Forgive me if this is long winded, but the whole story needs to be made clear. The main reason for posting this is to see what other opinions are on this situation and how they would have handled it? Not to mention bring awareness to others about certain builders. So I purchased a completely new built short block from a member on this sight whom I will not name do to him being in my opinion innocently caught in the middle. The engine was built by a well-known builder that later sold the engine to this seller, that never managed to finish his project and sold it to me advertised on this site. Now this engine sat for roughly a year or two in the original crate of first shipment. This was a brand new build with zero miles on it and as I said previously had never been removed from the crate it was originally shipped in. Now let me be clear the way the engine was advertised made for a really great deal but the amount I spent was still a decent chunk of cash. The short block was full built with billet mains, Carrillo’s, forged pistons, keyed everything, main studs, dampener, flex plate the whole deal. I had the engine shipped directly to my builder who most of you know whom I’m talking about to be altered slightly for my application. Now upon arrival everything looked great on the outside, little did I know my build budget was about to grow significantly. When first disassembled the crank was immediately found to have two or more significant signs of unraveling in the journal surfaces and the crank was only partially keyed. After many back and forth discussions it was decided the only safe route for a high rpm engine was to install a new crank and fully key it. Now this was not the only problem, we also found gobs of thread locker in all the holes, oil pump was smoked (possibly due to sitting), water pump had no gear on it, and the upper oil pan was cracked and JB welded back together.
Now I brought this up obviously to the seller and after many discussions found that he had no intention on pulling a fast one on me, he really had no idea about the issues being he had never removed it from the original crate. To make a long story short I was not greedy and only asked to be reimbursed half the machine and parts costs for the crank, roughly 700 bucks which is not bad in my opinion. I was directed back to the builder and was told the builder would work it out. At first discussions seemed promising then I seemed to get the run around. The builder asked that I send him the crank so he could assess, because in his opinion it was usable. Now I don't know about him but I’m willing to bet any person on this forum would be pissed if they had a performance engine built with a marred crank. So getting back to the story I paid to have the crank shipped to the builder only to surprise surprise have him tell me he would have ran it. He continued to disagree with me and tell me how upset he was that someone else disassembled his engine. Now I don't know if it was really anger about someone else disassembling his engine or embarrassment about the issues it had, but I suspect option two.
So in an effort to empathize with the builder I once again tried not to be greedy and instead of asking for cash back I suggested parts at cost which would ease my pain and I told him I would run his company name on my truck as a sponsor so that both parties had something to gain from the dilemma being that he had a couple valid points however the engine was not sold as advertised.
Finally we had reached an agreement, or so I thought? After some phone tag for a week or two I reached him and he told me to call his sales guy and he would handle everything. I immediately called him and he said no problem call you back in ten minutes. Now fast forward that ten minutes was three weeks ago. I have been completely avoided and ignored since. I picked up my engine from my builder and this ordeal ended up costing me a little more than if I had started from scratch, not to mention the crank I shipped and now is in his possession that I technically own. So what is everyone's thoughts?? Am I way off base? I'm willing to bet if that engine was advertised with the imperfections found inside no one on this forum would have touched it with their buddy’s money!!!!!! This is most of the story as short as I can make it this evolution has went on for the last three months. IN MY OPINION 700 DOLLARS IS PENNIES AT THE END OF THE DAY TO KEEP CUSTOMERS HAPPY, COMING BACK, AND PUSHING YOUR PRODUCT!!
Now I brought this up obviously to the seller and after many discussions found that he had no intention on pulling a fast one on me, he really had no idea about the issues being he had never removed it from the original crate. To make a long story short I was not greedy and only asked to be reimbursed half the machine and parts costs for the crank, roughly 700 bucks which is not bad in my opinion. I was directed back to the builder and was told the builder would work it out. At first discussions seemed promising then I seemed to get the run around. The builder asked that I send him the crank so he could assess, because in his opinion it was usable. Now I don't know about him but I’m willing to bet any person on this forum would be pissed if they had a performance engine built with a marred crank. So getting back to the story I paid to have the crank shipped to the builder only to surprise surprise have him tell me he would have ran it. He continued to disagree with me and tell me how upset he was that someone else disassembled his engine. Now I don't know if it was really anger about someone else disassembling his engine or embarrassment about the issues it had, but I suspect option two.
So in an effort to empathize with the builder I once again tried not to be greedy and instead of asking for cash back I suggested parts at cost which would ease my pain and I told him I would run his company name on my truck as a sponsor so that both parties had something to gain from the dilemma being that he had a couple valid points however the engine was not sold as advertised.
Finally we had reached an agreement, or so I thought? After some phone tag for a week or two I reached him and he told me to call his sales guy and he would handle everything. I immediately called him and he said no problem call you back in ten minutes. Now fast forward that ten minutes was three weeks ago. I have been completely avoided and ignored since. I picked up my engine from my builder and this ordeal ended up costing me a little more than if I had started from scratch, not to mention the crank I shipped and now is in his possession that I technically own. So what is everyone's thoughts?? Am I way off base? I'm willing to bet if that engine was advertised with the imperfections found inside no one on this forum would have touched it with their buddy’s money!!!!!! This is most of the story as short as I can make it this evolution has went on for the last three months. IN MY OPINION 700 DOLLARS IS PENNIES AT THE END OF THE DAY TO KEEP CUSTOMERS HAPPY, COMING BACK, AND PUSHING YOUR PRODUCT!!
