Burbank Speed & Machine

A friend recommended Burbank Speed who has been working on his Lakes engine for years. Jerry said Dave is fair and does good work so I gave him a try. Dave freshened my SBC with new bearings, rings and valve job. He gave my AFR heads the triple valve grind that not many shops do. He assembled the complete engine and we made 5 pulls on his dyno. By the 4^th pull we hit 673 hp @ 583 pounds of torque. We were able to dial in my Pete Jackson mechanical fuel injection by leaning it out more than I would have at the track. With the Vertex may at 40 degrees it screamed 7700 rpm without much effort. At the track, set our new record for the M&V car at 8.76 @ 155 mph. I know there is much more and can’t wait for the next time out.
I found Dave fair and he knows what he is doing but only complaint, he needs to get his product out faster but this seems to be the norm for this industry.

Burbank Speed & Machine is your one stop shop for a complete engine rebuild. Period!
Dave and Jeff are knowledgeable machinists. Especially when it comes to my Buick 455.
If you are a drag racer, hobbyist, or just want more performance this is where you want to be.
Dave will take the time to discuss with you what you want to accomplish on your project.
All the go fast guys in this valley know Burbank Speed. Shops like this are hard to find these
days. The best part is when you hear your engine run on the Dyno all tuned up for your engine bay. Highly recommended shop.

Burbank Speed & Marine has been my «go to» engine shop for many years.
Dave Akard, owner and active racer, has built race engines for our land speed
vintage roadster, resulting in two class records at the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Dave recently completed our new supercharged Buick Straight Eight motor,
and we anticipate continued success at El Mirage and Bonneville.
BSM provides quality machine work and engine building, always at fair and
reasonable prices.
Whether your needs are for race or street, modern or vintage, I highly recommend
the experts at Burbank Speed.

Never use this place!
They charged me a lot of money and had an invoice that listed lots of amazing work that they never even did. When professionals looked at the invoice they said most of the separate charges should have been included in the other work they were doing. So they double charged and didn’t even do most of the work. What they did do was like a high school shop class.
The whole motor had come out and we found terrible or no work that lead to ruined bearings and crank and other parts. We even found part of a hone in the oil pan from when they honed the cylinders. Absolutely, the most dishonest machine shop I have ever experienced.
They also screwed up the head — twice! Unbelievable. Then we finally had to send it to an expert who told us guides were put in wrong, seals were wrong. Basically he had to redo all their work.
Stay far away from these people.

Dave (the owner) did a phenomenal job at enlarging, boring, and porting/​polishing the supercharger inlet/​snout on my CTS-​V to fit a larger throttle body. Very reasonable price, and a prompt, efficient turnaround time. Thanks again– will highly recommend to anyone!

Great place great owner. Very knowledgeable in all aspects of engines. Recently polished my crank. Being a rookie engine builder, When I went to order bearing had no idea what I needed. Took it back to Dave, he measured them up and explained the process to me as he was doing it. Learned a lot. Would recommend this shop to anyone.

I’ve worked with Dave at Burbank Speed for about 35 years now on all of my automotive projects and cylinder head research work. He’s great to work with and is up for doing just about anything engine wise. They work on everything from Small Block Chevy’s and Big Block Chevy race motors, to 1930’s flat head motor’s. They have a full service machine shop that does everything from boring and honing of engine blocks, align honing, surfacing, pressure testing, valve jobs, rod work, full motor assembly, hot tanking and glass beading. They also have many other machines that can do just about everything. I’m sure I’m missing 80% of what they can do. They also have an engine dyno. Dave has over 40 years experience as a machinist and his partner Jeff has at least 20 years experience. There’s no kids working here, so you don’t have to worry about some newbee kid working on your project. I probably sound too much like a Burbank Speed salesman, but I hate to see someone downplay the shop just because of one person’s experience. There’s not too many full service engine shops left anymore. Check them out for any of your engine projects. Joe Facciano

Burbank speed and machine is the best machine shop in LA. Dave has been building motors for 35 years and he and his small team are damn good at it. Dave’s old school approach to race and muscle car engines is refreshing in today’s world. Rock on Burbank speed! Vroom vroom!!!

I was looking for a machine shop to surface the face of an exhaust manifold. I tried a place right around the corner from where I lived and they said that their machine is broke and will never be fixed, that was baffling. I called 4 different machine shops before Burbank Speed & Machine and they all said they couldn’t or wouldn’t do it.
I found this strange since I had spoke to a few folks in other states that said it shouldn’t be a big deal and was a pretty routine job as long as the manifold could be put in a fixture which isn’t always the case.
When I called BSM they picked the phone right up asked what type of manifold it was, said it would fit in their machine and they could do it.
Drove straight over and handed the manifold over, was told he could have it same day and that it would be $ 40 which is in the ballpark of what others have told me they paid but $ 25-​$ 40. They/​he was very nice and professional.
I dropped it off at 12:40 PM and picked it up at 4:45 PM. The work looks great. I can whole heartedly recommend them for this work.

Dave, the owner I think, seems nice and is pleasant to work with.
This said, I’d still give Burbank Speed and Machine the worst rating:
I took suspension parts to be drilled and tapped. My instructions as to the placement of the holes were clear.
After I picked up the parts I realized that one of the threaded holes was clearly off center. I called Dave, the owner, to point this out. He said that it slipped when he drilled it and that’s why it was off center.
This completely baffled me … he knew about his mistake and did not mention it when I picked up the pieces — He let me run the full risk (of maybe not-​fitting, or fitting but failing) of installing a wrongly machined part!
He offered that I could bring a new piece and he would drill it for free. Well this part is not easily obtainable and costs money.
I admit, I should have fought on and insisted that he replaced the part. I just didn’t have the energy and decided instead that I will not go there anymore.