Smg twincharged rebuild project
11-06-2011, 04:14 PM
#126
only trouble i ever had was wiating a month for an 07 pcm and then finally giving up and luckily finding an awesome local tuner, shameless plug for gremiln85 by the way. every part they sent me was factory perfect and delivered in excellent safe packaging. some people have called them pricey but if feel they are charging exactly what the parts are worth. im not saying i wouldnt bitch about them being cheaper, just i have never hesitated to pay them what they charged and thats a good feeling. Fred at smg seemed to be awesome. im planning on going to him for the next part of the project but if smg has fallen apart id like to know first. otherwise its drive to back yard turbo in pa, a 6 hour drive to be sure. but honestly, my gut tells me with job just went to ****. fred has to pay his bills, which is his problem i understand that but its still a truth, if the first machine shop damaged the block and he had to get it redone he may be in the hole on the job by thousands of dollars. you have to remember, hes a one man shop, he doesnt have some huge pile of cash to throw at things going wrong, he may be in a situation where he could lose his business if he doesnt try and recover the costs. which is why i said what i said in the first place. call the cops. report the car stolen, start the legal unpleasantness, get this mess over with and hopefully you both walk away intact. hopefully your car runs and drives, hopefully he doesnt lose everything. obviously if your in mass someone you can ask on the forums for help. if the best this shakes out is the car ends up in your driveway and you need a hand putting in a turbo kit from zzp, id be glad to help. i went to fred because experience has taught me if your going to do something for the first time, dont do it on a car you need to be driving the next day lol.
11-06-2011, 05:32 PM
#127
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Thanks for all the advice... much appreciated! I have already contacted the Hopedale Police Department to file a report, the BBB and a lawyer. Now this is where I royally screwed my self which is a hard lesson learned... A year ago when I got the quote from him was completely verbal. I told him I wanted a full quote on what he needs to rebuild my car fully running the way it was again including everything. I gave him a few months to come up with that quote. When I got closer to being ready to get my car started (9 months ago) I told him I have saved up a bunch of money and received that quote. He originally said to only give him half at first but I told him I wanted to pay him in full that day so I didn’t have to worry about owing him anything. He accepted and I wrote him the check in full that day.
Now months and months were going by which I was getting aggravated but delt with it since this was a custom job. Now about the machine shop... they never messed up on my block. That was just an excuse Fred gave me to give him self more time. I found this out when I contacted Mike from ABT Machine and found out the lie about Fred telling me he had a heart attack when he never did. I also found out my block wasn’t at the machine shop as long as Fred originally told me. At that point I was about to see a lawyer to get money back and pick my car up. I was warned by several others that Fred Jr. is a pathological liar and I should have listened. I actually almost knew he was lying to my face when he gave me excuse after excuse after excuse. When Fred found out I talked to Mike at the machine shop he tried calling me back instantly. I was too pissed to talk so he ended up texting me which I still have. His message was and I quote... ” Hey man....I know u talked to Mike. I don’t know why I didn’t just tell u the truth....I know I’m an ass hole. I understand if u don’t want me to finish your car or don’t want me to work on it anymore....I hope that doesn’t happen but I understand. I have no excuses. I’m sorry"
I at that time was angry and couldn’t trust him obviously since everything he was telling me was lies as well as lies to other customers. I originally wanted my money and block back and he refused to give my my money back so it almost went to court. Me not having the money to pay for a lawyer at that time and I just wanted my car back I gave him the chance of a life time to finish my car and do it right. He eventually agreed. I originally told him I wanted some money back which he was going to consider but I told him he can keep all the money if he puts his all into my car to get the job done right as I knew someone working on my car for free wouldn’t be giving it there all. Now things seemed to go fine up until I get this giant bill for almost 3 thousand bucks in the mail.
Now like I previously stated his fixed price quote was originally verbally quoted which was stupid in my part for not getting it in writing. When I received the bill I called him and questioned him originally thinking it was just an invoice of what had already been done that I got quoted for since I never received any receipts on yet. I was just confused why it said I had an outstanding balance of nearly 3k. He eventually broke it to me that the work being done exceeded the originally fixed price quote he gave me. Not even telling me once that it had been exceeded! So without ever telling me that my fixed quote agreed price I paid in full had been exceeded and unfixed I get this bill over 8 months later when the car is almost complete for an outrageous amount.
So now since I screwed myself by getting a verbal agreement from a pathological liar I have no way of proving myself so in court he will most likely lie his way out to win the case. This is where I get more stupid. Me being desperate to get my car back I talk to him and try making another agreement to get my car finished as I just want it back and a couple other people who have been in similar situations as me had lost thousands of dollars going to court and ended up losing the case. So I told him I can only pay him in monthly increments with 500 down which I already sent him to pay off this new additional bill that came without warning. He agreed to take the monthly payments and said he would have my car complete as originally planned by mid this coming week. There is one other person I was told to call that a fellow member told me to and I will do that only if he doesn’t get my car working to perfect condition by next week with the goals as originally intended. I have also contacted a couple other companies to look over my car to make sure everything was done correctly. So yea I gave in once again just because I want my car back.
Now months and months were going by which I was getting aggravated but delt with it since this was a custom job. Now about the machine shop... they never messed up on my block. That was just an excuse Fred gave me to give him self more time. I found this out when I contacted Mike from ABT Machine and found out the lie about Fred telling me he had a heart attack when he never did. I also found out my block wasn’t at the machine shop as long as Fred originally told me. At that point I was about to see a lawyer to get money back and pick my car up. I was warned by several others that Fred Jr. is a pathological liar and I should have listened. I actually almost knew he was lying to my face when he gave me excuse after excuse after excuse. When Fred found out I talked to Mike at the machine shop he tried calling me back instantly. I was too pissed to talk so he ended up texting me which I still have. His message was and I quote... ” Hey man....I know u talked to Mike. I don’t know why I didn’t just tell u the truth....I know I’m an ass hole. I understand if u don’t want me to finish your car or don’t want me to work on it anymore....I hope that doesn’t happen but I understand. I have no excuses. I’m sorry"
I at that time was angry and couldn’t trust him obviously since everything he was telling me was lies as well as lies to other customers. I originally wanted my money and block back and he refused to give my my money back so it almost went to court. Me not having the money to pay for a lawyer at that time and I just wanted my car back I gave him the chance of a life time to finish my car and do it right. He eventually agreed. I originally told him I wanted some money back which he was going to consider but I told him he can keep all the money if he puts his all into my car to get the job done right as I knew someone working on my car for free wouldn’t be giving it there all. Now things seemed to go fine up until I get this giant bill for almost 3 thousand bucks in the mail.
Now like I previously stated his fixed price quote was originally verbally quoted which was stupid in my part for not getting it in writing. When I received the bill I called him and questioned him originally thinking it was just an invoice of what had already been done that I got quoted for since I never received any receipts on yet. I was just confused why it said I had an outstanding balance of nearly 3k. He eventually broke it to me that the work being done exceeded the originally fixed price quote he gave me. Not even telling me once that it had been exceeded! So without ever telling me that my fixed quote agreed price I paid in full had been exceeded and unfixed I get this bill over 8 months later when the car is almost complete for an outrageous amount.
So now since I screwed myself by getting a verbal agreement from a pathological liar I have no way of proving myself so in court he will most likely lie his way out to win the case. This is where I get more stupid. Me being desperate to get my car back I talk to him and try making another agreement to get my car finished as I just want it back and a couple other people who have been in similar situations as me had lost thousands of dollars going to court and ended up losing the case. So I told him I can only pay him in monthly increments with 500 down which I already sent him to pay off this new additional bill that came without warning. He agreed to take the monthly payments and said he would have my car complete as originally planned by mid this coming week. There is one other person I was told to call that a fellow member told me to and I will do that only if he doesn’t get my car working to perfect condition by next week with the goals as originally intended. I have also contacted a couple other companies to look over my car to make sure everything was done correctly. So yea I gave in once again just because I want my car back.
Last edited by KangolRiot; 11-06-2011 at 06:56 PM.
11-07-2011, 03:31 PM
#129
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I know this sux and this is how I approach almost every shop I go to. In the future tho if possible try to hover around the shop and the people working on your car as much as possible. It increases the chances they wont screw up/around.
11-08-2011, 02:21 PM
#131
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Moving forward the exhaust work is complete, the turbo is on and has driven several miles with it so far. Should be finished by the end of the week
11-08-2011, 02:34 PM
#133
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11-08-2011, 05:03 PM
#137
Normally it's about $300 for a car that's one state over (we're in MI). $1100 for someone in CA. Each way.
We like cars for a week so we can dyno them, drive them, dyno them, drive them again and make sure it's perfect because a lot of people drive home.
11-08-2011, 05:11 PM
#138
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WE do. You can email Pat@zzperformance.com for a quote.
Normally it's about $300 for a car that's one state over (we're in MI). $1100 for someone in CA. Each way.
We like cars for a week so we can dyno them, drive them, dyno them, drive them again and make sure it's perfect because a lot of people drive home.
Normally it's about $300 for a car that's one state over (we're in MI). $1100 for someone in CA. Each way.
We like cars for a week so we can dyno them, drive them, dyno them, drive them again and make sure it's perfect because a lot of people drive home.
11-09-2011, 04:50 PM
#139
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Minor update on car status. Car saw the dyno for the first time in a while. With just a little tuning and no methanol injection hooked up at the time as well as the bypass mod on the supercharger not being applied with 25 lbs of boost made 375whp. Oil and filter is being changed again today and tomorrow more tuning will be done. So my last set-up I had about 360whp at the same boost level with methanol and the supercharger bypass mod and I gained 15whp from the build without introducing either of the 2 yet.
11-10-2011, 10:03 AM
#144
Minor update on car status. Car saw the dyno for the first time in a while. With just a little tuning and no methanol injection hooked up at the time as well as the bypass mod on the supercharger not being applied with 25 lbs of boost made 375whp. Oil and filter is being changed again today and tomorrow more tuning will be done. So my last set-up I had about 360whp at the same boost level with methanol and the supercharger bypass mod and I gained 15whp from the build without introducing either of the 2 yet.
Same shop, smaller turbo w/o our kit. 2 less psi of boost. Stock motor/heads vs. your built motor and heads. He made 404.
Few comments.
I believe I went over some of this in email but probably good info for others to know.
Clearly the setup isn't very effective considering the power/mods/boost. Some of this is because a remote turbo is a bad idea. Another key issue is that you cannot run a non-intercooled turbo setup safely in this build. It's why you popped your motor in the first place. The issue hasn't been corrected, it looks like?? Building a motor isn't the answer, your last one didn't blow because it was weak, it blew because it was setup wrong. That's part of the low HP issue as well.
2nd, the boost bypass may not be setup properly. One of the reasons we dropped the twin charge is due to the complexity of the boost controls. If you aren't limiting boost to the bypass, the kit is wrong and will self destruct. You should ask your shop if you don't understand yourself what I mean.
3rd, you had mentioned 2.3 liters. It's impossible to achieve that displacement with a stock 2.0 crank. You can't even get close. I would ask further about that.
Last edited by Zooomer; 11-10-2011 at 02:36 PM.
11-10-2011, 02:47 PM
#148
The LE5 block (largest bore) with LSJ crank is only 2.1 liters. You can't get to 2.3 with an overbore. not to mention they are diamond pistons so I'm guessing the entire build is fairly standard.
11-10-2011, 03:08 PM
#149
Few comments.
I believe I went over some of this in email but probably good info for others to know.
Clearly the setup isn't very effective considering the power/mods/boost. Some of this is because a remote turbo is a bad idea. Another key issue is that you cannot run a non-intercooled turbo setup safely in this build. It's why you popped your motor in the first place. The issue hasn't been corrected, it looks like?? Building a motor isn't the answer, your last one didn't blow because it was weak, it blew because it was setup wrong. That's part of the low HP issue as well.
2nd, the boost bypass may not be setup properly. One of the reasons we dropped the twin charge is due to the complexity of the boost controls. If you aren't limiting boost to the bypass, the kit is wrong and will self destruct. You should ask your shop if you don't understand yourself what I mean.
3rd, you had mentioned 2.3 liters. It's impossible to achieve that displacement with a stock 2.0 crank. You can't even get close. I would ask further about that.
I believe I went over some of this in email but probably good info for others to know.
Clearly the setup isn't very effective considering the power/mods/boost. Some of this is because a remote turbo is a bad idea. Another key issue is that you cannot run a non-intercooled turbo setup safely in this build. It's why you popped your motor in the first place. The issue hasn't been corrected, it looks like?? Building a motor isn't the answer, your last one didn't blow because it was weak, it blew because it was setup wrong. That's part of the low HP issue as well.
2nd, the boost bypass may not be setup properly. One of the reasons we dropped the twin charge is due to the complexity of the boost controls. If you aren't limiting boost to the bypass, the kit is wrong and will self destruct. You should ask your shop if you don't understand yourself what I mean.
3rd, you had mentioned 2.3 liters. It's impossible to achieve that displacement with a stock 2.0 crank. You can't even get close. I would ask further about that.
thanks for the HONEST comments