| I want to make a statement in regards to Charles post. I want to say firstly that I am sorry Charles that you've had unfavorable situations but like all things there are two sides to the story of which you left out quite a few details that Im not sure that your purposely left out or forgot. Just wanted to give the Public a Review Of the engine that I had Ep racing (Mitch in TX) build for me. Im just going to point out all the facts GOOD AND BAD!And let You make your comments on what you think of what I got! Ok I received the Engine back From Mitch clean and looked great. Mitch was very helpful through the deal!
I installed the engine and broke it in when I received it with no miles the compression was 120psi
I did the break in as Mitch told me to. Compression Came up to 140 on most cylinders one of them only 135 So after driving it for a bit car seemed to make decent power and Then I get a oil leak at the front crank near oil pump. It was pouring around 1000 miles or so. Mitch stated that it must be a warped oil pump flange or block. I bought the oil pump from Mitch. And he did the assembly It ruined a new timing belt by soaking it with oil and made a mess! You sent me that oil pump to rebuild if I recall correctly. I worked with you over the phone in helping you the best I could. You made no mention of a damaged timing belt. I'd of sent you a replacement if you had mentioned something.
The next problem I had was the exhaust manifold bolts began to back off.He did a full build on this including mounting all turbos and exc.
Correct I did install the turbochargers per all the specs. I explained to you that since you didn't supply me with all the hardware needed there were one or two studs for the exhaust manifold that were bare and that you needed to put washers and nuts on them to finish up the manifold install.
Well with that I could not get to some of them and the exhaust leaks burt the gaskets out. SO I had to pull engine and replace gaskets and tighten exhaust manifold bolts down never had a problem with them again after I tighten them.
Also I had Mitch do coatings on the some parts of engine such as turbine housing and exhaust manifolds that show to be rusting now it spots and coating was no present on entire manifold as it was starting to come off.
I do remember telling you that must not flash cure the exhaust coatings as they have to do an even cure on the car at approx 750 degrees F. You are the only customer I've had where the manifold coatings flaked off. I did however tell you that I would recoat the turbine housings and manifolds at no charge under a warranty submit.
At about 1500 miles after just getting the engine back in and going again a dam cam seal blew ruining the second timing belt by oil again.
Well after a weekend at z days car ran good and had lots of fun... I now have 3,000 miles on the ep racing engine and blew a front oil pump seal and ruining timing belt number 3 and making a mess. At this point had to tear front of engine down to fix again my powered coated parts are now showing some where. I believed all these seals were blowing due to excessive blow by on piston rings. PVc was put in new at the time of rebuild and was showing to be working well.
Mitch stated that I need a catch can so I installed the breather filters at this time. Not sure why I need a catch can as other have same turbos running 16psi and no issues. As with any engine that is built for performance its going to create more pressures and heat internally. This is also directly related to a boosted application. You have your build book I sent you and you can plainly see your rings were no where near being too tight. Next I moved the car to 18 psi with ASH spec tune and the car ran nice. The car has always been some what of a rich tune as the tune before that was wot 10.5.10.8 and the new ash spec tune was wot 10.8-11.1. Car felt great and seemed to be making good power. Timing was set at 15degrees.
Sadley at 5,000 miles the engines head gasket let go. Mitch did all machining on heads and block. I used a cometic head gasket that has been know to some to do this. So at this point I tour it down to replace headgasket with OEm gaskets. With further investigation into the use of cometics this seemed/s to be the going. All surfaces were registered with an RA of 60-65. The coolant passage in the gasket outside the bore area showed to be problematic and in the end failed. The good of all this is that the gasket never break compression or seal around the bore. Charles never blew a headgasket of the typical sort. While I had it out the car I removed the oil pan to check to see how the bearing was holding up and seen about 3 or 4 of the bearings to have some bad smudging on the sides and did not look to be wearing even and some scratches showing on the jounerals and crank. They did not caught your finger nail but with such low miles I would not think they would look this way and three other reputable builder here in this community told me not to reinstall them bearings as they looked like shit. The images you provided looked of standard working condition. The one thing that stuck out in my mind is that you beat the car heavily before it was tuned by Ash. As for scratches, debris entered your engine at some point. I polished the crank quite well before install and it had no signs of physical blemishes. You mentioned to me you had smudge marks and that it was bad then go to say that you showed others and they said they looked bad. Could any of them tell you what happened? After I looked at your bearings (several times via picture) there showed no failure or evidence that you were going to blow the engine or obtain a rod knock. I remember telling you this as well over the phone. Also one of the main bearing did have a score in it that you could catch your finger nail in! Mitch said that it looked like the car had detonated but the other three builders said they looked at pistons and heads and seen no signs of that. A score mark would be from debris not detonation. Upon a full inspection, that is only way a diagnosis could be stated. I then Took two of the pistons out to check the coatings on the side of the pistons he did to see how they were holding up and found that they were about rubbed off also. The moly dry lube coating has a grey pigment that when put into a dynamic environment the pigment wears away but the coating is still present in the piston skirt. You never sent me an image of the piston out of the bore. You would be able to see that no damage to the piston was present, just because the pigment is worn away doens't mean the coating is removed. I remember telling you this quite a few times. Once I took the pistons out I sent him a picture and he then stated that I would have to rebuild the engine as it would not reseat the rings . 85% of the time when you remove rings from a sealed cylinder the rings expand out and will loose the seal surface. I told you about a rebuild because I was apprehensive on you putting everything back in and then getting the car running and then having an engine with no compression. You also mentioned sending me the engine anyhow to do a freshen anyways per your request not too far off in the distant future. I remember because I sent you the estimate. So the only way was to do a complete rebuild at this time. So I was curious and check with the other three builds that its funny all three said that's not true and I could put that exact pistons back in the same cylinder and compression would come right back as it was. This is not a common approach and not suggested on a regular basis. The underlying issue for you was that you pulled the engine apart without consulting anyone prior and were scrambling trying to get things put back together. Whoever you spoke with gave you advice that you liked hearing but it wasn't a guarantee that it would work. You took a gamble and luckily you came out on top Two of the builder said bull shit when I told then and said that he was trying to force me into a rebuild! No one was forcing you to rebuild. You asked me for an estimate and I gave you one. You mentioned to me you didn't want to mess up anything yourself and that you wanted it done right and so forth. So I drew up the info you wanted/needed and you didn't like it.
The Builders that I speak of are three companys that we all trust on here that build engines and great products for a are cars but I wanted to leave the names out! Two in FLORIDA and one in California.
During this I was talking to Mitch about the would I need to do to put this engine back together and he help me over the phone but then sent me a text stating that he was not being compensated for his time and wish I would send the engine back to him to rebuild and recharge me. You called me at minimum 25-35 times on my HONEYMOON with my wife. I did a favor for a customer in answering while I was out to help you. And you didn't even care about what I was doing or have any respect for the situation I was in. You just continued to call continuously. Much of your answers you were needing/wanting were in your build book and FSM. I remember telling you I was on vacation with my wife (honeymoon) and you had complete disregard for it and were continuely calling me. But I sucked it up and helped you on every call...did I not? And yes I was a bit flustered because everything you asked for I could have done if you sent the engine in but you explained to me you didn't want to go that route because it was too much money at the current time. But lets not forget...at that time you also wanted to do some upgrades too so the estimate was higher. I put engine back together with new bearings and new oem headgaskets and the compression is now in the 160's on all cylinders and engine runs fine again with no leaks as i did the whole assembly my self this time!
Im not bad mouthing anyone and just stating the fact of what took place on here with my engine all the statements are true and if I self inflicted them some home please tell. Iv noticed one thing about Mitch that he has a answer for all and does not take blame for anything. If you need to research some of his threads with other problems he has had and look at his responses for them as it looks like Hess never wrong.Mitch was helpful and did help a lot but after the comment of the compensated thing and all the business I sent him and promoting I did by passing his cards and flyers out at z con and z nats I had enough. Again there are always two sides to a problem/situation. I've never given you an excuse regarding your build and have been more than accommodating with you to include the price to have your engine built. I went ABOVE and BEYOND for you and you took advantage. I try to my absolute best for all customers that get any form of work done by me. Im quite fast on replies and do my best to help everyone out. As for handing out fliers and so forth I do appreciate it and thought that with all the help i presented to you that was the least thing I could ask for. Apparently it was too much? I also sent him another build that I have here in my shop that I pray is right for a friend of mine a while back before I realize that I think I just had one to many things go wrong with this build of mine that he did! That engine was built properly with no issues at all. I did it in a very timely fashion to again accomidate you and your customer. In all, I built your engine and it made excellent power on pump gas. I am not sure if you've been telling me the whole story but what information you have given me I've been there to help you out at every second. You got a solid build from me and you raved about it when you went to Zdays (I think thats where you went). If there was a real concern I'd of appreciated that you would have just spoken to me instead of having to come on here and start a stir pot. You've been mor inclined to talk to others about me rather than talk to me to help resolve issues you ultimate didn't like or didn't know what to do on. I'll never get mad or accuse anyone of anything if they come and talk to me where we can work something out but when you go behind ones back and talk negatively, make comments etc etc thats when help sorta deminishes and becomes an unfavorable situation for one to not want to get involved in. Charles, I told you from the get go that if you needed anything just let me know.....that still holds true. My build practices are very detailed, I take pride in my work and stand behind it 100%. I will not hide from issues if customers have them and will absolute discuss any avenue to help fix any possible problem but like everything they have to meet me half way.
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