Well as some of you may know I was a JPR bandwagoner for a couple years and it seems now its all starting to pay off.......yeah right. I had a JPR build me a 4.125 Bore Darton Wet Sleeve Motor. The crank was customer supplied as the stroke was changed several times. We wound up with a 427 and all was well......yeah right. JD states that car made 504 to the wheels and all was good. ** JD NEVER TOUCHED A HAND ON MY MOTOR **
I was pleased with the results and I proceeded to break in the car for 500 miles. I was told by JPR " Bear I can send you a piece of paper with a warranty, but it would be no good. If a part breaks I have no money to fix it." Wellllllll thats a help. 510 miles the car starts leaking coolant BAD from the driver side head in the back. So since I have no warranty on my motor, I decided to have the complete motor torn down and rebuilt properlyby a REAL SHOP. Eastside Performance has graciously accepted the challenge of recovering my lost faith in the crap world of racing. Ken has been great. We discussed many things and I feel confident that all will be well again. I will have the clearences documented on both motors, old & new. I am having the lower half sent to machine shop for checking of the balance. I hope all is well because I have no morer money or patience for this crap. I am having the heads redone or done depending on how u look at JPRs flow numbers. I have decided on Absolute Speed for the heads. Jay is going to port the LS6 heads to his S3 and put in bigger valves and check the spring height. Between these two shops I am feeling way better about things. I hope to have one complete car for at least 1 full year of racing. I am having Eastide do a 400 conversion as well with a brake. I hope to have some stout ETs if this whole project ever comes together. I am so happy that I listened to my peers on LS1.com and went with JPR......yeah right..... Are we seeing a pattern here folks. It will be interesting to see what I got and what I paid for. EZ can u say crappy bearings?????

 

wow problems with a Darton setup

kinda glad I stuck with the all stroke motor for now

 

Well yes and no on the Darton setup. Gaskets were Eaten away by improper coolant.....Thanks JPR...... and I dont think the block was decked. This is Y everything is being checked. The block is FINE.

 

JPR/JD are people to stay away from IMO. This may sound bad but I will not buy anything car related from New Jersey ever again. Seems like a bunch of games going on up there as I got screwed over by 1 shop and I know others that have been screwed from other shops in New Jersey. Left me with a really bitter taste in my mouth. I am sure your next setup will be better Bear, its just too bad that we all had to go through thousands and thousands of dollars to find legit shops. I hope JPR and JD never make it back here personally although I know that they could give a **** less either way as long as they get $$$$$

 

Man you guys are amazing people to even continue trying to get it right, I probably would have shot myself by now. Spending all that cash on something to have it go wrong 500 miles later, I wouldn't be able to handle it. I want a 422 so bad, but from the looks of all these motors not making it, even MTI's seem to have some trouble lately, I am not sure anymore. I want something that will last another 82k miles like my stock motor has, and it's still running strong.

I hope all goes well and nothing is out of the order so you can get it right back on the road. Keep us updated!

 

If JPR/JD got the block from Steve @ Race Engineering, it was decked before it left. All of his installed sleeves are decked before they leave his shop (Steve @ Race Engineering).

It ain't the block .

 

who says they got the block there i found out early how bad things were and got out from dealing with JPR and yes he owes me money too.

Jay Fisher

 

I said, "If JPR/JD.."

 

Steve at Race Eng. told me in a message that he did some blocks for JP. Who's, I don't know. I wonder if he keeps track of them by serial# or something? If he did mine, then I'm sure I won't have a problem with it.

 

I know mine was done by steve....

Good luck bear

 

Steve does have serial numbers. I will get mine off block and find out. Hmmmmmmmm

 

I don't know JPR/JD, never met them, don't even live in a state near them. With that said, I am in no way defending them. You stated that JPR used "improper" coolant, I know of only 3 types of coolant and all have anti-corrosive additives in them to prevent the gasket from being 'eaten away'. My question is, how did you determine that the coolant destroyed the gasket?

 

Sorry to hear Bear. Is my motor the only one from JPR that has stayed together so far? 10K miles on it, it's a 348 forged.

 

Bear its good to see you will finally be getting on track here. Jay and the eastside boys will get you the power you want and most of all, the realiability you need. What cam are you going to use? the one jpr had in it or are you going to look for something new?

 

Mike the $$$$tree has run out. I also WANT/NEED the LSX Intake and 90mm TB. There is no way that I can do EVERYTHING that I need to do. I am content FOR NOW running the LS6 intake and this cam., 242/242

 

You did the right thing taking it apart pro-actively. We think mine came apart on its own because of a tolerance that was not set up right.

My leading contender for a new motor myself so far seems to be to send the shot block to Steve @ RCE (who I believe may have originally done the block), who will pull the good sleeves and add two new sleeves at 4.150-4.155 bore to a stress-relieved LS6 block. Then the block would go to APE, who would do shortblock assembly with 4" stroker. Then shortblock comes back to Mikey, who does final assembly with the heads and cam and installation. Heads will be flowed and looked at, they will probably not be up to the task of a 434 though. New cam, since the old cam is seized in the motor under a crushed lifter. Not going to be cheap, its especially painful because this is the third time im paying for a motor.

 

Man did u guys get the shaft....
I really feel bad for all of u guys

 

Of interesting note also is the guy who I sold my JPR reworked ARE heads, which JP said flowed closed to 300cfm on the intake side, actually flowed 288 on the left side, and 264 on the right side. I thought he was going to try and get his money back from me (even though I sold them for like $750) -- that would really have been the icing on the cake.

 

Now thats a good decision, APE is a good bunch of guys, Make sure you get new heads/cam to go with the superstroker. If you make it out of this in one piece with these different vendors your car will be finally be done correctly.

 

I know what you mean when you say feeling better about things. When my car was at TTP they were rebuilding everything and staying in touch with me (even though it was all bad news lol) on what I needed to do and giving me suggestions. I gave JPR a double roller to put in and he said he didnt want to do it , I gave him injectors to put in because I wanted the car tuned for them even if I didnt REALLY need them and they werent put in. After I get the Jantzer TB all of JPR's work is out of my car. Having TTP go through the car also revealed some other interesting things not done by JPR which annoy me but they are not huge things.
Now all I have to do if figure out where my TQ is. I never had high TQ but even Absolute was saying its too low. I still need to get to Eastside's dyno with the Borla uncapped to see if it makes a difference.... I get to see your car again also Bear which makes it worth the trip .