Dale Morss Machine, Pensacola FL

Went there to get a wheel bearing pressed in. Great job and fair prices. Dale is personable and has great customer service. Don't let the outside discourage you from coming on in!

Brought my Ford 4.9 motor for a deck, hone, cleaning, paint, crank polish, cam gear and bearing installation, head cleaning and resurface, and core plug installation. I gave him the reins on sourcing me a parts kit.
I was told out the door (including parts) $1,600 dollars. I dropped the motor off, with a promised completion time of 5-7 weeks.
Finally, after 26 weeks, I get the call to pick up my stuff, and I was told the final price is 2,206, including tax. I took my motor home, paid in full, and was just happy to have my block back for what WAS my daily driver. I picked it up after dark, so I didn't get a good look at the parts.
The following morning, I pulled the parts out and onto my stands for reassembly, and I noticed scratches all over my deck, overspray everywhere imaginable, a couple nicks in my crank, paint on gasket surfaces and inside threaded holes, AND over external gunk still on the block, landlord special style. There was rust in my coolant passages, on the crank, and all over my rockers, as if they weren't even cleaned properly.
I brought the block back to Dale, pointing out all of my concerns professionally, and he was giving me a load of it. For example, he was explaining how the rust inside my valve cover couldn't be cleaned with a blaster, because it would get in my motor causing damage. I guess walnut as a medium and blowing it out after with a compressor wasn't on his mind, but when I dropped it off, it was rust free inside. Also, the gunk that was painted over on the outside was "from the casting mold, " but my knife says differently, like it's old oil and dirt.
He offered to resurface the deck, but I needed it inside the truck months ago, and besides, I didn't trust him with my motor after what I saw, ESPECIALLY after seeing what he justified as $2,206 worth of work.
I plastigaged all parts that required it, and everything was within spec. I also have over 1,500 photos saved on an album related to my rebuild/restoration on my truck, showing that everything I've done is correct according to Ford manufacturing. However, if my headgasket fails from the shoddy deck surface, or a catastrophic failure occurs from the supplied parts, I know who I am immediately headed to, to demand a brand new crate 4.9. After all, it would've been cheaper, had I ordered a crate motor, but I decided to rebuild my current one, given I was originally told $1,600.
I'd also like to add, that when picking up my motor, I wasn't given my rockers, I was given the incorrect con rod bearings, and I was missing my crank timing gear. I had to return to the shop for corrections with these missing/incorrect parts.
Buyer beware, if you want a subpar product with surprise additional fees upon pickup, I recommend this shop! It's been a headache the whole way.

Great machine shop, great turnaround time, great communication, good pricing, and he's a cool dude. Old school machine shop type. Quality work.

Machine work is good. Will look out for you on deals and best options available for what you want.
Extremely knowledgeable on various setups!

Little things here and there were missing (partly my fault for giving another box of little things not needed for the work) but worked with me and got me what I needed to get it all back together without scrambling ebay and Amazon for a whole kit of new parts instead of the one thing needed (they weren't the parts I gave him but I cleaned them up and made it work for the rebuild)

So many things in his shop, a bit hectic in there.

Time and quality of work good; cost a bit more than expected but not crazy.
Tiny bit of shavings in the heads but that's why you inspect before install, that is something to be expected after work is done and your parts sit before pickup.

Nice and tight tolerances. This HO 302 will be 120-150hp over stock and I have confidence in the machine work that it will be running for years and years.

Dale is a great guy.he and his shop have been in business for many years.friendly man who is very passionate and knowledgeable on what he does. 10 out of 10 service

Brought Dale a head for valve job/milling. Bought $600 worth of parts. Put everything together and head disintegrated due to oil passages not being cleaned after milling.
Dale got me a used head (free), but said he would have to charge me for a rebuild to clean and flush the motor that was full of metal from his lack of care.
Beware

Seems to be a good dude up straight and honest. Sorry I had to special order my outter case ring seal for bearing I definitely going to pay you. I know you did a great job I be there for pick up Friday to drop my part off I feel bad. I didn't have the part on hand. Dale is a good dude can't wait to do more business with this gentleman.