I decided to have MTI assembly my 427 short-block. Actually not even a complete short-block just the rotating assembly (crank, rods, and pistons). I told them up front I wanted the motor balanced and assembled including main studs, and was told by Wayne(MTI) they could complete this work in 2 weeks. I've seem to have a problem and decided I needed to post my situation - more or less vent because I am getting jacked around. The following time line is very accurate and very long, but feel it is necessary.

Friday 7/11 - Shipped my core block, internal parts, and flywheel(for balancing purposes).

Monday 7/14 - MTI received parts

Wedensday 7/16 - I call Wayne @ MTI to verify that the parts had been received safely and everything was accounted for, especially since one of the items is a $2000 crank. He confirmed that the parts were received and told me to call back next week to see how things were going.

Monday 7/21 - Called to see if everything was on schedule. I was then told that my block was cracked when being shipped and was useless as a core. This was 5 days after I called to confirm that the parts had been received SAFELY. A phone call would of been appreciated, since this could of happened after it was delivered. One of the dowel pins on the back of the block had been cracked off and they claimed they couldn't use the block. I agreed to pay an additional $525 dollars for a core charge, since I was pretty much at their mercy as far as what happened to the block. The parts were supposed to be insured but were not - thats another long story with the shipping company, that's if I could of even proven it was a shipping problem givin the time that had passed. So at this time I asked when the short-block would be ready to ship? I was then told that the floors in the shop were being cleaned and it would be an additional 2 weeks before it would be done.

Wedensday 7/30 - Called back and asked Wayne if everything was on schedule. His reply was that they were behind because of the floor cleaning and it would be an additional week before the motor would be complete. Keepin mind all the parts are sitting there. How long does it take to balance and assembly a rotating assembly?

Wedensday 8/6 - Called Wayne again to get an update. In short - ANOTHER WEEK

Wedensday 8/13 - Called Wayne again to get an update. In short - ANOTHER WEEK

Friday 8/15 - Wayne calls my cell phone and leaves a voice message. He tells me my short-block is DONE and will ship that afternoon or Monday 8/18 at the latest.

Monday 8/18 - I call MTI to pay the $525 extra core charge and to get a tracking #. He tells me they are just now crating up the motor and it will go out Tuesday 8/19. I tell him fine, and request him to call me with a tracking # when it ships.

Wedensday 8/20 - Never received a call with the tracking #. At this time I am assuming my motor is on a truck headed home. So I call the shop once again to obtain a tracking #. Wayne is not there to help me so I asked the guy who answered the phone (should of got his name but I didn't) if he could get my tracking #. He puts me on hold and comes back and tells me they are crating up the motor as we speak. Thats right they are now crating up a motor that was already supposed to be on a truck. WTF they have been crating the motor up for shipment for 4 days?

Friday 8/22 - The icing on the cake. Called to get a tracking # once again, since they didn't contact me - hmmmm I wonder why? Wayne answers the phone and tells me they have run into a problem and puts me on hold immediately. That's right I now have a problem with my assembled short-block that has been crated in I guess a brick **** house for 6 days now. He gets back on the phone and says he wants me to talk to his machinist. He gets on the phone and tells me that they had to ship my block off to be line-honed, because I was having main studs put in. This is what I originally payed them to do and the block was supposed to be studded from day one. What a freakin joke! Not only is my motor not on a truck or crated after 6 days the f---ing thing is not even assembled yet. It takes everything I have from going off on the machinist but I quickly realise that it might not of been his fault and he probally has no idea what I had been through up until this point. So anyway he goes on to tell me that they should get the block back Monday 8/25 or Tuesday 8/26 and would be ready to ship on Thursday 8/28. I politely say ok and hang up the same way I have after all the other disappointing phone calls.

Monday 9/1 - It is now 2:00 a.m. on 9/1 and I have not called MTI since 8/22 or received a call regarding my motor. I am completely disgusted at the way I have been treated. It is going on 8 weeks now. That is pretty absurd if you ask me when the originally quote was 2 weeks. I understand there shop is busy but this is unacceptable service in my eyes. I would have taken my buisness elsewhere if I would of known I was going to get treated like this. What makes it even worse is I did my research and read plenty of positive feed-back about MTI, so I thought I was in good hands. I know have a $6000 + short-block sitting in a shop 1000 miles away and don't know WTF is going on. Not to mention the long distance phone bill I know have and the time I have wasted writing this book (if you can't tell I spent 4 hours making sure all the dates and info were accurate). I see I can't believe what they tell me over the phone, so until I have a tracking # or see the motor at my door, I have no faith in what the status is of my motor. I am sending a copy of this to MTI and decided to post it here also, since I believe the board members would be interested in the events that have occured over the last 2 months. At this point in time I don't even know what MTI could do to rectify this situation, that would be fair to me and MTI. Any thoughts or advice on how I should handle it from here on would be appreciated.


Lastly, I am sorry for the long post, but felt it was necessary to accurately describe the situation I am in. I will reply with good or bad feed-back after MTI decides how they are going to handle this situation.

 

hmf....good read. I'm curious as to what MTI will have to say.

 

The late night reading material just gets better... Sorry about your delayed block, maybe they will make up for it virtue core exchange or something. Good-luck.

 

No S*%T!!
I think somebody has some explaining to do, that really sucks! Makes me sick since my future plans have been looking towards MTI

 

Yea me too! It sucks because I have my family, friends, and co-workers following my build-up and every time they ask for a update I just relay the info that MTI has been giving me. So this whole time I've been stringing them along also with these lies. I even had a friend ask me if I was in financial trouble, even though all of this was paid for in full back in May, made me feel like an idiot.

 

even though all of this was paid for in full back in May

Speaking of this, it seems to be more people get screwed around when they pay up front for things...Just an observation.

 

I ordered all of the parts including the MTI block through Raging Motorsports (they are a MTI dealer). Originally I was going to have a local shop balance and assemble to save time and money. Then I decided that since I was going to have to pay to have the block shipped anyway I would just ship my parts to them and have them assemble it since they build these motors all the time. I was told that the bare block was ready to ship to me the first week of July and then decided at the last minute to not have it shipped and let them do the assembly. When I was quoted 2 weeks to have it done I figured the little bit in extra shipping was worth it to have an experienced shop build the motor. It took me 6-8 weeks to accumulate all the parts but everything was paid in full back in May. My issue is not with Raging at all, ever since I shipped my parts out on 7/11 I have been dealing straight with MTI.

 

Thats a lot of BS....I've heard a lot of good things about MTI....hell even a local was in GM high performance(the orange colored TA)....with one of their 427's.....but I see this happen a lot w/some of the shops out there...not just MTI....a buddy of mine was quoted I think like a month or so for some heads back in feb/mar. we were TDY to california...so no big deal...but we figured they would be there by the time we got back in the begining of april....regardless to say I think it was roughly 3 months maybe more before he got them...then when he recieved the heads they were shipped loosely and not even wrapped in any plastic wrap of any kind...so he then had to clean fresh heads from the shop....in my opinion some of these shops out there seem to start worrying about quantity and not quality of their parts and customer service...but hey just my .02..

 

sounds like my experience with speed automotive. however mti is a much more respectable company, im sure they will take care of this situation.

 

"Called to see if everything was on schedule. I was then told that my block was cracked when being shipped and was useless as a core. This was 5 days after I called to confirm that the parts had been received SAFELY. A phone call would of been appreciated, since this could of happened after it was delivered. One of the dowel pins on the back of the block had been cracked off and they claimed they couldn't use the block."

This would peg my "I'm Getting Ripped Off" meter. Actually, I admire your patience. I have a "one lie and you're out" policy. Methinks MTI should be VERY kind to you to make up for this cluster-f*ck.

 

Sounds like your order may have fallen through the cracks, and that is unfortunate. If any of you members ever have issues with one of our sponsors, you are always more than welcome to contact myself or Pro Stock John and we can help you out. I was at MTI on Saturday and I would have gladly checked on your order in person had I known this was going on.

To answer your question, it took 8 weeks for my first MTI 382ci, it took 10 weeks for my last 434ci, and it took 9 weeks for my newly purchased 348ci (for the '69). In all fairness though, their shop was shut down for about 2 weeks while they cleaned it out, moved things around, re-epoxied the floors in the entire shop and machine shop, and installed new lifts. They had to turn away a ton of local business to accomplish that task.

Rest assured, I will contact Jayson personally for you and help you out here.

Tony

 

Took 10-12 or so for the 387 I ordered, but most of it was waiting for the custom pistons to be made. There are often logistical issues that slow things down. Ive gotten that as much or more so with a few other vendors as well.

I sort of knew going in that I couldnt buy tickets for jmX to help on the install until I had the motor in my garage. Im glad I waited. Kind of part of the game, but I understand why you would feel like you are being inappropriately shuffled around. Dont tell me its being shipped until thats an absolute

On a good note, after taking the car for it's first "real" drive after 500 break in miles, you wont remember any of this .

chris

 

Brian,

Yes, your block has taken more time to assemble than most do, however, there were several circumstances that led to that. You supplied us with pistons that hit the crank counter weights when assembled. Our custom pistons do not do this and it required us to disassemble and clearance the necessary pistons to make them fit correctly. You also supplied us with main studs that requires us to align hone the block which also took extra time.

MTI was basically out of commission for 2 weeks since the entire facility's floors was being epoxied and all new lifts installed. I know this has nothing to do with you but it did delay us more.

I did feel bad that the engine arrived damaged and I authoried Wayne to sell you a block at cost. We even sent you digital pictures of the damaged block while it was still in its box.

The engine is currently in its sealed container and is scheduled to leave today. I apologize for the delay and hope your new shortblock exceeds your expectations.

Jayson - MTI

 

Good job Jayson..glad to see you come on here and clear things up and give explainations!! makes me feel better and better about my upcoming shortblock purchase!!

 

To answer your question, it took 8 weeks for my first MTI 382ci, it took 10 weeks for my last 434ci, and it took 9 weeks for my newly purchased 348ci (for the '69). In all fairness though, their shop was shut down for about 2 weeks while they cleaned it out, moved things around, re-epoxied the floors in the entire shop and machine shop, and installed new lifts. They had to turn away a ton of local business to accomplish that task.

Rest assured, I will contact Jayson personally for you and help you out here.

Tony

[/quote]

I am assuming the wait times for each of your motors was due to parts also. How long did it take to finish each of your motors after all the parts had arrived?

 

Well, MTI doesn't do in-house balancing on the rotating assembly. They send the cranks out to another local machine/balancing shop. So, your assembly time is also dependent on how quickly that shop turns the parts around. This can vary from 2 days to 2 weeks on balancing.

Final assembly, once all parts are received and balanced, is about a week.

Tony

 

When I was on the phone with your machinist, he told me he had to clearence the #8 piston and that was the only one. I hardly think that is the reason for the long delay. Isn't it standard procedure to align-hone the block when using any kind of main studs? What kind of main studs do you use that the block doesn't need to be line-honed? For everyone that doesn't know, I bought ARP studs, so its not like I sent them some off brand studs nobody has seen before.

I understand that there is necessary maintenance to the shop and that it will delay your buisness sometimes. The problem I have with this is - I am sure a project of this size (cleaning the floors) was planned in advance if it was going to put you "out of commission for 2 weeks". Why wasn't I told this upfront. It seems to me that there was no intention of having my block ready to ship in the original 2 weeks quoted.

Yes you did send me digital pics of the block. The problem is they were sent the following week also. This could of easily happened in the shop especially if everything was getting moved around to do the floors. I was willing to accept this and drop it, since I really have no other option, until I was lied to about the motor being done 2 TIMES. Then I started thinking what a great way too make an additional $525 well just tell him it was cracked when it was shipped to us. You see my point? Your story would be much more believable if I would of been contacted immediately and not the following week. You have no creditability with me right now due to the multiple phone calls that resulted in lies. I do appreciate the $275 price break on the core charge, but im my eyes $800 for a core is outragous and I would hope you wouldn't want to make a profit off of this. So selling me a core for $525 seems like the least you could do for me.

The thing I really have a problem with is the just flat out lies. Why was I told the motor was shipping when it wasn't even assembled. Several times I was lied to about the status of the motor. This is what burns my *** and the other events/problems just made it worse. Sounds to me like there should be a mandatory MTI meeting to get everyone on the same page.

You say the motor is done. If so send me a tracking #.

Lastly, I do appreciate the quick response and hope this comes to an end soon.

 

I would imagine that would be considered when quoting the customer with an expected time frame.

 

Yeah makes me feel good to Jayson-I have big plans for my short-block coming up.

 

Whew! way to go MTI for making everything better with a few words on the forum. That sure makes up for all the lies he was told by the staff, the fact that he'll never know who was responsible for cracking the block, the fact he was never told that the shop would be closed for 2 weeks ahead of time, and the fact that he still hasnt received a tracking # after all this time. That is a relief!



Good luck DOC OTIS.