Here's a brief recap of my experiences with APE. I will allow you to draw your own conclusions...

I ordered a "balanced" rotating assembly and main studs in August. I ordered "race" heads, injectors, twin Walbro fuel pumps, head studs, pushrods, gaskets, and cam in September.

1) to get 90% of the parts took until the beginning of december
2) "race" heads are not polished... Not the runners, not the chambers, nada
3) wrong cam sent
4) replacement cam took 7 weeks
5) no bearings were included -- Chris promised to overnight them to me so I could get my build done in beginning of Decemeber, they arrived 10 days and 5 phone calls later
6) Fuel pumps NEVER arrived
7) wrong pistons -- despite ordering heads from them, they ordered the pistons for a different chamber size
8) "balanced" assembly is 80 grams off in the front and 63 grams off in the back
9) the pistons again <sigh> ONE piston has been machined so that it is 20% lighter than the other seven... (we assume this is to clear the crank sensor ring, but COME ON... ONE PISTON LIGHTER????!!??)
10) the replacement cam is also slightly wrong but close enough
11) It took from August until December to get all the parts of the rotating assembly (and not just the bearins...)
12) It took from September to the end of December to get all the head / injector / etc parts and I had to cancel the fuel pumps after being promised they had shipped once a week for 7 weeks.
13) I have to pay to get my "balanced" rotating assembly rebalanced because no one at APE (read Chris) will return my calls since the "credit" for the heads and the fuel pumps they claim to have issueed oon 12/23 has never shown up as a credit to my cc company...

Now, I could understand some of this had I ever once been an ******* about any of this. On the contrary I was VERY understanding about it all and gave them chance after chance after chance to make it right. At this point, I'm done with 'em.

Good thing credit card companies dispute charges.

I forgot to mention: I've been without my daily driver since 11/15 largely because of parts missing / wrong from APE. Everything was absolutely promised to me by the first week of Novemeber...

 

Wrong forum, man.

It sucks to hear about your transaction.

 

Regarding your list, the #8 piston can be clearanced as needed for stroker setups, I have no personal experience on how much and exactly where. I have seen some setups not clearanced and folks have huge problems.

ADMIN

 

Ive waited similar lengths of time from people all over the world, thats life.
Polishing is just bling. Its shape that counts

The rest does suck a bit.

 

Chris just called me on a question I had for a buddy of mine looking to build a motor, and I mentioned this thread. Please give him a call he was not today, but he's around now and for a good while.

I don't know you personally but keep in mind that Chris probably did not clearance the piston I bet it came like that from Diamond, and that polishing combustion chambers is a matter of preference.

 

Thanks for the info guys. I realize that polishing chambers is one of those religious topics, but IMO race heads should be polished, in at least the exhaust runner. I don't know many people who will pay $2300 for heads that are in stock casting on the chambers, and are not polished in the runners. I do know that the new TEA heads came fully polished and completely up to my expectations of what a competition level head should be and cost $100 less.

If this was one thing, or one day or one week of having trouble, I never would have posted. There are 13 points up there, and it doesn't really cover the hours and hours I've spent trying to get answers, parts, etc. from APE. Chris has, and has had my number for months. Nor does it address the broken promises for delivery dates, the "oopses" about CR, head chamber size, etc., etc., etc.

When I called yesterday, Chris was there but on the other line. When I called again yesterday at the end of the day, Chris was out of the office. When I called this morning, Chris was on the other line again. I posted this message at the end of business with again nothing from APE and no attempt to contact me about any of it. Realize that the credit was supposed to happen on 12/23 and was for things ordered on 9/10, and returned to APE over a month ago. There has been PLENTY of time for APE to resolve these issues (with the except of the "balancing job" that was performed, since no one was available to talk about it either yesterday or today).



And my apologies to mods -- I was looking for right forum and evidently cross posted this thread all over the place by mistake.

 

Hang in there man and stick to your guns. A lot of the Ape-a-haulics will probably come and an beat you up at a personal level, but of course, that has nothing to do with your and others issues.

Only thing I can add is the relief in the #8 piston if for clearance of the reluctor ring on the crank. But it should all balance out the same..Every piston, rod etc.
No excuse for being even 5 grams outs let alone 80.

Dave

 

Ive been on the same side as you since 2003, and through both owners of APE, car is never going back.
Good Luck with your situation.
Andy

 

Not here to beat anyone up... I feel for you.... All I have to say is that Ive done buisness with APE, and am doing buisness with APE, everything has always been as promised, and delivered as promised..

Not sure of their side of the story, one can only hope they will make it right. Your situation is unfortunate, as I truely believe you are the exception and not the rule.. You dont build a business that handles their volume of work, and quality of work, any other way.

Hope things work out for you..

 

Damn, that's really unfortunate. I know all companies have their problems but APE has been having a few recently that I've read about, however I know how long "Engine building can take.

Anyway best of luck getting your vehicle back together.

 

There are many that have had problems with things being shipped today, and never showing up from chris. Lots of excuses were the the only things I was hearing. I finally posted my problems on this forum, and wow they were taken care of the next day, maybe posting your info will help you too.

Here is my old post
https://ls1tech.com/forums/ap-engineering-complaints/256212-problems-ap-engineering.html

 

Wow. Seems like I am not the only exception to the rule.

To be square, I did get a PM from Chris last night saying he would straighten this out with Diamond and Callies, as well as his bank, and that he would try to call me last night. It was pretty late, so I didn't expect much (banks tend to not care, and the end of the day is sometimes rough when trying to get people to talk about problems).

It's interesting that a lot of these problems originated at about the same time. It's also informative that as with the cases mentioned in the thread above, in my case the way Chris handled the problems also lead to more problems and increased the dissatisfaction of his customers.

I know how tough it is to run your own business -- I did it myself for many years. I also know that problems have to be addressed honestly and that if you don't fulfill your promises in handling those problems, the problems just snowball.

 

The snowball effect sucks when dealing with customers, but is part of business. Hopefully APE will makee things right.
Keep us posted.

 

Erik, our customer service to you has been pretty bad to say the least. I apologize for this and I will try to get everything sorted out for you. I sent you a PM last night and I will be in contact in the next day or two. Once again sorry for the way we handled your service.

Andy, I posted over in your post. It was all laid out there for you.

 

Chris, I think Erik has heard that before!

As I told Erik earlier, my motor was built by one of the sponsors in here. I had constant communication with them. In turn they have gotten more of my business.

How do you explain no calls back to a customer?

A good businessman would acknowledge what were/are your problems and how are you going to change them so that I will not happen again....

I know that this might be hard to do. But in the business that you’re in you need to address this swiftly and with class!

Good luck to you both....

 

Is there an update,Has this truly been cleared up?

Its a good thing everything was double checked, it would have been quite a mess down the road if it had not. Wish people didnt have to re-check work thats been paid for.


Dave

 

Stamp this one as resolved.

I just spoke with Chris and we've reached an agreement. Chris has taken responsibility for what was wrong and has made adjustments to clear it all up.

Thanks you, Chris.

 

Erik, my names Mike, I work over at Diamond. The reason one piston was lighter then the rest is due to the relucter wheel clearance. We do that so you dont have to worry about the relucter wheel hitting the pin boss of the piston. That piston only weighs around 3-4 grams lighter then the rest of them. So for everyone elses future worries about that issue, dont worry this is a normal for a stroker ls1 piston. Thanks guys!!!