Things never cease to amaze me of what people will do/pay for now a days and I've got a short story to start off 2009. Back 6 months ago, a guy I knew has a 2001 Z06 that he wanted to put a Stroker motor into. He asked who I use and why. I told him that I do all of my own work but IF I had to use someone I would use Shawn @ Virginia Speed for a LONG list of reasons. Quality, Attention to detail, Service after the sale, Piece of mind knowing the job was done RIGHT the first time.

Well he called Shawn and burned up 10 hours on the phone with numerous questions about different ways to go with the build. Shawn gave him in my opinion a very competitive price, definitely not the cheapest but still a great quote for the package he priced. After countless calls saying the car is going to be dropped off this weekend, no next weekend ect. I get a call from the guy, he changed plans and now is using another sponsor for a "BUDGET" Shortblock. We talk about the build and he said he changed his mind because of pricing. Now let me say that the price difference was $500.

So I call Shawn whom I consider a very good friend and tell him the story, he's not pissed but alittle fustrated he spent 10 hours trying to get the combo right so the customer can achieve his goals for his project.

The client had a local shop(Maryland) do the "mechanical" install of swapping out the motors and finish up the tune. I kinda had a feeling that something was going to go wrong just knowing how these upgrades can go wrong. I get a call 2 thursdays ago @ Dinner from the Client and he says that the tuner can't tune the car for whatever reason and needs the car gone so I tell him to tow it down to my Home/Shop to complete the tune.

I get the car everything looks good couple things I noticed, No ARP head studs(Stock bolts) and basic LS6 heads vs a better quality 205cc head that was used in the quote which we'll leave at that. We start working on the tune, change a couple of basic things and try to get the car started. Battery is DEAD as a door nail. Throw the charger on for 40 minutes and try again. Car cranks but no fire. Work on it for a couple hours and no luck.

Go on a whim that the previous mechanic didn't swap the LS2 wires, got that knocked out. Engine fires but runs really rough....

 

So start throughly checking the motor over and find the MAP sensor is Broken in half, and the nipple is broken off completely while the LS2 harness cable has one wire pulled out of the connector. So it takes me 2 hours to pull the intake off and fix the map and another 20 minutes to fix the harness and the car finally runs.

Now that the car finally runs we find that the oil pan was not installed correctly and the oil pan has a severe leak on the passenger side.

If I had the time I would fix oil pan but between building my home and race car its not in the cards.

So now the money side of it. The client spent more money with the "Budget" build and labor before all this **** hit the fan. The "mechanic" is out of business hence why the car needed to be removed from the shop in a hurry.

Moral of the story: STOP BEING SOO CHEAP AND PAY FOR QUALITY LABOR AT A QUALITY SHOP WHERE YOU'LL HAVE A GREAT EXPERIENCE.

 

That guy was very lucky to know you man...

 

Not really, car is heading back to another mechanic to fix the oil leaking problem.

 

This is why I do **** myself... There's only one mechanic around here that I feel I could trust, and he can't have a car on his only lift for multiple days at a time.

 

you should change the title to, "Engine upgrades, is cheaper really cheaper
?" lol

 

Wow...$500 savings for an engine build is nothing in the grand scheme of things. I hope the dude realizes he completely screwed up...

 

You can only lead them to water, you cant make them drink.

I feel your pain Phil, I try to let Shiz deal with all the "customers" because all they want to do is ask a bunch of questions and get all the info they can from you then take there money to the cheapest guy.
The other problem is now he has spent all his money and doesnt have the money to pay someone to do it right. Funny thing is if he went to Shawn it would have been right the first time.

 

Amen brother.

I'm sad to say i see this stuff everyday of the week.We arent the cheapest guy in town by far,but it usually costs less money for us to do the job.Why you ask-because it's alot cheaper to do it once correct than to do it twice wrong.Just recently a customer came in with an engine noise-we tore it down to find out the wristpin slid out becuase only half the spirolock were put in.Another come in with a low power concern,after doing some diag we tore the motor down to find out the ring end gaps were too tight and tore up the cylinder walls.I'm currently doing a 402 for a guy that recently bought a 402 from somebody else for it to only last 2 pulls on the dyno.

The guys who want quality come to us,the guys that want cheap eventually come to us after cheap left them empty handed.

 

Haha .... thats Sig. material there !!!

 

 

And that's why the OP has done a LOT of work on my car.

Thanks Phil.

 

I would have fixed the engine oil pan but this time of the year is too busy for a 6 hour job without notice.

 

Sad but so true. Everyone wants someone with experience to validate their combination, but fail to realize that putting it all together in a reliable package is a completely different ball game. I hope it all works out.

 

The really sad part is his 346" that we did for him made more power than his 402.

 

I like that


If all you want to do is price shop then you get what you shopped for.
Unfortunately when your dropping several thousand dollars this isn't a mistake you want to make to often and usually only make it once. Sometimes you really do get what you pay for.

 

I just put a FAST 92 on my boys Trans-Am a couple months ago and he is the prime example of the "cheapest price wins". I advised him on how to build the car; the back to the front or from the ground up. He decided to buy a FAST 92 Intake/TB for his STOCK '00 Trans AM and headers. I told him to just get an LS6 intake and headers as he isn't going to be doing head/cam for while (ever). We get it on and i tell him he will need to get it tuned (i told him wayyy before hand also) and he asked how much. I told him around $400 for a dyno tune. He complained that was to much and i told him w/e. He asks me what the cheapest tuner is and i said i don't do "cheapest" and that when i buy one im buying a HPTuners. He told me he was looking at a handheld b/c someone he works with has one for him GTO and he was going to reset it and use it for his car. I told him not to do it and to just get HPTuners and get the most out of the car. He then tells me he might just take it to a shop he knows, that This shop was going to give him a better deal even though he has to bring them the tuner b/c they don't have one for an LS1; they mostly tune imports and Mustangs... i told him i "wouldn't take my Ferrari to a Honda mechanic", but he INSISTED that this guy could do it and ****.

I don't think he got it done yet and frankly i don't really care as I'm sick of arguing with him. lol

 

always tell people you can go broke trying to save money. seen this several times. i hate when people pump you for infomation and go somewhere else. have seen that several times. i never take pics of what i do for that reason. if somone is serious enough to drop a lot of coin they can see my work in person. that will tell me if the person is serious or not.

 

I would ship my car across the country if i knew there was a shop that could do better work then anyone local. I would have no issue sending my car to VA Speed if ppl gave them the best reviews for what i will eventually get done to my car. The money i would spend for transport will be recouped by not having 1000 issues with the car and constantly having to cart the car back and forth to the "budget shop". Plus the peice of mind is invaluable.

 

Apparently, Shawn is much more patient than I. I would have never got close to that amount of time without a CC number.

Shawn and I have talked about this exact situation. All I can say is, the car owner deserves what he gets.