Well good luck with it then I hope it works out for you. Keep us updated on what the shop finds out.

 

Sorry to hear about your engine. But this is a great reason to buy local. Seriously. That way if theres a problem, you can be there in person when they tear it down.

 

counting.... U can be very sure they didn't take 8 days to charge your credit card!
I'd give them til after the holiday, then file a claim w/ the cc company.
[Assuming it's not past the drop dead date.]
"Very busy"?? Yep, fukin up someone else's engine.

 

Stories like this make me not even wanna take the chance on ordering a motor sponsor or not. The motor failed end of story. They should take care of you. Them opening up the motor to investigate their motor is like the bank robbers investigating who robbed the bank.

OP I hope it all works out for you in the end brother

 

Thanks guys, I really regret not buying local now. Geezer your exactly right, they were more than happy to charge and build it the first time, now I'm on hold till they get slow I guess. Trust me I've considered that option too, I don't know when my drop date is though but I'll look into that Tuesday.

Hindsight is 20/20 but this whole experience and the obscene amount of money I've spent sure makes me wish I would've just replaced the piston in my ls1. I'd be driving it and been a lot happier to. Or just traded the thing in...

 

I've had 2 good experiences with out of town specialist LSX machine shops. I was in the same boat as you. I would barely trust someone local to do a Gen I SBC. No way are they touching an LSX. While I had good experiences there is always a chance for a mistake or part failure. Even the best fail from time to time. I see top fuel cars often drop a cylinder before they have a chance to stage. When buying out of town I think you should be looking at a shop's track record of handling customer service issues more than their bottom line results. Someone like Thompson motorsports as an example (who I have not used) sells a high volume of engines and as such sees more failures than a low volume shop might. In every case I've seen on tech they have gone above and beyond to make the deal right for the customer. They may not build engines for a top racer but they take care of the little guy. Just an example.


I sympathize with you and understand you feel like you have been swept under the rug. While I always advise people to play it cool when they may be angry, there does come a point where you have to look out for yourself and exercise your rights as a consumer. The trouble is figuring out when. Good luck.

 

Just like anything you buy..... Buy from a trusted seller.

So you say the motor failed end of story is a joke right? He bought a short block from them, You do realize that there are thousands of things that can still go wrong that would not be the sellers fault. For example..... Objects dropped in engine during long block assembly, Head failure/ Dropped valve/broken spring, rockers have been known to fail. Wrong length pushrods/ PTV clearance to tight/ Improper torque specs on heads/ Wrong head gaskets. Then there is the tune... To lean/rich timing/detonation. Cooling system/Not enough water/thermostat. You also have to consider the trans.... If it's an automatic was the converter spacing checked.... To tight has wiped many thrust bearings. I could literally sit here for the next hour and type out possible reasons that could wipe out a perfect short block.

If you really think a shop is going to rip you off then you picked the wrong shop, Do you expect them to send the short block to a competitor and have them find out what happened? That will end well every time lol.

I'm not saying all shops are trustworthy but there are some great shops. I've never bought from Thompson motorsports but they would get my money of I were looking for a trust worthy builder. They responded to a thread recently where one of their engines failed and it was not their fault in any way and they still made it right to the customer.

As far as anyone regretting not buying local, Location to you does not make them better at building an engine or any more trust worthy than some half way around the world. Like I said earlier there are thousands of possible reasons for engine problems and even if you are standing right there when they tear it down does not mean you'll know what you are looking at or why it happened.
I'm from sprint car country where $25,000 to $45,000 engines is the norm and they don't have any warranty for the most part. I have over $16,000 in my 408+ electronics/fuel system and it's not even assembled yet... Firing it up is going be the best/worst part depending on how it goes.


For the OP yes it sucks but give them a chance to find out what went wrong and hopefully they will take care of it. You were smart to keep names out of the post, Nothing pisses off engine builders more than getting thrown under the bus before they even have a chance to look at it.

 

This is one of the best reply's so far...I'm involved heavily in a family owned, automotive based, small business...I get people in here all the time, upset because they think they have been wronged by another shop, and want me to jump on the bashing band wagon...99.9% of the time I tell them to calm down and get back in touch with the original shop and let them try and resolve it...

And I know the OP wants answers ASAP...but sometimes shops/vendors are just extremely busy with things, but will try and move things around to get to it...

(Remember, they sure didn't mean for you to have trouble in the first place, but now they have to budget extra time to try and get it figured out.)

Anyhow...it's very commendable of the OP to have not thrown anyone "under the bus" yet...

And I too wish you the best of luck with getting this resolved.

 

I would expect an evaluation a lot sooner than 8 days. Doesn't really show much customer appreciation too make someone wait this long for something that very possibly is not their fault. Whether or not they accept responsibility for the problem or if its the customers fault, that's all I'm taking away from this.

 

I guess it depends on the shop, I know several that if you want them to build you an engine it might be weeks before they can get it in so 8 days isn't that bad to make room to warranty/diagnose one.

 

I appreciate everyone's input and no I'm not about to throw anyone under the bus, I'm just frustrated and wanted some feedback and advice. Tuesday will be 2 weeks of them having it. I sure hope I hear something this week, the suspense is killing me, plus Utah's track is only open a few months and I'm a month into it already.

 

X2


Any good business would look at it immediately. 8 days is beyond ridiculous to do a tear down, and diag, It would take less than an hour....

 

You don't need to justify why your posting. Its usually the same thing that happens here on tech. Someone gets shafted by a sponsor, you post about it and then a million trolls come out defending sponsors no matter what happened. Been there done that **** them they know who they are.

 

The delay is deliberate?? That shop knows full well when the cc drop dead date is....

 

Call you CC company and get the ball rolling to cover your ***

 

It all depends on the damage that is inside. What saying the converter side of the thrust isn't destroyed, AKA transmission related failure???? I was just there. Built an engine and had a transmission kill a forged crank, overheated the main caps, etc.

Whats the endplay on the crank??

 

My car is a m6 for the record.

 

Good news, it's covered! They said it should be ready by next week. It ended up being a crank bearing but the cause is unknown. My spirits have been lifted!

 

who is the shop, I like them already lol

 

That sounds like a stand out company that did the build. Glad it's getting taken care of. Kudos to you for giving them a chance before burning them.