Gary at D.E.S. posts on here now and then and is very quick about answering Emails and easy to talk to on the phone. I suggest you try contacting him about his engines. There are some videos on U tube or somewhere of one of his being inspected but it would seem tha anything learned about that batch should not be applied to the next batch,, no matter who you buy from.
Well there you go Speed turns out you might not be too far from a dealer!
If you were on the east coast I was going to recommend a fellow in Maine but the freight from there would be lots more than from Kansas.
But beware these engines may be fun to work with but cleaning up a dirty poorly assembled and poorly machined roid can tax a person. You might be biting off more than you think.
In other words I vote with cujet! And suggest you reread his post!
Buyer beware
Billswan
Thanks Billswan. It's the buyer beware part I'm a bit worried about. I'm not worried too much about tearing a roid apart and cleaning casting sand out and such but the part I'm worried about, and to your point, is getting something that is crap to start with. I am after an engine that's serviceable even if it requires some elbow grease to get there. Does anyone know which roid the Diesel Electric guys are selling? I've read that the twins have problems vs the singles in the past as well so I might just stick with a twin. As I understand it, the only difference between a 6/1 and 8/1 is the speed they run at (hence the two extra horsepower)? Thanks again guys for the responses.