Ok here is my story and its a long 1 I have a 00 coupe and had a h/c making around 440rwhp. Well..... seems that wasnt enough so I purchased a D1 procharger!!! I asked for help with the install on the forum.... met a guy here locally that said he could do the install. Installed it went to get it tuned and it had issues like the meth kit not working and leaky headers back in january. Soooo i got irritated and decided to drop a bigger forged ls2 in it that the guy i met on here said he could get me a great deal on the shortblock. Well in january the old came out and the new fresh forged ls2 went in. finished it up in june .... sounds good so far right? (other than 5 months to do!) got the car home and it run like crap and i had a feeling something just wasnt right with it! So i got the guy who put the engine together and in my car to trailer it for me down to raliegh nc to mayhem motorsports wed morning. they called me thursday morning to say i have bent valves thinking backfire thru the intake caused it...... well NO! They called me again this morning and said well here is your problem.... we took the heads off and all the valves are bent!!! im like wtf????? the motor has literally 20 miles on it at the most!!! He then proceeded to tell me he is going to take the timing cover off because the pistons had plenty of clearance and it doesnt seem like a backfire thru the intake problem. So i get the call this afternoon from the guys at mayhem and he said we found out the real problem with the engine. whoever put it together dont ever let them touch your car again! the timing gears were off 3 teeth or 12 to 16 degrees and if that wasnt your problem then the balancer was put on poorly and would have walked off and caused even more damage if this hadnt done it. Well its looking like its going to be around 3 grand or more to get my car back up and running which i dont have from spending it on the 1st build paying the 1st guy to do the job that i now have to pay someone else to fix what wasnt broken that he caused!!! I have called him and told him what the problems were with the car that he couldnt seem to figure out. His reply.... I feel bad!! hell i wish i could just say i feel bad!!! I was hoping that his answer was going to be he would at least help pay to get it fixed seeing i brought him a running and driving car to be modified not broken!!! seems like in the end I am just screwed!! Lesson learned i guess and i still feel like he should pay the whole bill seeing it was his work that caused this mess but at this point i would have settled splitting the bill! Am i being unfair here? I mean 6 months later and about 15 grand and i have to start from scratch!!! Ok end of rant.... for now!!!

Rick

 

I've always been happy to pay a bit more to let the "right" people do the work.
Well, not always, but I leanred early on.

 

That really sucks to hear.

The lessons I have learned over the years is that if some offers you a "buddy hookup" without you really digging to see their work they have done previously, it usually doesn't turn out "right".

I hope you get it figured out asap brother

 

I feel your pain, and understand your situation. It's o.k. to vent.

 

Chris here is the thing bro..... he has a 03 Z06 he built a 6.0 twin turbo even fabricated the piping for the turbo Sooooooo 1 would think he knew what he was doing!!! I believed he did! But thats here nor there at this point... he needs to help make it right !!! thats just my opinion and not that i flat out asked him outloud to make it right but waited to and gave him the chance to say he would help make it right anytime during the several calls to him and he didnt other than he feels bad and he is broke too. that isnt really helping me feel any better at the moment ya know?

 

on a side note..... someone find somebody that is looking for headers as i have a like new set of kooks 1 3/4 headers for sale and a brand new 3" in to 2.5" out offroad kooks midpipe for sale to help try and pay to get my car fixed cause im just tapped and dont have the cash

Rick

 

Damn Rick, hate to hear it. At least you know now what it is, not that it is comforting in any way.

 

Totally hear ya man!

I had a guy tune my car when it was a heads/cam/nitrous car and thought he was an OK tuner if he had a heads/cam/nitrous FBody running consistent 10's. He had also tuned a GTO in the 10's. Well, turns out that he really didn't know much at all. I was getting absolutely terrible gas milage and finally made an appointment with Taylor at DP. Taylor said the tune was so F'd up it was silly. Taylor was having issue with some airflow and he finally pulled the air filter to realize that the screen had been blown off and torn in half from a nitrous backfire that the previous tuner "friend" caused that I never knew about. I never let that guy know that it was a bad tune and luckily it didn't cause me an catastrophic damage.

The builders and tuners I truly trust and want to work with are the ones that are always willing to communicate with me (even give you their cell number to call or text anytime). Granted, I try not to bother them, but I feel that if I can communicate with someone I am paying a good bit of money, I feel much better about letting them work on my car.

I hope your situation resolves without anymore hiccups.

 

Yea Chris same situation here I guess but on a more of a raw deal The good news is i now have a shop i trust which will be my shop of choice from now on for any work that needs to be done! Mayhem Motorsports is trying to look out for me and keep the screw up cost down but hey they gotta make a living too which I do understand! Ya know..... I have had broken crap in my like from either me or someone else doing it and even had shops say someone screwed this car up.... but I have NEVER, EVER had a shop tell me like Mayhem told me today... DOnt EVER let him touch your car again! you know you screwed a car up when a shop says that

 

The guy should stand behind his work for sure here with only 20 miles on it. But the same thing happen to me on the 65 vette I got 2 yrs ago. Was told it had only 30 miles on the motor but he just wouldnt have me drive the car 175 miles away. But told me he would stand behind the motor if I got it. So here and got it I put 90 miles on it and the motor went out. Called him and he says he didnt think he should have to do anything. But this is a lawyer here with his on business. Motor was put together with bad are bearing not clearance correct so they went out. I know how you feel man..... Robert

 

yea Robert I really dont wanna go rounds in court over it but dammit i should not have to fork out all this money for his mistake it just aint right!

 

Dude this is unfortunate. On that note morally I agree he should help you out (if he's the one who built the engine). If he didn't build the engine, and just installed it then it's hard to pin the blame on him.

If he did build the engine, I would think that he should pay for the repairs.

If he didn't build it and just sourced it, I think he should give you something back for labor installation cost.

If you sourced it and he just installed it and the damage was not due to his installation, then that would be something you should take up with the builder of the engine. It may be hard to proove though. There's always small claims court but it may not be worth the money invested.

I feel your pain bro.

 

I totally agree with you man but the I look at it like this. If the guy dont come out and tell you what it will take to make it right on his part to you. He is only a piece of crap and I will tell everone around how he does business. May not help put a dollar in your pocket but sure will not help him to sell are do any more work also... Man if me I would call him back and just tell him sorry crap is just not getting it with only 20 miles on the motor that you except help on this and what was he going to do on it... Robert

 

Hate to hear these kind of stories. I could build my own motors and do the NA ones. I have a professional builder do the bigger HP ones cause they do it everyday and can get it right and know all the good tricks which some they won't tell you.

It'll likely cost you several grand to hire a lawyer and you won't get that back. Best bet is magistrates court with an attorney there for you if you go that route.. Or just fix your motor and the heck with all the other hassles.

It'll eventually work out for you. Good luck.

 

WOW, what a chain of events. Figuring you're going to need a new tune also, you will be lucky with a 3k bill.
Sounds like you're buddy should at least pay half.

 

First off - your situation sucks and many of us have been there. Just be glad that your forged LS2 wasn't a total loss.

Live and learn, I have. There is a -very- short list of people I will allow anywhere near my car. Sometimes it means waiting to get an appointment - most shops that you would want working on your car have a back log this time of year.

 

and that is him getting off lucky at paying only half !!! but I am not going to hold my breath waiting for even that to happen!

 

Sounds like other than the labor to dignose the problem, the main issue ($$) is the heads. Could you just go ahead and file it in small claims court (after letting him know you will) for him to replace the heads and labor involved?
It's just a few bucks to file a claim, and it sounds like a slam dunk with the shop confirming the problem that caused it

 

I feel your pain man. Personally I have spent almost 10k fixing a bad tune from a local guy who has built twin turbo camaros, gto's, and cts-v's. Got about 60 miles to half a tank after he said it was safe to drive. Took it to race proven to fix the tune and the engine blew on the dyno. Fuel puddled and sent pieces of the piston into the cylinder wall. They said that the previous tune was just horrible. So they built me a forged shortblock with all the goods. Saving to take it back there for another tune. I have had a boosted vette for a year and have gotten into boost once. All because someone told me he knew what he was doing and I believed him. I hope things work out for you.

 

I can understand your position, but have to ask, as it is unclear in your post. Did you pay this guy any money for the work (even though bad) and for the trailering it seems he provided? Just curious.