I just got a 20426 after consulting March directly. I bought it from Summit. March doesnt take Amex and I was already putting an order together for summit. I am not sure who did what but here is what I do know.

First, I paid for second day air so I would have it yesterday just incase. (The car has to be at a show Sunday)It showed up today. It was ordered last weekend and it was drop shipped from March.

Second, The water pump pulley hits on the water pump. I bought a March P100 water pump just to make sure I wouldnt have issues like it not fitting the pulley set.

Third, the AC bracket is about 1 inch too short. The bolts dont line up with the mounting holes in the heads. I was even asked what brand of heads I had by March and was told that this kit would work fine.

Forth, the little spacer that slides into the ac bracket for mounting the adjusting rod is bigger then the hole it is supposed to fit into.

fifth, I wanted to sub the underdrive alt pulley for a smaller one and was told that was no problem by March and by Summit but was shipped the underdrive one anyway.


I havent tried the PS pump bracket yet. I am too pissed to right now. I spent a ton of money trying get what I thought was going to be a good set up and even bought their water pump and ac commpressor to avoid any problems. When I called Summit they told me to call March in the morning. Seems like they are washing their hands of the problem. Has anyone else had problems like this with Summit or March? Did they resolve the problem?

 

first off..... take a deep breath.....

and calm down.

You won't get a satisfactory response from either of the suppliers if you hit them with an attitude.

ozzytom

 

We recently put the March compact serpentine setup on my car. It took a bit of finesse to get everything bolted on correctly. I bought it through Summit and discovered that a few of the pieces in the kit were incorrect. We called March and explained the problem and they sent the correct parts out right away. My experience with March's cutomer service was very positive.

 

I bought my March pulley set thru Summit and I needed to exchange a couple of parts....The March folks were great.....I sent them a picture of what I had and they were able to fix and send out....I feel your pain of tryng to get parts delivered because of the car needs to be in a show....A very wise friend told me, "if building hot rods or collectors cars were so easy, everyone would have one"....I'm very confident you will be happy with the March setup on how it works and looks....

 

I have a complete serpentine conversion from March. I've had very good experience with them...

 

I just had an issue with main bolts being the wrong size. ARP's description of the application was not exactly correct and Summit took care of it. They sent me knew ones and told me to just keep the old ones.

 

Summit has been great for me over the years.
I do know about March's problems with their kits. So I don't ever think March.

 

Well as it turns out 2 out the problems are from the powder coat being too thick. March checked their inventory and found the same problem on all their stock of the part number I need.

Summit is picking up the tab for next day Saturday delivery of the new bracket. More on that shortly (Thanks Summit, Saturday delivery isn't cheap and March had already said they would not pay it)

March is sending a shim for the water pump. ( Thanks March for giving me a cheap part to rig the screwed up parts you sold work)

As for the bracket not fitting my heads March has now decided they don't know what bolt pattern ProComp uses. I had asked them before I ordered this kit specifically about ProComp heads and was told "no problem." After I told them that I had access to a mill they suggested I buy a BB bracket that was longer and add a mounting hole that would match my heads.(Thanks to me for paying for the new bracket at $164.88 but March is seeing to it that it ships today )

I will turn the bushing on the lathe to make it fit the bracket that has to much powder coat in it. (Thanks to me for fixing something that should have been correct)

As for the alternator pulley I just kind of gave up on that since I have a ton of steel pulleys here. I am just going to paint one black and use it. (I paid for an aluminum one from March that I can't use)

I guess my thought are this. When working on a motor as rare as a small block chevy you should expect there to be problems.


YOU DON'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!!

 

In my opinion you always get what you pay for!! you just aimed to low....

I used Jones Racing products and they were clear on what would and would not work, Mocked up the setup on an engine in house took digital pictures of the assembly then sent it to me. In the end there are slight differnces between a mkIV and a mkVI BBC and I made changes to the setup. But there support and knowledge was fantastic.

 

Summit don't suck.
If you sent them a part number,then thats what you get.
I just got a aluminum water pump from them and my top two belt pulley hits all the way around, they sent me what I ordered.
I now sent off for some water pump pulley shims and then it will work.

 

If you read my second post carefully, I thought I had pretty much said that Summit had been helpful. If I hadn't made that clear I will say it now. I believe Summit did their best to sell me the proper parts that I needed and also did what they could to rectify the situation. As for the title of this thread that was when I was trying to figure out who was responsible for the problem. Summit was selling a product based on the info March had given them.