Rating Summary #138,283

Mike ripped me off, not intentionally but then didn't make it right. He sold me a forged shortblock with the assumption it was good to run. Turned out main bearings, cam bearing where all shot. Motor needed to be completely rebuilt, he refused to refund any money or even look at pics. He would not give personal email address and stopped returning calls or texts. DO NOT BUY FROM HIM! He is not someone you should deal with.

I did everything to make both companies happy at time of sale. I removed oil pan, showed him the bottom of the motor, gave him all the build paperwork, and offered to take the main bearing/rod caps off to look at bearings. He refused the offer and said everything looked good. At that point, we buttoned the motor up and helped him package it. About a month later he contacted me and said main bearings and cam bearings were shot and that he wanted a full refund and me pay to ship the motor back to me. As everyone knows on this site all sales are final. I tried giving him advice on what needed to be done, I did look at the picture and NO bearings were spun. The cam bearing had signs of distress and wiped the babit coating. The rod/main bearings had signs of embedding but none were spun and none of the journals appeared damaged on any of bearing surfaces. I told him it needed about 300 dollars worth of work. It only needed new bearings, he tried telling me his machine shop, which I have never heard of, told him it needed 2 grand worth of work...... For only bearings? The motor burned/leaked no oil. The bores looked phenomenal and the embedded debris/stress in the main bearings appeared normal to me. I would have helped him make this right, but he went above and beyond any reasonable method to approach me to make this right, and contacted me on avenues I never provided him. I was willing to purchase new bearings for him, but he was adamant the whole motor was bad.... all because he had one machine shop's recommendation. Who in my book was more than ripping him off. If anyone questions this, I will gladly pull out the pictures he sent me to post on the forum for your opinion. Let me also mention that it was always my intention to pull the cam, but after talking on the phone with the buyer, he decided he wanted to keep the cam and was worried about me puling it out; therefore, the cam was left in the motor. As far as I knew the motor was solid when I sold it. It was going to be a replacement shortblock for his race car.... then a month+ late he contacted me stating it was bad. I never had any signs of issues and again the repair work needed was minimal. How can you expect anyone to 100% cover your costs in any circumstance like this? IMO for another 300 bucks he would have had a brand new tried shortblock. I even sent him a video of the engine running and the oil pressure was in the 60's.