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Does anyone have any opinions about Jasper Engines? Build quality? Recent experiences?

I used them in the early 90s and the price was reasonable and they did a proper job. Of course that was a long time ago and lots of things change in 30 years.

Curious as well. See their trucks in town once in a while.

They used to be top quality. I seem to remember an ownership change that might have had some influence on the current quality, but no definitive word on that. Their rebuilding facility in Jasper Indiana was once a field trip destination for my father's auto mechanics students from the high school in Nashville where he taught for 15 years. That was back in the late 1970s to the mid 80s. I ran the same shop from the mid 1990s until it was closed down by the Nashville school board in 2010.
Jerry

I got one for my dad's suburban a couple years ago. Two of the eight valve cover holddown holes had stripped threads. They bought me a helicoil kit to fix them, which was good enough for my dad but did not inspire me with confidence. He has about 10k miles on it now and seems happy though.

My 99 suburban (5.7 vortec) lost power last summer and after much deliberation and speaking with my mechanic, I decided to go with Jasper. I elected to go with their authentication build, but when they tore it down the head was cracked in two places. So I went with one of their rebuilds.
It is being installed now, so no results to report. They do have a good warranty program, but that cost $ too.
I’m anxious to get it back.

The GreenMachine has over 45,000 on the clock of its JASPER rebuild. My Silverado also has a transmission done by them. All running well and would recommend them to anyone.

I used to install a lot of reman engines. Years ago Jaspers quality went way downhill. New management came in and the quality was outstanding.
For one period of time I used another brand & it almost put me out of business. The comebacks were so frequent I didn't have enough time for new jobs.
After that I would only sell Goodwrench or Jaspers engines. If someone wanted something else I said OK you buy it & I'll put it in. No warranty. I never had any takers on that.
Jaspers has a deal on collector car engines. They will build it to your specks & color & give you a progress report any time.

George

George, are you saying that Jasper's quality went down and then came back up?

My 2007 Silverado had one of the world famous AFM (read that as POS) engines. And of course, it went south. At the time, and it may still be this way, Jasper was the only one who had a Non-AFM engine. Came with a computer re-programmer. Seems like it was around $4700 for a long block. That was 70K miles ago. Would do it again in a heartbeat.

Yes. It was over a long period of time. It was hard on their reputation.

George

Sort of like Harley Davidson and AMF- - - - -things got better once that bunch got shown the door!
Jerry

I bought a 2004 Silverado a couple of years ago. Had a Jasper transmission installed at 153,000 miles. Has 213,000 on it now. 60,000 miles and is (knock on my wooden head) doing fine.

A close friend had a 350 rebuilt by Jasper on a commercial account that was priced very well. He has had good luck with the stock spec build so far.

I recently had a Jasper 6.7 Cummins installed in my Ram. When I got the truck back, I noticed steam coming out the exhaust. Jasper was very helpful and wanted to replace the engine, but I suggested pulling the head to check the head and gasket. They paid to have the head milled and gave me extra time on my warranty. They head was warped, which I’m told is common for these engines? I did pay to install bullet proof head bolts.
Runs great!
Yes, I would purchase from them again!
Jim

Pleased to read the positive experiences with Jasper. Picked up my 99 burb yesterday and it runs as smooth as silk.
I’m now considering doing the same with a 91 S10 Blazer I have. It needs the 4.3 replaced. The body doesn’t have a lot of rust and the interior is like new. It’s just sitting and I don’t like that.

I spoke with them today about rebuilding my 1955 235. They quoted me around $7000.00. I think that is way overpriced. But that is just my opinion.

My goodness.

Wow. I got a quote for a Ford inline six for $3500. He said they have a small department dedicated to "classic" engines.

I don’t know how the average person weighs different quotes from different shops to rebuild an engine for them- there are as many definitions of “rebuild” and “overhaul” out there as there are belly buttons.

How far a shop will actually go towards blueprinting/measuring an engine to actually determine whether everything is within specs will certainly affect the final cost of the rebuild, due to the man hours involved to take the time to check everything that should be checked, and to correct everything that should be corrected.

I think it comes down to how invested you are in the outcome, and/or how much of a gambling man you are. I think that some owners know they won’t be keeping their vehicle for long, so paying more for a rebuild doesn’t make sense to them, and some of those who plan to keep their vehicle, don’t mind rolling the dice on a cheaper engine rebuild, since the engine likely won’t see much service anyway.

Then you have those who are obsessed with doing things the right way, regardless of cost. And all the people who are somewhere in between the gamblers and the obsessive᠁.. Plus, every owner has a different situation with each vehicle they own- so some of it will be situational.

Such a subjective process, selecting a shop and a price for a rebuild! And even after considering all of that, you can never be sure that you will get what you paid for, in the end᠁. as all it takes is a single distraction when it comes time for the kid in the shop to torque the compression fitting on that oil feed line from the oil pump, or when tightening a rod bolt. I guess we should just be happy that it isn’t a Boeing 737 that will fall out of the sky when maintenance checklists aren’t followed.

My wife has a ‘63 GMC pickup that needed lots of engine work on the 350 someone had swapped into it. I had no history on the engine, and she needed something reliable to drive. After weighing out the costs of machine work, and how much of my time I had to give up (this was about 5 years ago), I settled on buying a base 350 GM factory NEW long-block crate engine, delivered to my door for $1600. Made in GM plant in Mexico, 1 year warranty. I had no idea what to expect from that engine, but it has run like a champ from day one. So far, so good.

That's the engine program GM used to call "Target Master". New, not rebuilt engines, sold through their dealer parts departments, and priced competitively with aftermarket rebuilders. I used to install quite a few of them, and even used them as the basic core for certain race engines I built for budget minded competitors. Upgrading things like camshafts, and intake and exhaust components made them pretty comprtitive for the guys who couldn't afford a $15K full competition build. (30 years ago- - - -today's prices are a LOT higher!)
Jerry

That number is more in line with what I would have guessed a 235 rebuild to cost. Curious what the difference is.

Which Ford 6 was that you got quoted? I could see a 300 six rebuild being pretty cheap since they lived into the 90s.

That was a 1966 200cid.

I didn't ask about the Chevy 216 but assumed another inline six would be about the same. I'm shocked at the $7000 price.

I seriously doubt Jasper has anyone on the payroll who even remembers a 216, let alone knows how to rebuild one! If they tried to do it, they'd probably use machined connecting rods and insert bearings, and even then, nobody would know how to aim the spray nozzles.
Jerry

They made a bazillion of the 200 cid. I can see how the rebuild would be a bit more reasonable. But they made a bazillion 235’s too᠁.the cost shouldn’t be 2x.

There are so many ways for a 235/261 rebuild to go south... Take line boring for example, each main bearing is a different size. That complicates crank grinding too. I recently had a crank that was supposed to be ground -0.010 and it was anywhere from that to -0.013. Being 4 hours away, rather than send it back I shimmed the inserts to fit. Priced a set of main bearings lately or pistons for a 261? New cams are all but unavailable, which means having a good core reground. the list goes on. If I was Jasper I'd assume the worst in my pricing, so that $7,000 figure doesn't sound too outrageous.

Buying a SBC crate motor is way cheaper.