Hughes Engines

Just thought I would provide some feedback from my recent experience from Hughes Engines. I have bought from them in the past, however this most recent experience was horrible to say the least. Dave is a complete @$$ when speaking to him and acts like everyone is stupid. In addition, after spending almost 5k with them, then them sending the wrong pistons and rings he is even more pissed at me about his mistake. I have been EXTREMELY polite to him and now have to be $hitty to reciprocate with him. He now said they finally found my order and have the parts and will ship them today. I COMPLETYLY understand about the supply chain issues, and if he were to just say they are on back order now, even that would have been fine. But GEEZ, his attitude is HORRIBLE! I didn't even need for them to ship today, but when I ask about the status of the missing parts, all I wanted was an answer, not a crappy attitude talking down to me. I won't be ordering a dam thing from them from here on out. Just my .02 cents.

Haha, I thought everyone here knew about his condescending attitude.

Guess not!

I've never spent a dime there after his little diatribe against the Moparts group that did Enginemasters back in the day.

Yeah everyone talked about how bad Russ was at Indy, but Dave is a COMPLETE JERK! (I have much more accurate metaphors but don't want to get in trouble posting) Check out his bullet point on "Phone Etiquette". He has the audacity to lecture his customers about it. This is straight from his Customer Service tab on their website. I'm sure customers appreciate reading this and are enthusiastic about talking to him about their cars, making them want to buy more parts from them.

[i]Phone etiquette: I do not want to know how much you love your car, what color it is, how long you have owned it, who owned it, etc. Just the facts: weight with driver, eingine size, goal, budget, etc.

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I'm with GY3- even if it was close to 20 years ago. Dave overreacted to that cam situation and his behavior was simply unacceptable. They can rot for all I care- mopar vendor or not. I'd put an LS Chevy in my car before I would buy an oil filter from him.

Yeah, he’s a piece of work.

They stink as businessmen plain and simple, we in the hobby deserve better.

There are way too many cool people out there to waste any time dealing with dix like that.

Some light reading from "back in the day":

Hard to believe that was almost 20 years ago!

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/7156/1.html

Yeah I looked that up after your reference. He is a pompass @$$. You can't even say hello without him treating you like total crap, and assumes that everyone ordering parts from him are dumb as hell. Go and read the local Yelp reviews for his shop. It seems like he is consistent with everybody.

Dave has some baggage that is for sure and it is evident by the chip on his shoulder.

The few times I have conversed with him he reminded me of a grumpy ex-smoker two days after they quit cold turkey LOL.

I think it is best for both parties to order online and keep everything in writing.

Is Kevin still there? He was good on the phone if I am remembering correctly.

Who else sells a hardened oil pump drive with a melonized gear installed?

I will add that a fair share of grumpy, borderlime angry people occupy machine shops. All you can do is feel sorry for them and be glad that you don't wake up with that attitude in your own head. I can understand frustration on the customer's end when the vendor has no respect for your concern around spending a pile of hard-earned money and then acting like you are wasting their time. If you work on old cars or sell old car parts retail you can expect most of your customer demographic will be hobbyists and you must treat them as such. Often this includes taking time to learn about their car and the history of their ownership and that is just the nature of the business. Don't give me that old time is money BS because we have someone that handles those types of things full time and it pays off in the long run.

Well said Jeremiah. I own a Musclecar shop here in Texas. I have a very good machine shop, and I understand that their time is valuable. I try not to waste their time. Same for other businesses too, including mine. Now that we have so much business, we get a lot of folks who want to stop by and look at the cars in the shop and visit. We don't have time anymore to just sit around and B.S. So I understand that, and I try to be as quick as possible for my suppliers. However I NEVER try to act like I don't have time for my customers. I always take their calls and provide service after the sell. Dave just goes WAY beyond of acting like he is put out. He probably needs to retire.

There are two types of people who deal with Dave, those that have had a bad experience and those that will. It would be interesting to know how many customers ($$$$) he has lost because of his personality.

He’s been a known [censored] for decades. That has cost him all my business. Meanwhile I’ve got a long list of guys that I had good luck with and send people to based on what they need. Really thinking about mopar only guys, I’ve never had a bad experience that I can think of off the top of my head.

I just read Brad's post from the past and it brings back some memories. I sure don't know it all and he is very knowledgeable, although a little condescending...hmm!?! I've had times when I just took a deep breath and put up with his curmudgeon-like/childish behavior as he does sell some good parts. So, what do I do? Order on-line of course, and why not, I don't need to pick his brain to acquire knowledge; I get more here without the attitude that sometimes follows the parting of his lips? Am I accepting his bad behavior or rudeness? Absolutely not! Oh, come on guys, what do you do when your little one needs a diaper change?...well...?!?

i met him at irp whe mopar nationals was there the 1st year, i think. had no use for him then and none now. i think this phrase says it all about him.
"there are good people dying everyday and he is walking around sucking up somebodies air."

Last week I wanted to buy a set of 7 degree keepers for a magnum 360 from Hughes. The keepers were around $20.00 they wanted almost $30.00 to ship them, so I cancelled my internet order and called them. I said why $30.00 to ship something that could be put in an envelope? His answer was it was also a handling charge as well as shipping cost, I did not buy them.

never had a problem with hughes or more specific dave, i dealt with egotistical a-holes in the motion picture industry for over 25 years, maybe im just numb to it after my experiences, but dave aint nothing compared to the yahoo's i worked with.

I've spoken with Dave a number of times over the years. At least once, early on when I first started buying parts from him, I felt like he thought I was an idiot. I won't bother going into the specifics.

Later on when he and I were talking about what I was working with at the time, I'd asked for his input on a cam. His response was basically that the combo I had was pretty well sorted out and he wasn't sure either of the two Hughes cams I was looking at would show much improvement.

IIRC, the last time I spoke to him was when I ordered one of their Crane melodized distributor gear & oil pump drive shaft assemblies. I told him I really appreciated him making these available and... he seemed rather surprised and thanked me for the comment.

I expect that I could call him tomorrow and we'd be right back to him thinking I'm a idiot. I think it depends on the subject matter, your experience and the information you can provide him as to the tone of the conversation. Might also depend on which way the wind is blowing...

I didn't think they came any worse than Russ !!

I too am an "amateur". Though my 46 years in the auto repair industry as a tech doesn't count (only 26 at the time). I was treated like I knew nothing. Haven't ever bought another part from Hughes. That was well over 20 years ago.
Doug

I've bought parts from both of them more than once and didn't have any issues with either one, maybe I'm lucky

Somebody could start a campaign to have a person phone him every 10 minutes and waste an entire day of his time. And buy nothing...

LMAO!!!!!!!

He would just hang up. "Doesn't suffer fools lightly" is what I've heard.

It seems like its 50/50 in the mopar world, there are some really excellent vendors, and there are some I wish I never wasted the time calling.
When I was building my first 440, I called a certain mopar specific shop to ask how well one of their crate motors would work in my 4x4 with it's tire and gearing. I can't remember the exact words, but it was a long the lines of "buy it and find out, if it doesn't work that's your problem.". I never bought a single thing from that place for that build.
On the other side, got great service from Marsh, B3, Dr.Diff, Cab Burge.

Buy most of my stuff from Todd Marsh now. Cool guy, not afraid to make suggestions or give up personal build info. He has been a real big help and making purchases much easier. He will spend time with you if need be. Never an issue.

Same experience here one time....Was told there is no way what I was trying to do with the cam and springs would work, and its been working fine for years.

A phone call between Dave and Russ would be epic.

Well thank goodness I've only ever ordered online from these guys. I don't take to kindly to people like that and I tell them so. Bullies need pushed back against, then they stop bullying.

It would really be epic now.

Perhaps I should have said would have been epic

Perhaps he was reading this post, as he actually sent me an email apologizing for sending me the pistons prematurely.

I haven't dealt with Dave directly for many years. When I did he was very helpful and kind. I feel for him, having to deal with the public day after day. Just think about it, I would guess about 50% of the people he has to deal with are jerks. That would really wear on me. Most of us know what we want to build but don't know how to get there. And we all have an attitude That we know everything. So how about if we just show a little kindness and love one another as we love ourselves.

Bought from them numerous times. Dave doesn't give me the warm fuzzies but I didn't call him looking for a hug anyway. Knowledgeable people that know their product. I'll take that v/s the comp cams recommendation hotline any day.

I'm not a high roller by any means, but the few times I ordered from Hughes has been good. Don't know who I dealt with. Last time I called they were very accommodating getting me a set of .015" thick intake gaskets.

Exactly Merpar, I've done business with Hughes engines for several years a found Dave to be very helpful. He is direct and to the point which doesn't bother me.
When I was looking to buy a roller cam for my big block to go faster, I explained my combination to Dave he told me the cam was not my restriction and directed me to parts I needed
to reach my goal. I did what he suggested and the car did what I wanted. I've been a customer ever since.

Same here,, I dealt with them many times in the past and never had a problem , Guess im the lucky one.

Same hear, dealt with Dave for years and never had any issues although I've heard many that have, he can be abrasive. He's helped me design cams and motors many times over, several pushing the limits like 12.75:1 pump gas street motors trying to reach a specific HP numbers for a customer and nailed it each time. I can definitely see how his direct and to the point approach could turn people off but it doesn't bother me, I just know to be prepared with the information he will need to help me design a cam for a motor.

I also use Todd Marsh and Mancini. Our Mopar supplier options are dwindling and I'm not looking forward to the day when any of those 3 go out of business.

I have dealt with Dave for years, he can pretty cranky at times but for the most part has really helped me out. Many years ago I switching classes and called him with the rules to the new class, he told me to give him a few days and sure enough he called me back with a list of parts I needed. I was very competitive with that motor. He really has some good articles on cam installations, cam timing, oil systems. Most guys probably know most of this but it is good reading.

Hughes always did me right and got my stuff in a timely manner. I'll sure do business again with them.

Actually had pretty good luck with them, will be calling them in the morning to talk about some small block Eddie’s I wounded this weekend and possibly a stroker assembly…hung float cost me dearly yesterday…ever seen a KB piston reduced to small pieces due to a cylinder filled with E85…not pretty…

Cast pistons will break up into tiny little pieces like most safety plate door glass will
I have seen forged piston do that twice now