Damn... Just got word that the trucking company did NOT deliver that engine today to LME, and is scheduled for tomorrow instead. I do hope Santa Clause isn't using that same trucking company to help deliver presents this year or there are going to be a bunch of disappointed kids this year... I think their name is Three Legged Tortoise Express, or something of that nature... 12 days from panhandle of Florida to Texas? Sheesh....

I've gotten a couple of emails from a Bill Mitchell Jr. at World Products so they are now on board with this issue. I sent him the photos enclosed in this thread of that misalignment, but I'm guessing until Bryan actually gets that engine into the shop and takes measurements, everyone is just guessing about what is wrong. I've already stated to Bill Mitchell Jr. and Bryan Neelen that modifying either the intake manifold and/or the heads will be a deal breaker. Bill seemed to infer that it may just be a case of stacked tolerances working against this alignment, but if that was supposed to make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, it failed miserably. He was thinking it is out of tolerance something like 0.050", but to me it looks at least three times that amount from the photos.

You know, had I had a crystal ball back when I got this hairbrained scheme and could have seen the situation today in that ball, there is just no way in hell I would have proceeded. I spent an awful lot of money just to get a colossal headache out of this.

 

No..... I would **** away far too much money now. It's not just the engine, I'm getting just about EVERYTHING in the drivetrain replaced. The engine itself is just a bit over half of what I've spent on this build.

 

Chris Harwood (XtremeMotorsports) notified me today that the engine had finally shown up at LME's facility. I emailed Bryan Neelen (LME) just a bit ago and he said he has his lead machinist checking measurements and documenting everything. He plans to contact World Products in the morning with the findings and confer with Bill Mitchell (World Products) on a resolution to this issue. He will then contact me afterwards.

So we'll see.....

 

Good luck with it Rich

Nick

 

Finally making some progress. Apparently the measurements taken by LME proved conclusively that the heads were machined incorrectly at World Products. So those defective heads are being shipping back to World Products to be replaced by new ones.

Now all I have to be concerned about (at this moment) is the fact that shipping anything this time of year is not the best time to be doing that sort of thing.

All things considered (holidays in particular), I'm not expecting to see that engine back at XtremeMotorsports until well after the first of the year.

At least World Products manned up to the problem and didn't try to slough it off as a "well within acceptable tolerances" dodge. Chris and I discussed our alternatives today before I got this news, figuring on what our next step would be in the worst case. But fortunately we won't have to go there, it appears.

 

That appears to be good news. Hopefully you'll have everything back together shorly after the new year.

 

Thats the best news I think you could expect at this point. Good to hear that World Products is going to take care of this with new heads. Hopefully you will be up and running soon and when you are I'm looking forward to seeing some results.

Darion

 

That's good news. It sucks that you had to go through all this. I have been hearing about lots of issues recently with Bill Mitchell and World Products parts.

 

Good luck on the drivetrain upgrade.

What part of tally are you in? I live out in Miccosukee.

 

I'm actually in Crawfordville. I just list Tallahassee, as I got tired of people saying "Where is that?" whenever I told them where I actually live.

I'll be honest, I won't feel out of the woods until everything is bolted up and it starts up for the first time. I guess with this one machining error, I'll be waiting for the other shoe to drop for a while yet. There is still a lot of stuff that needs to be hung on that engine, any one of which could be another issue if there is another machining error to contend with. I certainly hope that isn't the case, but who would have expected this one? Not for what I paid for that sucker....

 

Glad to see some progress here. Also glad to see World step up and correct the error that was deemed to be theres. I've read so many threads when sponsor make an innocent mistake and throw the customer under the bus. World looks to be upping there reputation with the way they have handled your situation.

+1 to World Products !

 

Anything new?

 

Glad they're figuring out the problem for you. I was looking at the intake problem thinking they would have had to mill off .400" or something stupid for it to be off that far and then the intake wouldn't sit between the heads right. Also, if LME had re-drilled anything for you, I would be concerned about World standing behind something that got re-worked by another company as well as the intake ports actually lining up.
Subscribed so I can see how your build turns out. Happy Holidays!

 

OK, I'm beginning to lose my cool now. I'll post some emails here between Billy Mitchell Jr. of World Products and myself today so either you all can see what I am getting pissed about, or else just tell me I'm being unreasonable....

 

You certainly have a right to be upset, if the parties involved did not clearly explain that what they are building is a completely custom top end, and any future modifications you plan to do in the future will become another custom event.

I find it hard to believe that they could not perform a tolerance analysis, to determine the outcome of the proposed machining.

Take your $16K back and walk....just my opinion.........

 

To me that is straight BS. They should be making this right.

Also, why are you dealing with the other vendors, you paid your engine builder to build something that he suggested, he should get this all squared away with his vendors.

 

Actually it was my stipulation that I wanted a Warhawk block. The heads and everything else were optional depending on what Chris felt would be best. He couldn't possibly have known this would happen with World Products.

In a way I agree with you, but I'm kind of a hands on kind of guy who doesn't like to delegate important decisions. I like to hear the scoop directly from the horse's mouth. I don't think Chris minds much, as he is swamped with stuff and probably appreciates me taking point on this. Besides, the final decision rests with me anyway, and I would prefer having all the cards displayed on the table in order to do so.

I did send an email to my guy suggesting that we start working on alternative. Right now it appears to me that World Products is accusing LME of shaving too much off of those heads, causing this intake mounting problem. That should be easy enough to determine by comparing measurements of those heads with brand new World Product heads off of the shelf. The simple fact that it is unlikely that those heads would have been excessively milled to get a low compression of 9.5:1 should be pretty obvious even to my untrained brain.

I'm betting that Mr. Mitchell will simply ignore my email and send those heads out on Tuesday and then wash his hands of this. Leaving LME holding the hot potato. Depends on how much slack concerning my stipulations that LME is willing to take up. They could certainly do both, which makes them the ones saving the day on this and World Products left with a black eye. However, if both are not met, meaning NO ONE is willing to meet them, then yes, I want a refund. Or they can build me a suitable replacement engine using an RHS block and heads. If there are any excessive delays with option 2, then a refund will be necessary and the LS6 will go back into the car until I can figure out what to do. That will suck, but I don't see any other reasonable option to take.

You know, this REALLY does suck. This was supposed to be an exciting thing to do. A once in a lifetime build for my car that I would hope to remember fondly. Now it's just a damned nightmare. I know some people have said that I will look back on this and laugh, but quite honestly, I don't see it that way. It's getting to the point that every time I will see the name "Warhawk" it will have some very negative feelings welling up..

 

I agree with lucky131969. A reputable engine builder should be able to run the calcs and figure this out ahead of time. Someone in your chain of vendors should have done this.

I wonder if another high-end engine builder would be able to shed some light on this?

 

I don't come to toss salt in the wound, but several had tried to warn you against this block.

That being said, you're in everyone's nightmare: I truly hope this has a happy ending from you: as all have said, it appears someone is checking out and is trying to blame lots of other people for the problems. Hopefully it'll be a happy new year shortly into it for you and you'll be motoring along in your twin turbo 427 vette.

And yes, all the cubic inches are totally worth it.

 

Actually, from what I can recall, most people were sandbagging the STS turbos rather then the block. So far, no problems have been found with the block, but the heads are apparently a different matter.

Yeah, this hindsight thing is a real beetch.... I really can't say that I could recommend anyone to do this sort of thing. I certainly never will again.