And this is the reason people now deal with companies that have actual liability if they take shortcuts. I.e. somebody worth suing. Damn shame, that.
Forget about the legal system when considering an engine builder.. by the time you consider your costs, unless your building about the most expensive Buick engine possible, your costs will outweigh your award.. and even if they "have" money you have to get it from them.. Much simpler to simply select a Buick engine builder that knows the engine, and will do what it takes to protect their good name. For instance.. 2 years ago I build a roller cam 470 for a customer... Nothing exotic, off the shelf TA cam and Morel roller lifters.. all we had for lifters at the time.. Probably built about 6 copies of this exact motor now.. Turned out great, guy loved me after he got it in the car.. his note back to me could not have been nicer.. less than 1000 miles later, it breaks the tie bar connector on one of those piece of crap morel lifters.. lifter turn sideways and wipes out the cam... THERE IS NOTHING I COULD HAVE DONE TO PREVENT THIS, THIS IS PARTS FAILURE. Customer is sure it's my fault somehow... and rather than waste time arguing with him, I will simply accept the deal he wants to make to fix it... will cost me about $1500 bucks, but if that is what it takes to make this guy happy, so be it. My name is worth way more than that, and is exactly the reason why I would never bill a customer for parts/services that were not done to the engine. Some time after I build this motor, and because I became unhappy with the morel lifter as our only option, I went out and found much better quality stuff, and then got our major vendor to start selling them to everyone.. I could have simply used those sets here at TSP and never told anyone about them, but I am not that kind of guy. I attempt to use my experiences (often painful and expensive) to benefit everyone, whether you buy from me or not. That's how you chose an engine builder. JW
I sued a local Machine shop when I found a broken main cap ( could see when they used a hammer on it during install) on my SBF after it broke within 1200 miles, judgment was for me at $3000 (max). Next I sued Jasper Engines after they warranty'd a motor in my GS I had bought from a dealer, they screwed it completely up 2 more times within 700 miles it would never run right and over-heating terribly, and then refused anymore warrantee work because they had me sign a waiver on the 3rd try. Turns out they bored it .060 and 4 cylinder's were cracked OMG! I hired an Attorney for $3500, sued them and recovered $17,000. HOLD PEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE!!!!!!!!!
I am a witness to this entire episode as it's my SON's GS, and yes JIM is standing by his work and WE are quite pleased that WE chose him to do the engine, in the end I have confidence everything will turn out as it should for everybody, my Son gets the engine of his dreams and Jim Weise continues with his good name and reputation intact. We chose the right builder! Good for you JW.
I wish that I has JW build my engine. Know what I got? A discount on some of the replacement parts and a refund of the work not done. Now it's true the engine was built almost four years ago, but I didn't get the car done until last spring. It's not like I did an engine swap in a weekend. I needed the engine installed before I could wire or plumb the car. It was six months before I fired it up for the first time. When I spoke with him about some of the poor workmanship, he said that he seems to remember an engine that was supposed to have the screw in galley plugs that didn't have them installed while he was installing the cam. He said that he meant to take them off of the bill, but must have forgot. I'm sure that he wasn't trying to screw me out of $40, but at that point he should have drilled and tapped the holes and recleaned the block. When I spoke with him while he was building my engine, he said that he just hired a new machinist, but now doesn't recall hiring one. I've worked at several reputable GM dealerships and I know that a lot of the technicians that they hired were not very good, but the dealer still stood behind their service department. I guess if I was building another car, I would have a running engine to use for the build so that when I got the new engine it would just be a weekend swap. That way the problems would show up sooner.
Thanks for your input on this Mr Hunter, I should clarify that neither you nor your son Casca has accused me of any wrongdoing here. Your position is simply that "we bought this from you, and you should stand behind it", which I completely agree with. The night Casca sent me the email with your proposition on repair, Bucy and I happened to be right in the middle of taking the trans out of his 05 Suburban.. there was a rash of those 4L60E's that all decided to let go at the same time, owned by my friends and family.. so I spent the first couple of weeks this year doing trans rebuilds and R&R's. His initial position was that I was nuts, I had already offered to fix this, all that you would have had to pay was about $300 in transport to and from the shop here. He said I should stand firm on that, this simply is not TSP's fault.. I did not grind the cam, or manufacture the lifter. There is no problem with the installation of the parts, no mismatch, plenty of lifter bar clearance... We had quite the heated argument for a while, but I eventually brought him around to the idea that "I sold it, I stand behind it, period." I learned my philosophy in business from two sources.. My Father, who owned an Electical Contracting business for 30 years, and from my first boss in my automotive career, Terry Anderson. In Dad's case, the Electrical inspectors in the cities all knew him, and the quality of his work. So when it came time to inspect a rough in, or do a final inspection, most of the time they simply visited with my Dad, and had coffee and donuts, before they signed off on the job. No need to look at his work, it was first rate, always. Better than it had to be. Those of you in the auto repair business will relate to this.. The "You just fixed this, it's the same thing again" syndrome.. Put on a water pump, a week later the guy pops a heater core... so it's leaking coolant, and to them, it's "the same thing". Terry would take the time to sit down with the customer, and show them exactly what the situation is, and why it's not the same thing... Some customer's would understand this, and be perfectly fine with paying for the repair.. others would not, and his next response to that customer was this "what's it going to take to make you happy?". I worked in this high volume two bay shop (day and night shifts) for 7 years. I can honestly say that I never saw or knew of an unhappy customer. NOT ONE, of the thousands of folks we served in those years. Imagine that.. I asked him once why he paid for things that were obviously not our fault. His response was simple. "Our name is more important than money, and a business owner who thinks he "wins" an argument with a customer, is a damn fool. While he keeps a couple bucks in his pocket, the long term cost of unhappy customers outweighs my investment in our reputation many times over." He was right, that shop was the best atmosphere I ever worked in. No stress, nobody calling you names, and more work that we could do, booked weeks in advance all the time. I only left because I wanted to get away from the rusty cars, and the nitemare of the -20 below mornings where you wore your insulated coveralls all day, inside an out.. And we loved Christmas time.. we had more Christmas cards, bars, brownies and cookies that we knew what to do with. Had a whole wall full of cards, thanking us for taking care of their cars that year.. Life is too short to be unhappy, and money does not buy happiness. JW
I can also vouch for JW, I've used parts from him in some of my builds and they were top notch. His converters are in over 5 customers cars and they perform as advertised and I recommend them for strong street/strip cars. I've freshened up one motor Jim did some years ago for a friend and found little wear and clearances and machining was spot on. Keep up the good work Jim.
That's great ethic Jim. And, smart. I didn't know you built engines. I just knew you operated the site. Good to know.
after reading all the above I have a smile on my face ...glad J.W is building my 470 I agree reputation is more important than money I never leave one of my customers un happy my phone rings day and night ...
