I'll join in.... I have a few Speedmaster parts in my Cobra. The intake and accessory pulleys come to mind. Like I said in the thread I posted about the intake back in 2015, everything boils down to one's budget a lot of time. Would most everyone prefer to support American businesses and American workers who produce said parts? Absolutely! Is that always a feasible and affordable option? Generally speaking, no. But, since low cost options exist because of cheap labor you sometimes have to be able to make them work. Going into your purchases knowing that is half the battle. The other half is making a judgement call on what parts you'll accept that extra work after the purchase. For me, electronics is #1 and super-important mechanical parts are #2. Individual parts, like an intake manifold or a set of pulleys, are a no brainer. My pulleys, for example, needed some rework to make them fit my water pump. The pilot hole was too small to fit over the pilot on the water pump. I don't know what size the hole was but it needed to be opened up to accept the .625 pilot, and the bolt circle for the mounting bolts was wrong and had to be relocated. I didn't find anything wrong with my intake, but I did do some work to it before I installed it. Everything is "buyer beware" nowadays, nothing can be fully trusted - even American made products, although I'd trust them a lot more than any other.
Now, we all know the reason that there are so many things produced in China (or anywhere other than the USA for that matter....) - the parts are cheaper to produce. Unfortunately not everyone follows quality controls as well as a lot of places in the states which is something that needs to be addressed by those in charge, but they'd rather look at the increased bottom line to make more money for their shareholders and ultimately themselves. I don't believe there's anything inherently bad about that practice in theory, I mean we all do that on a daily basis in our own lives. I think the bigger problem is that US companies have farmed out SO MUCH manufacturing that they're losing that skillset in this country. Looking at history, the reason we were able to win WWII was because we had the skilled labor to out produce the Axis powers. Now what would happen if a WWIII started, because it's kind of being threatened - and where are those jobs? Not in this country.... so would we be able to reproduce those efforts again if it came down to that? In any event, I view the offshoring of manufacturing as borderline treasonous. And it all boils down to the almighty dollar and greed - that is what the downfall of the USA has been....
Now, we all know the reason that there are so many things produced in China (or anywhere other than the USA for that matter....) - the parts are cheaper to produce. Unfortunately not everyone follows quality controls as well as a lot of places in the states which is something that needs to be addressed by those in charge, but they'd rather look at the increased bottom line to make more money for their shareholders and ultimately themselves. I don't believe there's anything inherently bad about that practice in theory, I mean we all do that on a daily basis in our own lives. I think the bigger problem is that US companies have farmed out SO MUCH manufacturing that they're losing that skillset in this country. Looking at history, the reason we were able to win WWII was because we had the skilled labor to out produce the Axis powers. Now what would happen if a WWIII started, because it's kind of being threatened - and where are those jobs? Not in this country.... so would we be able to reproduce those efforts again if it came down to that? In any event, I view the offshoring of manufacturing as borderline treasonous. And it all boils down to the almighty dollar and greed - that is what the downfall of the USA has been....
Same China casting as rich porter, cardone new unit, wai global and even duralasts amd msd Street fire now... If you search Fd17 for the fox body one you can buy them complete for as little as $40, they are crappy design vs oem, I've seen more then few seize and the gear has no press fit on everyone I've I changed a roll pin on, just a pot metal roll pin holding it on. You might want to pull if every so often and spin it by hand, when the bearing inside fails its ugly, oem is a bushed design that wicks oil up, they changed it to a cheap roller bearing .
So much better off rebuilding an oem with nos ford even old stock aftermarket parts, the new pips fail because of cheap ass lowest bidder in China makes all most all of them now, killing tfi's in such short amounts of time are from 30 plus year old wiring issues or a coil with a bad winding over loading it. The pip/ hall effect sensor is such a simple design the only way to mess those up is using the cheapest materials possible or trash build up on the magnet.
As for Speed master they have like 10 different sub companies now, its all the lowest priced China bid stuff they can get even selling blem junk, all most all are piss poor copies since they do 0 QC and don't stand behind their products, definitely not a company you want to buy electronics from. Some China stuff is decent, but alot of it is still pure junk from the lowest bidder willing to cut corners.
How many knock off parts are on them because someone sent a part to China to be copied as cheap as possible, then undercut the market so much that's all that's left being made now, that's what the aftermarket replacement parts industry is turning into for many things for otherwise obsolete parts, even the name brands are boxing the low quality junk with the tommy boy
We all ready do 25% tariffs on most, investment firms used it as an excuse to raise the american made stuff a even higher percentage. Go price an intake of even a damn camshaft these days. 1k for a 5.0 intake, $500 cast core camshaft its a joke, and both Holley and edelbrock had to back thier prices down when it killed sales, not to mention EPA is trying to kill it for smog cars any way with the fines they handed out like candy.
edelbrock is worse then Holley and bat
Dart / RWB drastically cut there price increase when sales crumbled even when they had inventory. 90% of the industry is owned by investment firms now with just enough of them to claim its not a monopoly and they all wanted max profit from high turn over products even trying to do direct to custom sales to cut out the people who support the products.
It's so hard to know anymore. This is why I like to verify everything.
I still have not found a domestic PiP sensor or rebuild kit or whatever. If anybody finds something like that, ping me, alert me, PM me, whatever.
I still have not found a domestic PiP sensor or rebuild kit or whatever. If anybody finds something like that, ping me, alert me, PM me, whatever.
Hillborn is fuel injection that's a tiny niche market now.....