Finally started the build!

[SparksMach1]

Yep, vacation ruined. Didn't even have the front suspension fully installed in the car by the deadline I gave him. Went in today (tuesday May 1st aka my BIRTHDAY) front suspension in, timing cover on, accessories installed. Moroso deep sump pan installed. All thats left is the upper intake and valve covers. still has to hook up all my gauges, clutch, trans, hook the engine up, drain the gas tank, hook up all the sensors blah blah blah. Looks like I might get it back by next year....

[SparksMach1]

Originally Posted by Newskool Mach

Sucks bro, so you know I bought my teksid block, Cobra crank, brand new Manley Pistons and rods along with everything to build the shortblock directly from my engine builder, along with all the machine work and assembly and it cost me $3000 total. I took my old heads off my mach gave them to the machine shop along with some crower cams, livernois springs, then they did a valve job and installed the cams and springs for $600 and had them ready in 3 days from when they were delivered. I would say you are getting a royal screwing!

Live and learn, I will not be making this mistake again, and I will do everything I can to make sure NO OTHER mustang owner has to go through this same pain that I had to go through to get a simple engine build done.

[yzingerslinger]

Originally Posted by SparksMach1

Yeah worst of all, january of 2011 when I took my car to him I told him I had to have the car back by 4th of july weekend 2011 when I was returning from AFGHANISTAN. He gave me "oh no problem that will be easy" speech, with a REALLY bad estimate for how much this all was going to cost, right now I'm 6K over budget, 9 months past the date I told him I needed it back by, I gave him a new date of 27 April that the car has to be done by. No excuses, I have had a vacation planned at the beach with 3 of my other buddies and we are all crusing there separately, if he ruins this vacation for me becuase he didn't get my car done in time, that is completely unacceptable. This vacation has been booked since January!

I looked high and low on the internet for somebody with another negative feedback from Hermann and I can't seem to find a single one? everybody says that he does this and that for free, worked long hours to finish their project up on time... I haven't gotten any of that treatment, I feel like i've been on the back burner with this entire build. The only non off the shelf parts were the cams and the pistons. It doesn't take this long to build a motor, I don't care HOW meticulous you are.

Sorry to hear that, I had a month down time on my build. crank balancing and having the block checked and punched took a month and the heads took a month to get finished, i dropped the heads off and the block and crank off on the same day at different shops and told them i was in no hurry. everything spec'd out fine and the work was done right and on their time. Chances50 and I assembled the motor so that was on our time. but.... a shop taking that long to complete a rebuild is way out of line. If a service member brought me their parts saying "i have 6 months before i return from a deployment" i would have his car finished tuned and waxed under a giant American Flag waiting for him when he got back.... just me.

[Roy]

That sucks but seems to be common in the performance industry. Im just glad I can do a lot of stuff myself and have a badazz machine shop I can rely on. Now just hope its all done right.

[SparksMach1]

Yeah I'd rather be in your situation Roy!

update, one week later, suspension/k-member is done, motor is dropped in, headers on, flywheel on. And by motor is dropped in I mean only that, its bolted to the K-member nothing is hooked up...not even the ground strap.

what REALLY pisses me off is that he put the new cam covers on that I had powdercoated, he had to have been blind if he didn't notice that they were pretty much an aqua color, maybe even a grabber blue color, but they don't match azure blue for sh!t. Hermann never gave me a courtesy call to say "hey dude they don't match, do you want me to have them re-coated. nope, just put the motor in. Stephan that works the front desk was the only guy at the shop yesterday, Hermann was out sick. I said to him "I wish Hermann would have called me and told me they didn't match before he dropped the engine in. Word for word you know what the response was I got from Stephan?

"Thats not his responsibility" in reference to calling me and telling me they didn't match the car. How is THAT for customer service, I guess this is how their shop is really ran. Can't even give somebody a courtesy call and let them know the 350 dollar powdercoat job on the cam covers wasn't even close to the paint color.

On a positive note this is the first time the car has had a motor in it since Jan '11. hopefully we are getting close.

[SparksMach1]

Tuesday update, Hermann came in for a few hours and put the clutch, transmission, and starter on the car, He was out sick again yesterday.

So you guys REALLY know how much work is getting done on my car on a day to day basis i'm going to be documenting on here the work that gets done so everyone can see how slow progress really is going, and also i'll get any "promises" that they make to me and i'll let you know when those are not followed through with, which seems to be "the norm" with this build.

I remember as far back as November '11 being pissed off it wasn't done and having the shop tell me "just give it a few more weeks we are going to have it done for you before the end of December. Considering it didn't hardly snow the winter of 2011/2012 maybe they were talking about the next one coming up.

for you guys that have been following this I dropped it off January 9th 2011, Hermann didn't get the motor back from the machine shop until January 24, 2012. Over a year for machine work on heads and a boss block which doesn't need much machining. all the parts are off the shelf inside the motor except for the cams (which didn't get ordered until around August for some reason) and the pistons.

[SparksMach1]

Said they fired the motor up for the first time yesterday but something happened with the ignition? said it might have been a sensor or something, no idea. First time the car has had a motor running in it since like October of 2010.

[SparksMach1]

Just called the shop, on Wednesday they said the car would be done today. Made 376 HP and 357 torque at the tires, its back from the alignment shop but he hasn't hooked my gauges up, done any data logging on the street, and still wants to do a once over on it. He better not mess up Carlisle with his bull shyt. Already going to be there with the wrong color on my cam covers...

[ASH302]

man i'm sorry for all your problems, just sad, truly sad this chite goes on,
i'll put them on my list of shops i hope have to close down.
keep your head up

don't know if i didn't catch it but what happen to putting a whipple or KB on it?

ASh

[SparksMach1]

Originally Posted by txmach302

man i'm sorry for all your problems, just sad, truly sad this chite goes on,
i'll put them on my list of shops i hope have to close down.
keep your head up

don't know if i didn't catch it but what happen to putting a whipple or KB on it?

ASh

Ash, im going to run this setup for like 6 months while I piece together an Eaton swap kit and figure out what blower I want! Its probably going back to a different shop this winter once all the car shows are over with this year

[SparksMach1]

Went to the shop today, said everything is done, they still had to add up all the labor, should be picking it up tomorrow. I actually got to start it for the first time today. That sucker is LOUD

[ASH302]

Originally Posted by SparksMach1

Ash, im going to run this setup for like 6 months while I piece together an Eaton swap kit and figure out what blower I want! Its probably going back to a different shop this winter once all the car shows are over with this year

first off i wouldn't go back to that shop, with all that PITA you messed with i would try else where, again i'm sorry
sounds good, just enjoy being back in the mach

ASh

[ASH302]

Originally Posted by SparksMach1

Went to the shop today, said everything is done, they still had to add up all the labor, should be picking it up tomorrow. I actually got to start it for the first time today. That sucker is LOUD

kewl post video when you can of it

ASh

[SparksMach1]

picked the car up last night, just in time for Carlisle, but not enough time to bring the paint back to where I want it, or clean under the hood like I normally would.

[ab_mach1]

I saw you post up today and was wanting to know some details on your N/A setup. I see you are making more hp/tq than when you first got your boss 5 motor completed. Can't believe it took them that long! What have you done to it since this thread? I love a good N/A setup like this.