This is my tragic story, meant for those contemplating repairs or suffering many of the same ailments I describe below. Perhaps my "N" by my name is more apt than truly intended:
Note: I apologize for the length but I feel it is as consise as possible under the circumstances.I am a student in Dallas who bought a 92 300ZTT a couple years ago that had a number of mechanical problems. I posted about these issues on this wonderful website. Glenn McCall (TXQ45), one of our local Z techs out here in Dallas was kind enough to chime in and help me along my way. I brought my newly purchased car to him and have it fixed. I had pretty much everything swapped out on my car -- the wiring harness, turbos (with 23 k on them), O2s, harmonic balancer, boost controller, AIAV, Air Regulator, temperature sensor, you name it. Of course, I had every single hose changed out as well. Glenn also tossed in some freebies here and there which were always much appreciated. The total cost was about $4000 but it was probably worth it. The engine however kept having problems: overheating and a pesky cam seal leak. The 5th also cylinder had low compression. This past winter I had Glenn McCall swap out my engine and put in a JSPEC (it had 35k on it). The reason: I was through patching up my car and decided just have it overhauled once more for good. The engine was to come with a 6-month warranty (not the turbos), and it came with a 30-day free checkup period. Glenn gladly took my $4000 and installed the "new" engine. Of course, he warned me about not rebuilding turbos with 35k on them -- they could go at any time. Given he could install either my old ones (23k on them) which worked or the “new” ones, I felt it was reasonable just to put them in as-is. Glenn kept my old parts. I was pretty excited to get my car about a month later, even though it had noticeable oil leaks; Glenn admitted as much when I got the car but he told me just to keep an eye on it and we'd take care of it later. From my perspective the oil leak was much worse than it had ever been -- as I later saw, it was dripping in 12 different spots -- but naive as I was, I took Glenn at his word and happily drove home my new car. Over the next few months I drove my car, continually dealing with an oil leak on my "new engine". It required me to top up the engine oil every 2 weeks. That's okay. Glenn and I had heretofore a good history and he'd take care of it. Meanwhile, I saw that I was getting poor gas mileage (about 14 mpg) and idle issues (these were problems I had before) and Glenn was apprised of these shortcoming shortly after I got the car back. Of course, this was not what I expected on a new engine. When pressing Glenn about these issues he told me that poor mileage was fairly normal for a car with the chip I had (Jim Wolffe). Moreover, the exhaust on my car came out loudly, and almost only out of the driver side (I have true dual). I posted on this site to ask whether this was normal or not… and I found out it was not! Glenn mentioned my mufflers were leaking and could be a cause of the problems. I bought some new catalytic converters and had them installed. Still no improvement on any of these issues. Performance, from my perspective, was very good. However, to put it in context, I had never driven a Z firing on all 6 cylinders (as I would later find out). To me the new engine was a serious step up from what I had ever experienced. I brought my car to Glenn with my 12 oil drips about 45 days after purchase. He tightened up a few things and told me to keep an eye on it. So I did. No change. A couple weeks later, with the exhaust issue not going away, and with Glenn equivocating, I brought the car to a mechanic I met through this site. I told him something is wrong... bad mileage, idling issues, exhaust coming out of one end. Well he happily stuck my engine to a code reader to find out cylinder # 6 was missing! I said wow that might explain all my symptoms! The mechanic -- intentionally or not -- found out that the connection from my wiring harness into the fuel injector was defective (or at least not nesting properly or what have you). [Incidentally, the car also had a code 34. This rang true: with my boost gauge off the car would max out at 6psi. Only with the boost gauge on (thus overriding the error code) could I get the full stock boost.] Well, let me tell you, when I got my car back, the thing ran completely different than ever before! The car hummed like I never knew it could, it was quiet, and more importantly, the thing took off with neck-snapping acceleration!! Now I know why you guys like these cars so much. I was driving a new car home! [For those of you who don't know, when all 6 fire, you can really feel it from 0-3000 rpm. With a cylinder out, you'll have a sluggish start every time.] But then I had this troubling thought: Glenn as a knowledgeable mechanic knew my car was misfiring and it had an oil leak -- and yet he still gave me the car back in the shape it was after the install. I mean, knowing what I know now, anyone can tell the difference (performance wise and sound) between running on 5 cylinders and on 6 if you did a taste test -- let alone a trained mechanic. But he didn't tell me this of my old engine (which had the same symptoms) and certainly not of the new one. Admittedly the source of the problem (the harness) was hard to detect, but passing off a new engine in the state it was… Glenn is either incompetent or outright dishonest to have done so. I also had another troubling thought: I have been running the car on just 5 cylinders for 3 months! What a great way to break in a new engine. With this new knowledge in mind, I returned to Glenn and pleaded to have him fix my oil leak problem. Better get that squared away quick before anything else comes up. He said okay and took a look at my car over the weekend. He told me the boost seals were leaking (for sure on the passenger side, maybe on the driver side as well) and asked me to pony up some more money to have them fixed. Thus here I am. I plunked $4000 dollars for a new engine that was never "right": It was misfiring and it had an oil leak that signaled the boost seals were leaking (although Glenn could not identify it as such at the time). This is just unacceptable. Whether the turbos have a warranty or not is irrelevant. I expect them to be functional when I have the car given to me. If they blow out a week later, fair enough. Worse, Glenn also has my original turbos so it was not as if swapping them would be an added expense (aside from the labor of course). It seems any proud mechanic would want to stand by their work and make the install right. I guess losing my business and perhaps that of others on this website is worth 12 hours of labor or whatever it is to fix my turbos. Maybe Glenn's right. All I know is my only recourse to this tragedy is to inform others of my experience: When it comes to Glenn McCall, I can only say buyer beware! Sincerely,
Todd
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