G.Mac Posted June 16, 2011 Posted June 16, 2011 Well I have had a lucky escape (appart from him stealing $3000 from me for the Cosworth dry sump kit he never ordered. Anyway I picked up a set of dual AVCS heads and asked Ron if he could spec the cams up for them and after assurances that it would work with my current wiring harness (only having to run an extra couple of wires for the 2nd avcs which I was prepared to do) I instructed him to go ahead. Anyways long story short it does not fit and Subaru want £2000 + tax for a harness that will fit so decide to haul the engine back out and stick a set of 2L high lift cams in and try sell my kellford cams. Since I got the engine back it has always been VERY tight to turn over. Ron / Mike put this down to a high spot on one of the bearings and told me it would be fine and it would free itself up. Well today I went through to pay the guy now looking after my engine for my new cams when he called me into his engine building room. It turns out all the work that Ron / Mike did on my crank was so substandard that the crank is scrap. All the bearing surfaces have been ground to different degrees, there is a 1.5 thou difference between the first 3 main bearings. and there is 8 thou of movement on the center bearing where he tried to convert the rear thrust crank to center thrust by welding up the new crank then grinding it down, welding was poor (can see a fair bit of slag inclusion) and grinding was poor and main bearing surface was scored heavily enough to catch your nail in. Oh and the block came with under skirt oil squirters, He was instructed to leave these in but he decided in his wisdom to remove and blank these off too!!! AND he couldnt even put the head studs in straight, they all go in at different angles! I am so glad the engine is in the hands of Steve Whitson and that I never tried to start it!!! I would love to meet this coward face to face. Wonder if he has moved away from his new place just outside LA yet? Graeme And yes Ron or Mike I stand by what I said before you ARE a lier and a thief!
kennyuk300 Posted June 16, 2011 Posted June 16, 2011 Well I have had a lucky escape (appart from him stealing $3000 from me for the Cosworth dry sump kit he never ordered. Anyway I picked up a set of dual AVCS heads and asked Ron if he could spec the cams up for them and after assurances that it would work with my current wiring harness (only having to run an extra couple of wires for the 2nd avcs which I was prepared to do) I instructed him to go ahead. Anyways long story short it does not fit and Subaru want £2000 + tax for a harness that will fit so decide to haul the engine back out and stick a set of 2L high lift cams in and try sell my kellford cams. Since I got the engine back it has always been VERY tight to turn over. Ron / Mike put this down to a high spot on one of the bearings and told me it would be fine and it would free itself up. Well today I went through to pay the guy now looking after my engine for my new cams when he called me into his engine building room. It turns out all the work that Ron / Mike did on my crank was so substandard that the crank is scrap. All the bearing surfaces have been ground to different degrees, there is a 1.5 thou difference between the first 3 main bearings. and there is 8 thou of movement on the center bearing where he tried to convert the rear thrust crank to center thrust by welding up the new crank then grinding it down, welding was poor (can see a fair bit of slag inclusion) and grinding was poor and main bearing surface was scored heavily enough to catch your nail in. Oh and the block came with under skirt oil squirters, He was instructed to leave these in but he decided in his wisdom to remove and blank these off too!!! AND he couldnt even put the head studs in straight, they all go in at different angles! I am so glad the engine is in the hands of Steve Whitson and that I never tried to start it!!! I would love to meet this coward face to face. Wonder if he has moved away from his new place just outside LA yet? Graeme And yes Ron or Mike I stand by what I said before you ARE a lier and a thief! Jees Graeme ,you have had to put up with a lot Engine is in safe hands now ...Now i hope it all goes swimmingly for you P.S I hope you do bump into him..... Kenny
ciaranrb5 Posted June 16, 2011 Posted June 16, 2011 It amazes me how did Ron/Mike have such a good reputation if his work is so poor? Your in good hands with Steve or well I hope so anyway
fai17 Posted June 17, 2011 Posted June 17, 2011 I adviced you to go to sw from the start mate and not to buy engine from the states. Good luck with the feature build.
stuarted Posted June 19, 2011 Posted June 19, 2011 sorry to hear of the engine problems Graeme and the continued bad experience you have suffered. The engine is in good hands with Steve now so I hope it's good news from here on in. Any idea of a completion date for it?
colin_ross Posted June 19, 2011 Posted June 19, 2011 Shocking. I would say I hope your luck changes soon mate but let be honest - this has nothing to do with luck and everything to do with a conning barsteward. It's taken longer than expected, cost more than you wanted and been more trouble than you'd bargained for but it should all be worth it when it all comes together.
RA Dunk Posted June 19, 2011 Posted June 19, 2011 Welcome to the SW Motorsport fan club Graeme. Will maybe bump into you at Steves sometime as Steve's building a "new un " for me as well.
G.Mac Posted June 19, 2011 Author Posted June 19, 2011 Should have the engine back in about 4.5 weeks all going to plan, certanly wasnt expecting that when I popped into Steves on Thursday!!
G.Mac Posted June 20, 2011 Author Posted June 20, 2011 John, I am going to be using the Haltech Platinum Sport 2000 Graeme
john_stevenson2 Posted June 21, 2011 Posted June 21, 2011 John, I am going to be using the Haltech Platinum Sport 2000 Graeme I'm confused, you are fitting an aftermarket ecu which will need it's own harness made or a loom adapter at the very least, so wiring for the exhaust AVCS is minimal on top of what you are doing already. Can't see why you are even talking to Subaru. ---john---
john_stevenson2 Posted June 21, 2011 Posted June 21, 2011 Actually just had a read up on the Spec of the ECU, I don't think it supports QUAD AVCS anyway ? ---john---
DROP LINK Posted June 21, 2011 Posted June 21, 2011 Actually just had a read up on the Spec of the ECU, I don't think it supports QUAD AVCS anyway ? ---john--- no worries there John, will run the quad AVCS system. just havent seen any gains over the dual AVCS on spool up or mid range grunt. Graeme..
john_stevenson2 Posted June 21, 2011 Posted June 21, 2011 no worries there John, will run the quad AVCS system. Cool, seems a capable ECU Graeme. Googled it and the only stuff I could find was Inlet only AVCS and a question on their Forum asking when Quad AVCS would be available. Still don't see what the issue is that Graeme (the other one ) is on about with regards wiring it. Should be a Doddle ? ---john---
DROP LINK Posted June 21, 2011 Posted June 21, 2011 Cool, seems a capable ECU Graeme. Googled it and the only stuff I could find was Inlet only AVCS and a question on their Forum asking when Quad AVCS would be available. Still don't see what the issue is that Graeme (the other one ) is on about with regards wiring it. Should be a Doddle ? ---john--- There is a patch loom and Sport 2000 for the Hatch Quad AVCS so running it is simples.. Graeme was asked to try and source a second hand engine loom or locate the plugs to fit the sensors on the heads he had, him being a lazy coont decided it wis easier to pick the phone up to subaru and purchase a new one. hence the heart attack when quoted. Quad heads are staying on the engine, just changing them to dual AVCS for the run in period and initial set up so he can put some miles on it once the shambles that lies within is sorted out. the option to run Quad AVCS is still there for him if he wants, doubt it will make much of a difrence power wise but gives you options to play with overlap etc low down if it's required. so if you have any sensor plugs for the new heads I am sure Graeme will be happy to purchase a set or even a wee pre made loom just for the sensors cheers, Graeme
john_stevenson2 Posted June 21, 2011 Posted June 21, 2011 Those plugs are proving difficult to source but I'm still on the case, they are the same as Evo Cam sensors, that's about all I've managed to find out about them. Would be more than happy to knock something together for him when needed. Agree about the Power thing, in fact even Dual AVCS will make no difference to the headling figure, but spooly'ness might be enhanced using Quad over Dual if using some Lairy cams. ---john---
johnnyr6 Posted June 21, 2011 Posted June 21, 2011 Mmmm... enhanced spooly'ness (just had a homer meets donut moment) Johnny
fai17 Posted June 22, 2011 Posted June 22, 2011 You are a good man John. If you need the EVO cam sensor plugs I can help.
thefastone Posted July 1, 2011 Posted July 1, 2011 I don't think that you have had a lucky escape Graeme, but I do think that it could have been a lot worse, as before, the situation is a lot of bollocks, and I'm sorry to hear that you have been struck yet again from the same dickhead... Still, at least it's on the mend and in good hands finally!
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