AK74M

I recently saw this shop was back open and I felt like I should share my last experience with them years ago before they went out of business. I am going to stick to the facts here. I can't remember the username I used back in the day on ls1.com and corvetteforum.com but I had a fairly long run of LS based cars. My last one was the 2002, 2 year old Z06 corvette with 35K miles on the clock.

I had used MTI motorsports in Houston to do some small modifications to my Trans AM, they were doing one of their famous "Cam Package" Sales which I took advantage of. The modifications that I requested were:

- Install supplied headers
- Install a new aggressive cam grind
- Install some special valve springs I believe that were required for that cam grind
- Change my timing chain to a new double roller
- Dyno/Tune the car

I did have a 100 pill of nitrous on it and because of this I signed off on the warranty that they would offer which was 36,000 miles and 3 years. I ran MAYBE a bottle of nitrous through the car after the work was done, and it would be worth noting that the car NEVER put down the power that the other Z06's were with that specific cam shaft. You will find out why soon.

Long story short after about 5000 miles max of normal driving, I rarely opened the car up and drove it like it was intended but I did on occasion get on it a little bit. I didn't baby the car, I am simply stating that I didn't drive the dog sh*t out of it. One night I get a wild hair and decided to take it to the local drag where we ran our cars in Beaumont/Port Arthur and I threw a rod through the side of my block. I wasn't using nitrous, like i said I maybe ran a bottle through it.

We get it to MTI to diagnose the issue, the timing chain broke. Not the double roller that they were supposed to install, but the original timing chain. They never changed it, they re-used the original. They had the engine out of the car so I asked them to pull the camshaft so I could sell it. They pull it, it wasn't the camshaft they sold me when I paid them thousands for this work to be done. So if they would have changed the timing chain chances are that car would have been running well for years after this.

In the end they helped me source a short block, it cost me $5000. They absorbed some labor I believe, but then I lost quite a bit on the car when I sold it without the original motor. I had to sell it on EBAY actually. After all this mess I got out of LS cars completely and never posted this story. I never felt like i needed to since they were MIA. Well now that they are back I figured I would let everyone know to watch them closely if you have work done, they were always capable of doing the work but I would ask to SEE the parts before they go into your car. Especially if they are on sale. I think they justified selling me the wrong cam, and not changing the timing chain because I got the work "on sale".

They didn't appreciate me posting this story on their new facebook, I understand why, I felt like this is a more appropriate place. There are more stories like this out there if you search for them, I was not the only person they sold a camshaft to and put another random cam in the car instead. Maybe things have changed but they cost me a lot of money, maybe others will see this as my fault and thats OK. I think its simple, if they would have put the double roller chain on the car I would have never found out that they scammed me and I would have never thrown a rod.

Chris ***
Nederland TX

ZONES89RS

iTrader: (25)

Shops that have screwed people before have made a come back and done it again while others out there just keep screwing people. Typical bullshit.

03Sssnake

iTrader: (20)

This is why I do my own work and that isn't meant as slight against those that don't. I seriously have trust issues that simply will not allow me to let a shop work on my car, even warranty work.

AK74M

03Sssnake

iTrader: (20)

roger that!

jmilz28

iTrader: (13)

Trust is the most important factor in finding a shop. I would never have used MTI back in the day, nor would I now. LMR or PatG's outfit would be the first 2 of my top 3 in the Houston area, full stop. I'm sure there are other good shops but I trust both of them due to YEARS of successful business with precious few unhappy customers, even fewer for legit reasons. I'd be hard pressed to go anywhere else in Houston.

codyvette

iTrader: (24)

^^^^. Correct. It's funny how little people pay attention to peoples reviews on these shops. Not to long ago I was reading a thread throwing a little negativity toward one of the exhaust systems sold on this sight. The vender chained in and asked them to stop with the negativity. Nope, that's why these sight are great. You will get called to the carpet when it's time.

Big bird55

iTrader: (1)

i tend to want to do it myself or let someone like bad chad do it if i am unable to. just sent a buddy to bad chad and had john smith tune the same gto. been running flawlessly.

AK74M

whatsa347

iTrader: (6)

Chad is the GOAT, honest dude and no bullshit and the fairest prices.

ZONES89RS

iTrader: (25)

Yup. When I was running full tilt and didn’t have time to work on others ****, as well as before I started running my own gig, Chad is the only one I did and still refer to other people. Good dude all around and won’t take **** from idiots.

slowpoke96z28

iTrader: (2)

I've had good and bad luck at MTI. It was back in the REAL LT1 days with my namesake car. I wanna say before Josh started there. Had a 305 cam installed and the tech left a hose clamp slid down on iirc a hose going to the throttle body coolant manifold. I was so happy with how the car ran, I didn't make a deal of it and just justified it as "race car problems" to the people who came to my room and told me my car was leaking something. I managed to slide the clamp in place, top off the coolant, and went on. A year or two later, I dropped a valve or two with broken springs. When I pulled the valve cover, I noticed they'd installed crane single valvesprings designed for the iron heads (impala, caddy brougham, etc) vs the crane dual valvesprings meant for the aluminum headed f and y cars. Interestingly, the singles actually costed more than the duals, so its not like they were trying to screw me out of money, unless they figured they'd make more off me on fixing the eventual failure. I was young and dumb at the time and didn't know how to stand up to a business, so I didn't press that either. I'd won a lot of races with them wrenching on the car and had a lot of other irons in the fire, so I figured i'd forget about it.

Dpredki

Really sorry to hear about your experience. I had a couple of TA's and a C5 Z06. MTI worked on all of them. Back in 2007 MTI installed the X1 cam package with long tube headers, pushrods, springs, dyno tune, etc.. on my Z06. In my personal experience I've never had any issues and i drag raced my Z06 at the facility passed Katy, which is now owned by Hennessy. Jason and David behind the counter were always very professional and helpful with me.

TROPIC_THUNDER

That place is a joke. I wont even get started. They must have paid to get their reviews cleaned up from all the negative feed back because
there is not that much negative feed back anymore. I cant even find my feedback from 2019 on there website anymore. Stay away folks.