Manowar, I respect that you want to check into the situation and I am happy to help. I am a new club member. In 2001 I designed and built my own car, Dragon. I use Corvette suspension so I used Chevy engines. I recently have been building an aluminum chassis Cobra with a fiberglass/hybrid body and with C-5 Corvette suspension. I will offer this as a kit along side my Dragon so I decided to check out the Club, which I then joined. I think that Cobras are awesome cars and I am happy to be able to net work with other like minded people.
I take giving negative information about a company very seriously and would not do it if I didn't know that I was wronged and that I could prove it. The engine I purchased was the the 427 street aluminum chevy. I paid $8995 for it, $9171 total with shipping. The date was 7/20/01. The invoice # was 0031213-IN, order #0020427. I have the dyno sheet dated 6/29/01. Work order #1703, pull 2662. It showed 538hp, 527.9torque.
Obviously this situation ocurred some time ago and hopefully the engines have been sorted out and customer service improved. I was and still am disappointed that Bill, who I spoke to personally would not stand behind his product.
Here is what happened in detail.
- I was building my dream car. I read all of the car magazines and saw write ups and ads for your new 427 aluminum head chevy engine. The ads touted that the engines were far superior in workmanship and parts to regular crate engines and that they were covered by a warranty. I belive it was for 24 months or 24,000 miles.
- It was my intention to show my car and take orders for kits so I decided to order a "bragging rights" motor from you.
- I received the engine the summer of 2001 Right away there was a problem. It had a single plane tall manifold on it as oppossed to the the dual plane that the ads and your direct info showed. The result is that it would not fit under the hood of my car. I called you and was told that the engine in the ad was an early piece and that all engines now came with the single plane. (super victor?) I was told that I could not switch the manifold with out making a cam change. And that your company would not exchange the engine for one with the advertised parts.
- I was late for Run n Gun where I wanted to debute the car so at the last minute I cut a hole in the hood and had the air cleaner sticking through.
- This car was shown on the cover of Kit Car with a full article about it that included touting your engine.
- At that event the engine smoked badly. And the hardcore distributor blew apart.
- I sent the distributor back to you along with a letter and video expressing my concerns over the smoking.
- I received a new distributorfree of charge. Invoice #0031911-IN
- I talked to I believe, Mike and was told that the smoking was because the rings were not broken it. I was told that I needed to run it for a few thousand miles.
- I was not completely happpy with the firs Dragon design so I pulle the drivetrain out and over the winter redesigned and built it. The engine had 128 miles on it. I was on the second set of plugs.
- In the late summer of 2002 I got the new car on the road. I took it to Run and Gun again. The car was again selected to be a full feature car in Kit Car. It was also selected to represent the Kit Car industry at SEMA and was selected as one of the 7 cars nationally to be on displayed and honored at the Hot Rod Hall of Fame dinner which is held during SEMA.
- I put about 3000 miles on the car during 2002 and changed plugs every 100 miles. I was in regular contact with you about the situation. And was still being told it was rings.
- In the spring of 2003 I asked that the engine be replaced under warranty. The 24 months was running out. I was told that I probably had defective valve seals. That on your early engines umbrella seals had been used. They were larger in diameter than the inside diameter of the inner valve springs. I pulled the valve covers and discovered all of the seals pulled off of their seats. Your tech guy had told me that the seals going up and down on the stems acted as pumps and forced
oil past the valves.
- I replaced the seals, at my expense. The owner of the local speed shop which I purchased them from was shocked that 8 cent seals had been used on a $9000 engine.
- The seals help but did not eliminate the problem. I expressed my concern about this to you. The car was going up for the winter and I was afraid of not being covered by warranty if the smoking continued.
- In the spring of 2004 I found that the smoking had not cleared up. I was told by you to do a leak down test. I did the test (I do not remember the numbers) and relayed them back to you. I was told that they were low but should still come up with more miles on the engine. I asked for the engine to be covered by warranty and was told to contact the independent company to which I had mailed the warranty card to. I asked what card? I was told that there was a warranty card included with my paper work that had to be mailed in when I got the engine. This was the first that I had heard of this and I had never receicved a warranty card.
- The customer service guy at this point told me that he was tired of dealing with all of the angry engine customers. That the company was having lots of problems and that he was quitting over the situation. He gave me Bill's direct line at that point.
- I discussed the situation with Bill. He asked me details about the installation and at the point that I told him that I had swiched
oil pans and put on a road race pan he put an end to the discussion. He told me the switch voided the warranty.
- I pulled the engine and had it torn down by a local engine builder. I ordereed pistons, rings, and bearings from you simultaneously. The builder called me and told me to cancel the order for the parts as the only thing wrong with the engine was that the rings were all gapped way to big. They were gapped to .058! He told me that he could get me the bearings and rings at his cost. I canceled the order with you. I was told that my Credit Card would be credited. Was it?
- When I discovered that the issue with the engine was due to workmanship I contacted Bill again. He said that even if the rings were mis fit the fact that I changed the
oil pan voided any obligation that he had. I was pretty upset at this point as he wouldn't even cover the cost of parts and labor to fix it.
- I told Bill in writing that I thought that his business practices were terribly wrong. That if he wouldn't stand behind his product that I would let my customers know. I also threatened to take the issue to court. But after evaluating the time and money expense to litigate on Long Island I decided to drop the issue.
- I ran the engine for an additional 8000 miles with out a problem. And now the engine had real pop.
- I believe that my engine was one of your early ones and that they hadn't been completely sorted out. But rather than make things right for customers that paid BIG BUCKS your company made a decision to just write them off.
- My Speed Shop owner, Andy Hoffman, saw Bill at a trade show in 2004 and brought up my situation. His only response was that I voided the warranty by switching pans.
- I was so disgusted by my experience that I pulled the engine out, wrapped it up, and put it in storage. I didn't want your company to get any advertising from me. It still sits waiting for me to decide what to do with it.
I own several businesses. Dragon I do for fun. My reputation is of utmost importance to me. I wll go way beyond the call of duty for my customers. I expected the same from you. (Obviously when I refer to "you" I do not meant you personally.)
Feel free to contact me directly if you would like. John