SAE Motorsport

CASE# [redacted] Revdex.com SAE MOTORSPORT INCCOMPLAINT RESPONSE SAE Motorsport would like to begin by stating that we offer no express or implied warranties on engine buildsThis is an industry standard, there are too many variables that can cause an engine to fail prematurely and therefore it isn’t practical to offer warranties on these types of servicesIn this particular case the engine was installed after leaving our premise by the customer and his son without the supervision of a professional ASE certified mechanic Throughout SAE Motorsport Inc’s existence we have rebuilt at least a dozen enginesAll of these engines have been assembled and INSTALLED by usWe have NEVER had an engine failure and to our best knowledge all the engines we have built are still runningThese engines have been installed in everything from street cars to race cars Internal combustion engines have “break-in” periods and procedures when starting and running for an initial periodCar manufacturer’s include these procedures in the factory service manual when a brand new car is purchasedThere is no way to verify that the engine was installed and started with the correct amount of oil, or in what fashion the car was driven once the engine was installed Please refer to “BrePeriod” found on page of this factory Toyota service manualManufacturers typically will perform an initial break in procedure on the engine before installing the engine into the vehicleThis procedure is very important and if not followed properly will lead to premature wear and or failure of the engine [redacted] On to the specifics of this transaction TIMELINE *01/06/[redacted] SAE Motorsport Inc received $as a deposit towards engine break-down and machine shop costs to inspect, clean, bore, and hone the engine *02/07/[redacted] SAE Motorsport Inc received payment of $towards the open bill on the engine repair, this payment went towards aftermarket pistons, gaskets, and rebuild materials *03/19/[redacted] SAE Motorsport received $1,from the customer, paying the open invoice fullyThe customer took possession of the complete engine at this time intending to install the engine on their own *04/30/[redacted] The customer’s son set up an appointment to inspect the vehicle that they had installed the engine intoUpon inspection we found many loose electrical grounds and a harmonic damper (AKA crank pulley) which was failed (out of round)SAE Motorsport Inc also performed a smoke test where several vacuum leaks were foundSAE Motorsport also adjusted the air idle valve which was at an improper adjustmentSAE Motorsport Inc verbally communicated that the harmonic balancer needed replacingThe customer’s son communicated that it was on his list of things to replace but that he wasn’t in the financial position at the time to purchase one immediatelyAn aftermarket pulley was later purchased after the bearings failed *05/20/14* SAE Motorsport Inc received a deposit of $towards parts for reassembly of the engine after the bearings failedThe parts were purchased and supplied to the customer when they decided to pick the vehicle up from SAE MotorsportThe items supplied included a cylinder head rebuild gasket set, aftermarket (techno-toy) crankshaft pulley, and oil filter as listed on invoice # [redacted] The customer first came to us with his son’s Toyota 4AG engine which they expressed needed an engine rebuildWe accepted the job with a timeline of three to four weeks, this is our typically time needed on engine buildsWe disassembled the engine and found a cracked ring land (piston failure)The failure seemed to be due to detonation inside the cylinderWe took a payment for parts and got everything ordered Our machine shop at the time was backed up so our estimated time for machine work got pushed back a couple weeks, unfortunately this is something beyond our controlAfter the machine work was completed we began on engine assemblyUpon assembly we found that the engine we received from the customer was not the engine model which was expressed to usThe customer explained that the engine was a “red top” 4AG 16-valve engine which is what we ordered parts forUpon assembly we realized that the engine they had was actually a “red top” 16-valve cylinder head with a 20-valve bottom end with full rotating assemblyTherefore the 16-valve pistons we had ordered didn’t have the correct wrist pin bore to meet with the connecting rodsLuckily we were able to return the pistons and special order a piston with the correct specifications to fit both a 16-valve cylinder head and 20-valve blockThis pushed the timeline quite a ways back because the pistons were not in stock and had to be special ordered meaning built to order The replacement pistons arrived and the engine was assembled smoothlyAt this point we called the customer, he paid the rest of the invoice, and accepted the engineWe told him we’d like them to bring the vehicle to us once the engine was installed (03/19/14)On 04/30/we had an appointment scheduled to inspect the vehicleAt this point, described earlier, we found loose and missing electrical groundsThe idle air control valve was out of adjustmentThere was several vacuum leaks in the intake pipingOur main concern was the harmonic damper which was wobbling violently and several stacks of washers that had been stacked in place of the engines cooling fanWe explained the purpose of a harmonic damper, and verbally expressed replacement immediately to the customerAt this point the engine was running smoothly, no abnoises, no smokeThe engine was operating as it should other than the harmonic damper Three weeks later we heard from the customer again that the engine was making a knocking soundWe inspected the car and attempted to change the shims on the buckets to make sure that the noise wasn’t coming from the cylinder headWe then dropped the oil pan and pulled the rod bearing caps to inspect the bearingsIt was at this point that we found highly abwear on the bearingsOur professional analysis was that the harmonic damper being out of balance had caused excessive harmonic vibrations on the crankshaft causing bearing failure all aroundEvery bearing, both main and rod, showed the same signs of wearBearings were worn only on the outside edgeThe severity of the wearing was worse the closer the bearing was to the harmonic damper (front of the engine) At this point we showed the customer the damage and explained to him what we believed had caused the damageHe took some pictures of the engine internals and we sent the parts down to our machine shop for a second opinionMachine tech inspected the engine and commented that a bad harmonic damper would cause damage consistent with what was shownMachine tech also noticed that the cylinder walls had ovaled out which he explained lead him to believe the engine had seen consistently high rpm’s Machine tech told us that the entire engine, short blockcylinder head, camshafts, crankshaft, and internals were unusable We strive to provide our customers with the best possible customer service experienceWe pride ourselves on having high rating and positive reviews on many listing websites such as yelp and facebookThroughout the entire situation we did our best to go above and beyond what a shop would do in the same situationWe told the customer we would help him out in this difficult situation by helping him find a used engine that we could re-use the new aftermarket parts inWe went out of our way to find useable engines on ebay and locally and were even willing to pick up and inspect the engine on the customer’s behalfThe customer showed interest in a certain listing in San Dimas for a 4AG engineThe customer expressed that he would like the situation to come to a close and just get the car running and was willing to pay for the engine if SAE Motorsport would install the engineWe decided to help the customer and agreed to do the labor without accepting any liability or guilt for the previous engineWe genuinely wanted to see the customer and his son happy and able to enjoy their vehicleWhen we inspected the engine and found it to be a good start to get the car running we contacted the customer who demanded that we pay for the engine since he believed it was our fault the previous engine had failedThe customer was unwilling to accept that the failure wasn’t due to our assemblyWe refused to pay for the engine since we weren’t and still do not accept responsibility for the engine failureIt was at this time the customer decided to tow his car from the shop and proceeded to begin the charge-back procedure with his credit card companyThe cash we received towards parts on the second engine rebuild we used to purchase parts which the customer took when he picked up the vehicleThese parts included a cylinder head gasket kit that included a headgasket and all necessary gaskets to reassemble the cylinder head, Techno-Toy Tuning crank pulley, and oil filter

These are the receipts/ invoices we received from SAE Motorsport