I've heard a lot about Hughes Engines both good and bad and I would like something fairly definitive. Anyone with experience with them? with Dave Hughes? thanks.

 

Havn't heard anything but I want to know myself.

 

I haven't dealt with them but tons of others have, I haven't heard anything bad. I recommend them a lot since they are a Dodge only company with their own products too.

 

I have never heard bad about them... never dealt with them directly, though.

 

I bought a plenum kit from them a few months ago and I was very satisfied with the quality. The plenum plate they made is about three times thicker than factory with the kit they gave me new bolts, a gasket, and directions on how to install the plate with torque specs. I believe they machine all there own products.

 

Ya I am looking at the plenum kit.

 

You are wasting your time and money by dealing with them. I paid them $5,862.13 to rebuild my numbers matching 440 in my Coronet R/T. They claimed that it made 525 HP. It dynoed at 287 HP on a G-Tech and ran 15.4 in the quarter mile, .2 slower than the stock engine that had 104,000 miles on it.

The engine used a quart of oil every 100 miles since start up. The intake gasket blew at 450 miles and I found that the center two passenger side intake bolts were finger loose. Then a valve seized up at 2,000 miles and the oil pump failed at 3,100 miles.

I then pulled and took the engine to Gary Stanton Racing to be disassembled, examined, measured and inspected and found that the cylinder bores were out of round by .0035 and were bored .043 over when .030 over pistons were used. This caused oiling of the plugs which made the already limping engine run worse. A valve had seized up in the open position because they machined the valve guides too small on the ID and then hammered them into the heads. When the valve seized in the open position, the piston came up and smacked the valve back into it's seat and bent it. Then when the cam turned and tried to push the push rod to lift the valve, the push rod bent and fell into the lifter valley because the valve was bent and seized and didn't move.

In typical fashion, Dave Hughes said that this was all my fault and he wasn't going to back any of the poor machine work and assembly that he claimed was done by a disgruntled employee that he had to fire two weeks after building my engine.

It was all my fault because I started the engine. If I had never started the engine, I would not have had any of these problems.

"Heads you lose" when dealing with Hughes Engines, his "Heads you win" slogan is a joke. Poor quality, poor attitude, insulting and nasty toward cash paying customers and non-existant customer service. Once they get your money, you are done.

$5,862.13 for 3,100 miles? And they destroyed my numbers matching engine to the tune of costing another $5,500 to get it fixed and I had to go .060 over with new pistons to save the block. The heads were destroyed because he over ported them among other issues. He machined away the choke area above the valves completely and this is very important to scavenging the air into and out of cylinders.

I would really hate to see them rip off any of you guys so stay away. And before he tries to discredit me, let it be known that I am a senior design engineer at Holley Performance. He talked to me like I was an idiot and would not even reply to emails. When I called him, he talked to me like I was the dumbest SOB on the planet for 10 seconds and then hung up on me!

DO NOT SPEND MONEY WITH THESE CLOWNS, you will regret it believe me.

 

I have read similar stories on other dakota sites regarding Dave's less than magnanimous personality and I wrote it off to just a, um, less-than-magnanimous personality. The evidence is kinda piling up against hughes, but where does that leave me with the parts I need? I have looked at campbell and summit but neither of them have what hughes claims to have. $5000 is an expensive lesson. Sorry you had to learn it that way and I, for one, appreciate your advise.

 

If you are looking for a cam, purchase a Comp Cam or Lunati Voodoo cam. They take the additional step of carbo-nitriding their cams which provides superior performance and wear resistance.

If you are looking for heads, purchase Edelbrock aluminum heads. They are made in the USA and the quality is undeniable.

If you are loooking for engine assemblies, Blueprint engines sold by Summit come with a industry leading 36 month warranty and include the dyno sheet with the engine which Hughes does not offer because he does not have a dyno. He runs his shop out of his garage.

If you need a higher end or custom built engine, go to Gary Stanton Racing in Kentucky. He is a real nice guy and backs his work with no questions asked.

Intake manifolds: Mopar M1 or Edelbrock Performer RPM.

All of these quality parts are available through Summit. You will notice that no Hughes Engines parts are sold through Summit. I would guess that they don't meet the quality standard.

 

Thats because summit and jegs cater to chevies and fords. Been dealing with hughes for a couple years no problems. Never had any machine work done but i have a shop close to home I go to. Dave may not have a magnetic personality, but the dude knows what he's talkin about. Beside most guys I know that top notch mechanics don't have very good people skills.