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Today I saved a fellow Rotorhead from suffering what I went through and getting ripped off by what I believe to be a scam artist/ Con artist/ and in general sad and dishonest individual. My goal here is to educate and inform anyone who is considering getting a rebuild from Conroy @ 4 Kruzn. This is what you might get.
For those of you who don't know or haven't seen these are the pictures and story of my fresh engine rebuild from Conroy @ 4 Kruzn.
I paid $3800 plus a core deposit for this rebuild. I gave Conroy a 13B-REW core on top of the $3800 I paid him for a fresh rebuild, or so I thought. Unfortunate circumstances necessitated the replacement of the coolant seals after less than 300 kms. At this point no blame had been laid for the coolant leaking into the rotor chamber. Upon opening the keg with a fellow rotorhead much more knowledgeable than I, what we found inside was truly disgusting. I received a re-built engine with an FC3S E-shaft. The tension on the timing chain (I meant oil pump chain) was out of spec. We found used side seals with gaps to the corner seal less than 0.10mm and in excess of 0.4mm as per Mazda specs. For those of you in the know, to not use new side seals and to not carefully measure them is completely disgusting. If he failed to spend the proper amount of time sizing and shaping the side seals what else had he cut corners on?
The front stationary gear was showing copper. We had specifically discussed the replacement of any bearing that was in need of replacement. Apparently Conroy didn't think this bearing needed replacement. Onto the porting. The porting looked like it had been done by an amateur, decide for yourself. The rotor housings were in poor condition and Conroy had nicked the sealing surface when he was porting them. He told me that this was "no big deal" and that I was being "too picky". If you can't port the housings without nicking the sealing surface take a few minutes and tape them up, seems simple right? Back to the coolant seals. From time to time in the casting process there can be slight imperfections and indentations in the aluminum along the path where the coolant seal sits. Proper procedure is to fill this hole when building the engine. Conroy either failed to see this imperfection or decided not to fill it. As a result the coolant seal bubbled and I started to get coolant in the rotor chamber. This was the reason I had to pull the motor and the true story of the motor began.
I suspect Conroy did not think I would pull the motor at less than 300km's and could get away with not replacing the bearing. As I'm sure many of you can attest dealing with Conroy is a slow and painful process. Before he has your money he is quick and deliberate. Afterwards however he will straight up ignore you and is a complete PITA to deal with. After calling and text messaging Conroy with no response I decided to PM him on RX7 club. The beauty of RX7 club is that you can see when someone has logged on and of course I knew when I had messaged him. He was completely ignoring my PM's. Fantastic customer service!
Months later in a last ditch effort of frustration before I opened up the engine I text Conroy and finally got a reply. Dealing with him was terrible. All he offered me was warranty work on the motor. Why on earth would I want him to touch my motor again after everything that I found. I asked him for monetary compensation but all he offered was to exchange parts. I accepted the replacement parts. I invite Conroy to come here and defend himself, I'd love to see him try and explain his work.
Just a side note, this is the description of the warranty and motor dis assembly by the professional who performed the inspection.
Quick post and I'm out of here.
Kyle wanted Conroy to take apart and figure out what went wrong. He did not refuse Conroy's warranty, Conroy simply did not offer any sort of plan or timeline for Kyle. After many many frustrating months of dodged and ignored messages, I pulled his engine apart with a couple of witnesses. It was not until the motor was disassembled and shoddy workmanship discovered that the offer of warranty work was declined.
Engine disassembly - this will always be he my word vs Conroys unfortunately. After pulling the timing cover and front stat gear, I advised kyle to go home and get a camera. He took pictures along the way of every side seal measured in each corresponding seal slot as well as any other substandard or out of spec parts. That's all I have to say on that.
This Upsets me to post because I was not expecting to find anything shady upon disassembly. Kyle picked Conroy to build his engine based on his good reputation and standing in the racing community. Unfortunately, the pictures do not lie. Even if Kyle was being dubious and misrepresented the seal gaps, or overheated the motor, or overboosted or didn't break it in... The wrong parts were used, the porting is not acceptable, the die grinder marks on the sealing surface are not acceptable. The housings are out of spec as are the irons and bearings.
Sorry to read this. Another reason why rotary has such a bad rep.
I wouldn't be too quick with your sympathy, I know personally 4 different individuals that have dealt with kyle, and all have less then stellar things to say about there transaction with him.
According to the man hes accusing of being a 'scam artist' mr webber is not telling the whole story either...
I wouldn't be too quick with your sympathy, I know personally 4 different individuals that have dealt with kyle, and all have less then stellar things to say about there transaction with him.
According to the man hes accusing of being a 'scam artist' mr webber is not telling the whole story either...
All I'm saying here is like everything, theres two sides to three story.
Did anyone else notice the 'timing chain' thing, he corrected it once someone called him on it, but seriously?
J.
First of all if you notice I don't attack his character rather I attack his work. The borderline fraudulent motor that I received speaks towards his character and thus I draw my conclusions from that.
A random claim that 4 people have had less than stellar things to say is an ad hominem attack based on no facts whatsoever.
As I posted before the motor was dis assembled by a professional at a professional shop therefore he cannot claim that I am not knowledgeable or that I performed the inspection myself. Again we could debate all day long about who is the bad guy but the facts and the pictures don't lie. Simple as that.
All you need to do is look at the pictures and you will know that sub par, non professional work as performed. Again I'll post the account of the dis assembly since you seem to like dis regarding facts and would prefer to attack my character and not the work itself.
From 962 kid on beyond
"Quick post and I'm out of here.
Kyle wanted Conroy to take apart and figure out what went wrong. He did not refuse Conroy's warranty, Conroy simply did not offer any sort of plan or timeline for Kyle. After many many frustrating months of dodged and ignored messages, I pulled his engine apart with a couple of witnesses. It was not until the motor was disassembled and shoddy workmanship discovered that the offer of warranty work was declined.
Engine disassembly - this will always be he my word vs Conroys unfortunately. After pulling the timing cover and front stat gear, I advised kyle to go home and get a camera. He took pictures along the way of every side seal measured in each corresponding seal slot as well as any other substandard or out of spec parts. That's all I have to say on that.
This Upsets me to post because I was not expecting to find anything shady upon disassembly. Kyle picked Conroy to build his engine based on his good reputation and standing in the racing community. Unfortunately, the pictures do not lie. Even if Kyle was being dubious and misrepresented the seal gaps, or overheated the motor, or overboosted or didn't break it in... The wrong parts were used, the porting is not acceptable, the die grinder marks on the sealing surface are not acceptable. The housings are out of spec as are the irons and bearings.
I'm confused about one thing kdwebber...
you mentioned that you had the motor pulled a couple of months ago and then proceeded to take it apart a year after all this drama.
Also, this is three years AFTER the engine was built and those coolant seals look far too fresh for an engine sitting for 3 years.
The coolant seal grove also show lots of buildup which in no way can build up like that in less than 300km of driving.
And who's this "we" you keep talking about? Ask them to come out and speak on the forums since you said they are all professionals. Did not know there was more rotary builders other than Adam and Conroy in AB.
I'm confused about one thing kdwebber...
you mentioned that you had the motor pulled a couple of months ago and then proceeded to take it apart a year after all this drama.
Also, this is three years AFTER the engine was built and those coolant seals look far too fresh for an engine sitting for 3 years.
The coolant seal grove also show lots of buildup which in no way can build up like that in less than 300km of driving.
And who's this "we" you keep talking about? Ask them to come out and speak on the forums since you said they are all professionals. Did not know there was more rotary builders other than Adam and Conroy in AB.
I didn't say that the motor was pulled a couple of months ago. Conroy isin't debating this fact. We both know and agree when this happened. And yes the car ran limited km's it certainly didn't run more than 300-500km's. I literally filled it up once or twice and I don't have to prove the limited mileage.
If he wants to come on here and debate he can, I'm not his keeper. I posted what he said and the link to his post. And yes believe it or not there are other rotary builders more knowledgeable than Conroy in Alberta.
On Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 3:53 PM, wrote:
Quantums are sold. I only have the hKs ones left. HKS HyperMax pro. They are 14/14 spring rate. Should be quite good for drift/track. Abit stiff for street but not too bad.
Engine build is basically all new soft seals and springs, new bearings if needed, I use atkins solid corner seals and Rotary Aviation super seals. I also use the aviation rebuild kits for increased durability. Your rebuild will also include very good condition used rotor housings and rotors. And full street porting equal to my drIft car.
That porting job is absolutely horrible. He did not take the time to smooth out any of the imperfections...and it doesn't even look like a template was used on the exhaust side.
That stationary gear is borderline, thats not the worst one I've seen reused.
That porting job is absolutely horrible. He did not take the time to smooth out any of the imperfections...and it doesn't even look like a template was used on the exhaust side.
That stationary gear is borderline, thats not the worst one I've seen reused.
I'll agree that the stat gear is not terrible but if he had sent me a picture and said it would add $60 to my build cost I would have replaced it. The stat gear just speaks to a greater lack of care for the entire build. Corners were cut everywhere in time and in parts. Look at my previous post, I was promised RA super seals and I definitely did not receive them.
It was a good try with the seals, SuperSeals keep and hold their markings for ever, as far as the porting goes , don't think I've seen worst....problem with porting is it takes a few hours to do each housing right and some people get money hungry ....can't think of any other reason someone would make a mess like that, looks like he spent 15 mins on them. I did these yesterday for a freind, 2 hours a side.
It was a good try with the seals, SuperSeals keep and hold their markings for ever, as far as the porting goes , don't think I've seen worst....problem with porting is it takes a few hours to do each housing right and some people get money hungry ....can't think of any other reason someone would make a mess like that, looks like he spent 15 mins on them. I did these yesterday for a freind, 2 hours a side.
Nice work! When you were selling your FD I was thinking what a well sorted out track car that would be.
In addition to holding their markings the proportions are different as well. I wouldn't even need the markings to tell them apart.
07-30-15, 12:20 AM
$4000 engine rebuild from 4 Kruzn
