about 5 years before he had any problems and his is a track only car. He runs the Eagle rotating assembly. Je/SRP forged pistons with the Eagle I-beam rods and Eagle cast steel crank. So I know this shouldn't have happened.

hllon4whls · May 28, 2005

Unfortunately, most race engines (hi perf) are only gauranteed to start.

Definately post some post mortem pics.

That stinks.

tunedin302 · May 28, 2005

qplk11 said:
I was highly considering a DSS but will have Rick91GT build me a motor. Nice guy, very knowledgeable, and you can't beat his prices.

Crank just broke in my DSS 331 Pro Bullet!!!!

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