JASPER engines:

[Stewart G Griffin]

Has anyone ever had an experiences with Jasper engines?

[Stewart G Griffin]

bump

[Jason S]

I have a friend that bought a V-10 from Jasper to replace the original V-10 that threw a rod. It's in a 2001 Dodge 3500 DRW 4x4. 

His comments are "I have not had any problems with it. It came painted grey so I had to paint it black. The sealing surfaces were no where near as smooth as the factory engine but it runs like a top. I think it has around 100,000 miles on it now"

[VileZambonie]

I have a Jasper in one of my Jeeps. It's loose as a goose, do not recommend.

[fitz]

 About 10 years ago a friend of mine owned a 4x4 repair shop and installed a lot of Jasper motors, transmissions, and transfer cases.
  He always had great luck with them.
  The one thing I could never understand was why not just buy a GM crate motor?
  I just googled the price on a Vortex 350 motor.
  Jasper was $1904 with a $400 core charge.
  Summit racing was $1999 with free delivery and no core charge.
  When I asked my friend about this year's ago, he laughed and pointed out that not everyone drives a SB chevy (who would have thought).  He said the reason his shop used Jasper products was for the convenience.  If he needed a 302 for a Bronco, a trans for a Ramcharger, or a transfer case for a CJ 7, 1 phone call to his Jasper Representative got the parts delivered to his door.
  I suppose it's still true today.  If you do a lot of motor/trans jobs, Jasper may be the answer. If you just need 1 motor for a project, you have lots of options.
  What are you working on?

[XrayTedd]

I'm currently working on a buddies 95 OBS truck. He's not a mechanic by any means. Around 7 years ago he bought a new jasper 5.7 long block. He had his neighbor (supposedly a good mechanic) do the swap for him. In those 7 years he hasn't driven much at all. Mostly 20 mile round trips to and from work. He's currently sitting on just under 20k miles on the motor. And the truck is currently sitting at my house with a flattened cam lobe.
I'm not telling you this to turn you away from jasper. I've always heard good things from their engines. And they wouldn't still be in business if their products were complete crap. My belief is that the engine was not broke in properly which most of the time leads to cam damage. I know my buddy has never ran any zinc additive in the engine. In short you can get a bad motor from jasper just as easy as you can get a bad motor from GM. And proper care and maintenance goes a long ways.
Personally I prefer to build one. With proper research and shopping you build for roughly the same cost as buying a crate. You lose the warranty, but you also know your exact clearances and tighter tolerances. 

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[zieg85]

In the early 80's the shop I worked at installed quite a few of them, never an issue.  That was a while ago though.

[Stewart G Griffin]

About 10 years ago a friend of mine owned a 4x4 repair shop and installed a lot of Jasper motors, transmissions, and transfer cases.
  He always had great luck with them.
  The one thing I could never understand was why not just buy a GM crate motor?
  I just googled the price on a Vortex 350 motor.
  Jasper was $1904 with a $400 core charge.
  Summit racing was $1999 with free delivery and no core charge.
  When I asked my friend about this year's ago, he laughed and pointed out that not everyone drives a SB chevy (who would have thought).  He said the reason his shop used Jasper products was for the convenience.  If he needed a 302 for a Bronco, a trans for a Ramcharger, or a transfer case for a CJ 7, 1 phone call to his Jasper Representative got the parts delivered to his door.
  I suppose it's still true today.  If you do a lot of motor/trans jobs, Jasper may be the answer. If you just need 1 motor for a project, you have lots of options.
  What are you working on?

The 4.3 engine is hosed----was making some knocking noises some times.  i figured i would just drive it until it quits.  More recently it was losing coolant---like half the radiator after only 20 miles.   And i could see puffs of steam coming out the pipe at traffic lights.  So, yeah......the engine is getting ready to "quit."

Jasper scares the heck out of me;  Not just here, but go to any car forum and it's the same thing:  Jasper has too many bad reviews.   i mean if THAT many people have negative comments then there got to be something to it.........?

Well, it's probably too late anyways as i just ordered a reman 4.3 from GM, part#12361243.

i am not opposed to rebuilding (assuming my current engine CAN be rebuilt), but i need the truck running asap.  Plus i'm busy and not really interested in rebuilding engines right now.   i will keep this one as there was no core charge.

i did see a very clean and complete 4.3 in craigslist last week for $300, but it did not have a mechanical fuel pump provision or hole for the pushrod;  Apparently the guy replaced his a original engine with a roller 4.3 engine.   Yes, i know i'm going against my advice never to buy used engines again but i could get a sense that the engine was solid and got a vibe that the person was responsible.   i don't mean to stereotype, but i think older folks tend to be more trustworthy and take better care of their cars as a whole.

By the time i figured out how/where to put an electric pump in, someone snatched the engine up.

[audrima]

My old boss, put jaspers in all his Pilot trucks, he has around 30 GMC trucks on the road at any time mostly the 4.3s.  and that's all he uses. they get to about 230k-300k- before blowing like clock work.  and that with a lazy ass "mechanic" (he rather replace a engine than replace a oil pump)  and really bad drivers (think people redlining the truck for shits because it's not there truck!) when I worked for him (back on 2007-2009) about 1 in 10 engines were duds. I once asked about that, and he say with a shrug, "when you rebuild engines the new engine is only good as the reused parts."  which makes sense why my boss had to pay more for the engines, them cores were beat to crap (think 50K w/o oil changes and being ran like a top fuel drag car... and putting 600+ miles a day on them) lol  Personally when I go for a new engine for my truckie, I'm going gm crate from some place like summit. *shrugs*


AUD