Wheeler Power Products Consumer Reviews

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA -- I ordered a 582 BBC for pump gas application. Lots of excuses why I was not getting my motor. First initial deposit was 10k. I waited months and still no motor. I became friendly with one of his guys after other employees kept lying to me. Come to find out I was not the only one that had given a deposit and not gotten a motor. Multiple emails and got multiple excuses. In about 8 months of fighting and asking for my money back I was told the motor would be done the following week. Well true to form when I made a surprise visit to the facility there was no motor - not even a part that they could show me was mine.

Of course Pete was not around. I rented a motel room and went in the next AM, but this time I went in the back door not the front and lo and behold I saw Pete heading in the other room. I then went in the front and asked for Pete and I was told that he was not in. So I asked who the twin was and how he got a hold of Pete's truck and then drove it to Pete's work place. Well finally Pete came out and we had what I thought was a heart to heart. A week later when the motor was supposed to be done, on a follow up with John still no progress. So I sought legal council and started things in the works.

With all this time accumulated and my bank account recovering from what I thought was a good deal I started buying parts to build my own motor knowing that Pete was probably never going to build mine. Once the legal paperwork had been started I emailed John at Wheelers to let him know what avenue I was being forced down. At that time Wheeler started sending me pics of my parts and assured me that It would not be long for my motor. A week later I went up to see my motor and watch the dyno pull. NOPE, dyno was broke so I elected to come back once dyno was fixed so that I could see the motor and pulls before taking the motor home.

I finally get the call and go back to watch the dyno runs. It was supposed to be 3 pulls, but was told that break in was done and two pulls were already done. So I got to watch/record the last pull. He pulled the motor to 5k rpm and then through some creative mouse clicking prints me out a dyno sheet with the horse power. When the name at the top of the sheet didn't match mine I questioned John and his response was that info was not reset when the dyno computer was replaced but that the numbers were my motor. Motor sounded great and after all that time I just wanted my motor.

When I went to settle up he would not take a check from me. He had 10k cash for almost a year and would take a check for the last 6k - that's balls. I went and got the cash and put it behind me. When I got home I uploaded the video of the dyno pull to the computer and watched in slow motion. The numbers on my sheet did not match the video numbers. This was supposed to be a 700hrspwr motor but only dyno at 645 but well enough grief over this thing it is what it is. Here is where it gets even better. The project that I bought it for was put on hold due to missing my window of time on waiting for this motor.

Motor was installed when I brought it home and that is where it has sat for the last year and half only moving in and out of the garage about 90 feet twice a month. Now I have gotten back to the project and the car is just about done thought I would start the normal shake down stuff to finish the car. Took the car out put about three miles on her and thought I would push the motor a little bit. Rolling 30mph walked on the throttle in second gear pulled it to about 3800 rpm and smoke poured from the engine compartment. Pulled to the side of the road and oil is everywhere under the car.

Pull my 50 thousand dollar 55 Chevy back to the shop and put it on the lift and found nothing wrong. Called wheeler with hey what do you think and of course - I DON'T KNOW - I was on my own. I discovered that about 2500 rpm it has so much crank case pressure that it was blowing the dip stick out. Well OK big horse power I understand. So I call Wheeler again to get input and Ried said very matter of fact to put a evac system on. So I did - but you guessed it the problem did not go away. I did a compression and leak down test and it appears that I have a ring problem!! Yeah no warranty. Yeah 16k invested. Yeah no usable motor.

I am not going to bother to call, enough is enough, but I will tell everybody that I meet - I am self employed in the classic car industry and meet a lot of people. For anybody that is currently dealing with Wheeler I will tell you that John is a good guy - with Pete's best interest at heart, he still seems to tell the truth when pressed. Out of everybody that I dealt with there it is my opinion that he is the only person of integrity there. There are lots of other creative twists to this story with Wheeler and his crew but I don't have a lifetime to type it all out.

BEWARE - SPEND YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY SOMEPLACE ELSE. This is the first motor that I have ever had built - I have always built my own in the past. Never again. How does the song go - the first cut is the deepest? THANKS PETE - REALLY THANKS FOR NOTHING.

I purchased an engine from Wheeler on EBAY. They made all the excuses possible to get past the 45 day dispute period (which I was unaware of). The engine still wasn't ready after 21 weeks. I wish I would have looked at the internet and read all the other reviews of similar stories about these conmen.

Wheeler only cares about ripping you off. They are not geared around customer service. Wheeler has since been suspended from EBAY. They even advertise DART blocks but in small print say Wheeler block which are made in China. After 45 days of their excuses you cannot leave a negative comment on EBAY. Hence their crap score of 96% is not a true indication of this company. But from what I am reading recently all the people WHEELER have ripped off are fighting back and it looks like they're winning... LOL. Stay far, far away from this company.