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engine builder FAIL - {insert name here}

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#1 ·
Leaving the name blank for now because I want to see how this will get resolved but it is not looking well.

I wanted to post up and see what the community thinks.

I buy an short block from this builder and bring him all of the rest of my new parts, they very kindly agree to buy what else is needed and assemble the complete engine intake to oil pan for a great price which was great.

Communication before and during the build was amazing!

I pickup the engine, bring it home, install and break in and after parking it the next day I notice an oil leak the size of a silver dollar. Now, if this was a back yard build and some no name place, no surprise, but this is a well known place and a 12k engine should not leak a drop. So I contact the builder, starting to see communication is not that good, getting crickets and when I do get a reply it is excuses on why they can't answer the phone. The gist of the back and forth was I had to find the leak. So I dyed the oil and after pulling the trans and bell I traced it to either the rear main or pan gasket. Now, mind you, one man show here, I am just one guy so this is not an easy job but hey it is what it is.

Contact engine builder. He says pull the engine and bring it to me I will fix it. Whoa, I have to rent a truck and pull the engine and bring it to you? Finally I get him to agree to come and fix it at my house as he lives about 1 hour away. This was very cool of him and much appreciated. So I pull the engine, put it on a stand and he does the work and says give it a couple days and you are good to go.

Okay great! Put the engine back in, trans and all and great, now I can enjoy my car and get it tuned.

During this whole time I was planning a move, so now I do not live 1 hour away but I am wayyyy down south, 22 hours away from him now. I move, get my cars shipped and l park the mustang in the garage.

Sure enough, look under the mustang ( maybe about 30 miles since he replaced the pan gasket and rear main and there is the same leak, potentially the same since I have not pulled the trans to dye it again but there is a silver dollar of oil under the car.

Reach out to engine builder again, same crappy communication and pretty much I am told again, find the leak, there is no way it can be leaking there again. Okay well I didn't change anything else, nothing was done to the car so common sense would tell me it is coming from the same place. Again, he tells me, find the leak. I ask okay so I have to pull the trans and engine again? What then? As far as I can tell I am sh@t outta luck and pretty much being told to go pound sand. Because okay, let's say it is not the oil pan or rear main again, no matter what is leaking it was not from something I did because they assembled the whole engine minus the valve covers but I know for a FACT they are not leaking.
What would you do, just curious because this has been a dream to have an engine built like this and finally finish my car and now to have to deal with this has been a nightmare that I know most likely won't get resolved, especially since I am living 22 hours away now.

Has anyone else built the engine of their dreams, spent a ton of money to have this or worse happen, what happened?
 
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#114 · (Edited)
Holy ****, the engine builder I had told me to get bent after their lack of cleaning/assembling with my brand new short block caused a big chunk of metal to bound up in the oil pump almost destroying the engine. All I was hoping for was a short refund to cover oil pump, arp shaft, and gaskets. Here's Woody going over to the dude's house changing his rear main in the driveway... Wow.
 
#122 ·
Leaving the name blank for now because I want to see how this will get resolved but it is not looking well.

I wanted to post up and see what the community thinks.

I buy an short block from this builder and bring him all of the rest of my new parts, they very kindly agree to buy what else is needed and assemble the complete engine intake to oil pan for a great price which was great.

Communication before and during the build was amazing!

I pickup the engine, bring it home, install and break in and after parking it the next day I notice an oil leak the size of a silver dollar. Now, if this was a back yard build and some no name place, no surprise, but this is a well known place and a 12k engine should not leak a drop. So I contact the builder, starting to see communication is not that good, getting crickets and when I do get a reply it is excuses on why they can't answer the phone. The gist of the back and forth was I had to find the leak. So I dyed the oil and after pulling the trans and bell I traced it to either the rear main or pan gasket. Now, mind you, one man show here, I am just one guy so this is not an easy job but hey it is what it is.

Contact engine builder. He says pull the engine and bring it to me I will fix it. Whoa, I have to rent a truck and pull the engine and bring it to you? Finally I get him to agree to come and fix it at my house as he lives about 1 hour away. This was very cool of him and much appreciated. So I pull the engine, put it on a stand and he does the work and says give it a couple days and you are good to go.

Okay great! Put the engine back in, trans and all and great, now I can enjoy my car and get it tuned.

During this whole time I was planning a move, so now I do not live 1 hour away but I am wayyyy down south, 22 hours away from him now. I move, get my cars shipped and l park the mustang in the garage.

Sure enough, look under the mustang ( maybe about 30 miles since he replaced the pan gasket and rear main and there is the same leak, potentially the same since I have not pulled the trans to dye it again but there is a silver dollar of oil under the car.

Reach out to engine builder again, same crappy communication and pretty much I am told again, find the leak, there is no way it can be leaking there again. Okay well I didn't change anything else, nothing was done to the car so common sense would tell me it is coming from the same place. Again, he tells me, find the leak. I ask okay so I have to pull the trans and engine again? What then? As far as I can tell I am sh@t outta luck and pretty much being told to go pound sand. Because okay, let's say it is not the oil pan or rear main again, no matter what is leaking it was not from something I did because they assembled the whole engine minus the valve covers but I know for a FACT they are not leaking.
What would you do, just curious because this has been a dream to have an engine built like this and finally finish my car and now to have to deal with this has been a nightmare that I know most likely won't get resolved, especially since I am living 22 hours away now.

Has anyone else built the engine of their dreams, spent a ton of money to have this or worse happen, what happened?
So Woody built your short block, assembled the long block with parts you bought some where else, drove an hour each way to address a leak on a Saturday, didn’t charge for the “warranty” work. And you’re up in arms that he isn’t doing anything else since you haven’t found the leak?
 
#125 ·
His expectations are absurd, especially for this hobby. I would go out on a limb to say he regularly sends food back for who knows why. I bought a small block from Woody and smoked a piston after less than 3k miles. It was an obvious lean condition, my problem. He answered all of my emails promptly and even helped with all the torque specs to reassemble. Completely unnecessary, just went out of his way to help someone. Be a man and call him. Even if unintentional it's poor defamation on Paul's part.
 
#126 ·
Spent 12k to troll the forum and builder. Bubba is getting serious.
 
#127 ·
OP should fly engine builder to Florida, put him up in a resort hotel, and pay all his expenses until he finds and fixes the leak. Maybe a nice trip to Disneyland too.

This thread is tuly tragic. I have to deal with pet owners as the owner/operator of a boarding kennel. I really enjoy the canine customers, some of the human ones are very trying!

Jay
 
#130 ·
Mr. Woods knows light years more than i do about ford engines and assembly. thats how he makes his living. His customer service is top notch. Knowing that he built your engine and went out of his way makes all my suggestions completely inadequate.

Stick with one chef in the kitchen or fix it yourself. Or sell it to me.
 
#132 ·
I've seen some pretty crazy oil leaks over the years. sometimes welds leak, sometimes one piece pans leak from where they have been formed, like in corners. I had a Ford A4 block that had a small occlusion (missing chunk) in the rear oil galley that leaked like a sieve! Had to pull the engine twice to find that one.

Jay
 
#134 ·
Whats the crankcase pressure like? Just curious if some backpressure is blowing past the rear main... But IMHO I understand you spent a bunch of money on a engine. You have a aftermarket pan, aftermarket block and most likely aftermarket crank... trying to make all these leak free like a OEM car is a challenge. I can be a bad weld or warp in the pan or a crank machined a hair two thin. add the fact you moved away from the engine builder. Im not sure what you would expect him todo.

I think we all would like to see the rear of engine without the trans to see the actuall source of the leak.
 
#173 ·
Whats the crankcase pressure like? Just curious if some backpressure is blowing past the rear main... But IMHO I understand you spent a bunch of money on a engine. You have a aftermarket pan, aftermarket block and most likely aftermarket crank... trying to make all these leak free like a OEM car is a challenge. I can be a bad weld or warp in the pan or a crank machined a hair two thin. add the fact you moved away from the engine builder. Im not sure what you would expect him todo.

I think we all would like to see the rear of engine without the trans to see the actuall source of the leak.
Is there a way to measure crankcase pressure? If so, how and what results would point to it being too much? Just curious as I’m chasing what I believe to be a RMS leak.
 
#135 ·
I'm a Fordstrokers customer and can be very picky. Jim and Nicole were great to do business with. Four or five years ago I bought an engine complete from the rockers to the drain plugs, It's been 100% problem free, and I wouldn't hesitate to do business with them again.
 
#139 ·
I bought Probe pistons through Woody when he was just starting out. But I did do my own assembly and two piece rear main seal. Did it to the T and it still leaked after a month or so.

The idea that Jim doesn’t know how to properly do a rear main seal is highly unlikely. Investigate and make a case. Otherwise just ask for sympathy.
 
#140 ·
To the original poster:
Stop being an entitled *******. Really.
It's bad enough you asked (and he actually did) he come to your house to fix a leak, but you moved 22 hours away (regardless of the reason) and you're still expecting him to fix a leak? A LEAK?
Also, the whole bit of fudging the truth, making it sound like you dropped $12 on a package deal is truly childish.
You now have zero credibility in this community.
 
#142 ·
To the original poster:
Stop being an entitled ***. Really.
It's bad enough you asked (and he actually did) he come to your house to fix a leak, but you moved 22 hours away (regardless of the reason) and you're still expecting him to fix a leak? A LEAK?
Also, the whole bit of fudging the truth, making it sound like you dropped $12 on a package deal is truly childish.
You now have zero credibility in this community.
Hahah sure sure I can deduce a lot from your post including your mental capacity which is quite low.

I stand by everything I said and I hate to say this but I can see what a complete bunch of brainless fools hang out here. I would also assume that the idiots like YOU who lash out at me are also the ones that want that idiot Indy to be unbanned.

Most of you fools have a great way of bending an manipulating what I said. Nothing backfired on as I said from the beginning this post was to just make people aware. I never mentioned any names and still stand by not doing that. And wtf do i need credibility here you make it sound like I lost something, oohhhhh no one at corral is going to be nice to me and listen to me lol yea let me go cry for a while.

For each person that attacked me here I am sure there is another not saying anything for fear of being treated how all you bullies came at me, you all must be JB supporters, the brainless majority.

Yes it was nice that Jim came over and replaced the rear main and oil pan gasket but you all are making it sound like he came over and pulled the engine/trans, replaced parts and put it back in. He spent 3 hours of his time which was great but I feel that when you buy a short block and then have them build a complete engine and it leaks immediately that is the least you could do for someone to try and maintain their reputation.

Maybe YOU all are not hearing what YOU want to hear and being little bitches about it. Like I said, drop 12k on a engine and have it perpetually leaking and then we can talk.
 
#143 ·
Notice he hasn't chimed in since Woody responded. Some FB garbage. User names stick in my head, I'll make sure to cruise right past any of his posts.

Notice he hasn't chimed in since Woody responded. Some FB garbage. User names stick in my head, I'll make sure to cruise right past any of his posts.
I was going to just keep watchin from a distance at the stupidity but I just wanted to make you look like a fool too.... :)
 
#152 ·
I have probably 40k in the mustang, about 25 in my el camino and plenty of other hobbies which I have poured money into and this is the first time I have had any issues dealing with someone, if you must know.....

Again, keep attacking and bullying.....

If anyone wants a life lesson, if you want something done right, learn to do it yourself.
 
#157 ·
Yes, aware in the sense that you need to question things. When you have an engine or trans built, ask what happens if this happens, what happens if that happens. So you don't have something happen and then have to deal with a bunch of jackasses that have 0 experience with the situation attacking you when you are not satisfied with how things were handled.
 
#160 ·
L
Quite another Einstein here....

Tell me, what could be leaking that I am responsible for. I took an engine that was built and I installed it......aside from putting a hole in the oil pan I think i am in the clear.....
i never said it could be YOU. I said there could be an issue outside of assembly. Crack in weld on oil pan, crank issue, RMS issue. It could have nothing to do with assembly and everything with poor manufacturing. Stop acting like everyone is attacking you and grow up. Skin thinner than paper. Go on any other forum and you will get the same treatment, it’s your behavior that is triggering the treatment.
 
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