MBrennan Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 08 LGT 5eat 110k with a burnt #4 exhaust valve. I need to know if im crazy for the time that it has taken a repair facility complete this work. FWIW-My back round is 6 years as a driveability Ford technician. 6 years as a sales/assistant sales mgr and finance mgr at the same Ford dealership. 14 years as a service and production mgr at a drivable and towable motorhome dealership. Before I dropped the car off I told the repair facility that I had swapped #2+4 coils,injectors and new plugs as well as a compression test on these cylinders. He agreed with me where I had 45psi compression on the #4 cylinder the motor had to come out. HE TOLD ME he was going to do a compression test on the other cylinders as well as a leak down test so we knew if I had any other potential problems. Which he never did. I dropped the car off on Dec 15 and the repair facility owner told me he wasn't expecting the car and he wouldn't be able to work on it until Dec 17 am. Which I understood and was ok with because when I talked to him the previous week I said I wasn't positive when I could get my ducks in a row for another ride. So he told me he would have the motor out on Dec 17 and the heads to the machine shop that day or the following am. Didn't happen. Told me Dec 18 the same thing. Didn't happen. Told me same thing on Dec 19. Didn't happen. Dec 22 motor (heads still attached) is out and perched a top of a 55 gallon drum in. Told me he was waiting on a tool from Subaru to remove the lower cam pullies. (I suggested the belt trick to hold the pullies and he said he tried but could get the bolts out). He said he would have the tool/wrench in 1/2 hour and the heads would be off to the machine before the end of the day Dec 22. Dec 24 the motor was still a top of the barrel and the heads were off supposedly at the machine shop. On Dec 12 I initially stopped in to talk with him to get a feel for his expertise with Subaru (I had heard he had been a Subaru tech for quite a few years) At that time I asked who he used for a machine shop and he replied he had a local guy and another machine shop "in the city" (city is about 40 miles away) I told him I was pretty sure of the local machine shop he was speaking of and I said if he were going to do this job that I DID NOT want the heads to go to this guy. He agreed he wouldn't send the heads to the "local" machine shop because of how "finicky" these motors were. Several times through out this process he always mentioned the machine shop in the "city" never took this long to do a valve job. Well he fcked up because a friend of mine happened to run across my heads sitting on the floor at the "local" machine shop I told him under NO circumstances where they to go there. The repair facility owner has no idea I know this because he still is lying to me about having to drive 40 miles to pick up the heads. (Local machine shop is 10+- miles away). I told him I understood it could delay the head work process where the "city" machine shop was 40 miles away and I told him at any point I would leave work, get and pick up the heads to help him out if need be. I also told him I would go get any Subaru parts at any point for him. Dec 26 he said the machine shop hadn't found anything yet. Dec 29 still waiting on the diagnosis from the machine shop. Dec 30th,31st and Jan 2nd I was told the same thing. On Jan 2nd I told him he and the machine shop were done working on the car/engine and I would be hauling everything away because I couldn't ever get a straight or accurate answer from him. Which he didn't like. He GUARANTEED me a running car by Jan 9. I said as long as that was going to happen he could continue. Jan 5+6 still hadn't received the heads back from the machine shop. Jan 7 heads are done and back at the repair facility. Jan 12 both heads are on and 1 was torqued and the other im not sure if he had torqued it yet. At that time he told me he had a "plan". He said he planned on finishing the motor reassembly on the Jan 13+14 and he cleared his schedule Jan 15+16 to install the motor back into the car. (which is a week after he "guaranteed" the car would be done) All he had to do additional from the normal reassembly was to install an new oil pick up tube and install a new turbo air inlet pipe. From Jan 12 to Jan 14 it looked like he put the new water pump on. The cam pullies,oil pick up tube or the turbo inlet tube hadnt been done as of 5pm on Jan 14. So on Jan 14 5pm there is still a few hours of work that needs to be done to allow for the motor to be installed. All of time line dates that are listed above are dates the owner of the repair facility told me to come back to see where everything stood. I know this is a terribly long post and I apologize. If its best to delete it that is fine with me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ras06LGT Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 I haven't gone through the process of a rebuild (yet), so can't provide insight there. I will give you the recommendation to reformat that massive wall of text into easier to read paragraphs. More people will be willing to read it that way, since currently it's a pain. Best of luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrTris Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 It's probably best to format your wall of text so that we can understand it better. Honestly, it sounds like he either doesn't know what he's doing, or your motor is a low-priority to him. Maybe a combination of both. How sure are you that your exact heads were the ones on the floor at the machine shop you told him not to send them to? B and D series heads aren't serialized, you know, and there's many of them out there. . And you're right, there's at least a week of work to be done to get your motor back into the car, but, judging by your story, you'll be lucky to see this running before the end of the month, and even then, I doubt it'll run right. Not sure what recourse you've got, honestly, but, be diplomatic, let him get it buttoned up, agree on a price, and then never take your vehicle to that shop again, and when people ask about it, tell them of your experiences there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rapture Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Yeah this dude is not treating u right, id be pissed.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBear Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Mine took one week, and my guy was apologizing right and left for how long I had to wait. Don't go back to that guy again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBrennan Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 Yeah this dude is not treating u right, id be pissed.. Yeah im super impressed with myself that I havent blown a gasket. After 20 years in customer service I know better to scream and yell at him because all that's going to do is increase my bill. I have a feeling hes going to put the fcks to me on the bill anyway. He did gave me a verbal estimate prior to me dropping the car off. However last night he tried telling me how much extra work I added when I asked him to replace the turbo inlet pipe and to install the new oil pick up tube. Keep in mind the TGV housing was unbolted and loose. He tried telling me there "were a lot of vacuum lines that run to that pipe". I can only think hes very poor at managing his time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Capacity Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 My sure he zip ties all the vacuum lines. At this stage, the intake pipe is a piece of cake to replace, the intake manifold is off the engine. When I replaced mine, I doubt I spent 15 minutes on it. http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x40/92Si/DSCN4741.jpg You can see the pipe there. Here's the other side and the old pipe. http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x40/92Si/DSCN4750.jpg Also make sure he installs the new larger orange o-rings at the intake to TGV's. Tighten all the gas line clamps too or replace them with screw type clamps. Wish you found us sooner. 305,600miles 5/2012 ej257 short block, 8/2011 installed VF52 turbo, @20.8psi, 280whp, 300ftlbs. (SOLD). CHECK your oil, these cars use it. Engine Build - Click Here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBear Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 I found y'all sooner. I just wish I'd listened to you sooner. Hey, that dealer had a good rep though! http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i204/JBear427/Stolen%20Emoticons/e30117_zpslt16dqfl.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rapture Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Yeah me and my mechanic did the tgv's on my car in a day And thats while taking our time, him helping other customers, me cleaning/prepping/the tgvs, smoke breaks lol, all im saying is for a qualified tech , even unfamiliar with the ej motor, hes dragging his feet, taking advantage of ur time and niceness, i agree at tjis point theres nit much u can do but i was hoping we got to you in time..... Id love to see his final cost estimate/bill... Sorry your dealing with this, unfortunatly its all to common! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBrennan Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 I got the car back and much to my surprise id say the bill is acceptable. Seems to be running fine. He actually wants me to come back Monday night to look everything over. Its to bad because he seems like a pretty cool guy to have a beer and shoot the sht with. As long as it was put together correctly and im not chasing any demons ill get over the run around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBear Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 That's a good attitude to have about it. Going back to give him another look over isn't a bad idea either. Going back to him next time something is wrong, however, is. (unless of course you have reason to believe said problem stems from this whole fiasco) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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