Not rotary specific, I know of a guy who happens to own a body shop. He traded a truck which had been totaled (and well repaired) for a long travel dune buggy with about 25K invested. The buggy had a VWish engine and trans worth about 10K+ in parts. They have all receipts as proof.

The guys brother is a VW fanatic, he takes the engine and trans out of his existing car which in itself is a nice combo but nowhere near the value of the buggy stuff. Puts the valve covers, some engine paint, carbs and exhaust making his engine look like the buggy engine. Many of the aesthetic parts are what the engine builder is known for.

They then sell the car with all receipts as if it was the original buggy at a premium price right before the desert season. The buggy never performs like it should and the new owner eventually goes to the shop that was supposed to have built the engine, who quickly ID it by serial as not theres. But he did go back to the seller who claimed ignorance.

The point is that people do dumb ****.

 

Yes, this is exactly the sort of thing that goes on. In fact, 3 or 4 times yearly, I have people email me wanting info on an engine "that I built" and believe it or not, even inquire whether I will extend the warranty to them if they ever need it. They bought it from so-and-so on the forum who said I built it. I ask who they bought it from, and then it turns into "ah, well, I dont know if he bought it new from your or not, I think he got it from some other guy, and HE's the one who had you build it". I get the name of that person and look through my records and do not find it.

Then it turns into "yeah I talked to the first guy and he rebuilt it himself" or some other bullshit that never even involved me to begin with.

People tend to make up a lot of **** when an engine or a car changes hands to increase the value they will get, and they just draw names out of a hat to substantiate their claims it seems.

Hell, for that matter, I just rebuilt an FC for a customer in Alabama. He bought the car from a guy in Georgia who supposedly had the engine rebuilt at a shop. Upon my inspection the engine was a bone stock jspec with a ton of carbon inside and no signs of ever having been rebuilt.

 

This is it right here.

If you've got proof that a reputable shop screwed this up, either post their name or seek resolution, but don't just post it up with nothing more thn dark suggestion.

It's this sort of thing that feeds the "FD's are unrealiable" hysteria. Reality is, they're not nearly as unrealiable as they are poorly built/cared for.... but the car, and good builders, all suffer from this sort of stuff.

 

Can you tell me where the Everlasting Gobstoppers go in the engine? Also, what kind of performance increase do you see when they are installed? I don't think mine has them!

If your wondering what I'm talking about look at the pic below.
http://www.rotaryresurrection.com/kl...s/DSCF2858.JPG

 

I'm more of a lurker so that I can read and learn, rather than a guy who can put out info on here. I did my build last year with the help of a proven builder, by his own car. In the year my car has been put together, I have learned there are several different out looks on how to build our motors, according to this site. The basics are the same, but it seems like every time I turn a round, someone is saying some part of a build should be done a different way. Now I'm not defending this build or saying it worked fine for a while. I think it might be better said that some people/builders standards are higher. I've bought the video's. I've spent countless hours in my garage like everyone else here, sometimes just looking at the motor and thinking it through.
My point being, if you are someone who KNOWS these motors and buy one from someone, it just makes sense to me that you would brake it down and know exactly what you have. They are very inexpensive to fix, compared to most motors. Recognizing a problem before it happens is how a great performing car is built. Especially if you catch problems early. I see all sides to this. It sucks any way you look at it. I'm sorry you are going through it, but you are fortunate to know what you are doing.
Posting the company is going to put a temporary slow down on their business, and that's about it. Almost every company has some sort of bad blood out there. At best, if I were you, I would contact them and let them know your findings. If it's an over site on that one engine, good. If it's how they build them all, then now is a good time to straighten out that info so others don't have that problem in the future. If they stick by building them all that way, they let us know. My .02

 

OP posted ___ ______ as the shop name...that's 3 letters then 6 letters. Shop could be _ _ _ Rotary? That help anyone out?

 

If his location wasn't my moms house I would know for sure. Though I have a pretty good idea. Who knows about all this though... Second and third hands make for a sloppy history!

 

Man that really sucks. Sorry to here about that. Will you at least do me a favor and PM me the name. I am about to need a rebuild, and would like to know this valuable info.

thanks dude,
-josh

 

aha, hah ha ha, hah hah hah,

 

hey man....the entire point of most Forums is to find out what worked with this guy and what didnt work for that guy. Forums are here to help and to prevent certain things.

You had an engine built. If it was 600hp and lasted 200k miles you would tell everyone what shop it was. Now....you got a bumb motor and are NOT gonna tell anyone who built it to possibly help out another forum member?? Excuse me....but why are you on this forum again?? If you ate a burger and got sick...I bet you would tell your friends not to eat there. This is the same damn thing only ALOT MORE $$$ involved. Just making my point.

 

Im with those that are saying not to mention the company. Main reason is who knows what happened to the motor before he purchased the car. The guy selling the car could have blown it prior, put it back together himself and list the car for sale. I have had a few customers that I know would do something like that. The problem is you just dont know unless you were the one that purchased the motor.

To me it looks like whomever built it got side tracked while building and forgot the bolts. I have seen things crazier than that before.

I would contact whomever built it and let them know what you found. See if there is something they will do about it.

I find it hard to believe the motor would run 3k miles in that condition.

Jason

 

it would be wise to mention the name of the place that screwed your car up so as to prevent others from making the same mistake in a PM. for all you know some of the posters on this forum have an appointment lined up with the same X company. engine rebuilds are a painful yet necessary evil for our cars, when we need to get it done the following quote applies: "do it once, do it right". if you do not wish to publicly state the name, once again do so in a PM to all who are curious!

this method you are following currently (as mentioned earlier by another user) does in fact place ALL rebuild companies onto the burner. you're a guy lookin for rebuild, but you read this thread and now the company you are set up with may very well be the "X" so you begin to think twice when in fact the company you've been dealing with is legit. think about this for a bit.

you say you do not wish to be a dick, but unfortunately thats what you will become when you couldve saved another man a couple 1000 of his hard earned dollars. these cars are not cheap....if you have information that is valuable it would be great to have it shared. do not say "oh i know this but i aint gonna tell you the whole story". either you go all the way or dont bother at all. nonetheless its just bad kharma coming straight for you now if someone gets ripped off which couldve been prevented by YOU.

 

Why would he slander a company when he is not 100% sure its their fault?

To me it looks like whoever built made a mistake and overlooked that. Yes its a mistake, but I highly doubt they do it to every motor they build.

 

this is all assuming he knows who did it, if he doesnt then as others say dont even bring it up. i figured this would go without sayin as we all know in life do not accuse somebody of something unless you know for a fact.

 

Im sure he knows who built it, but he was not the one who paid for it and installed it. Like I said, who knows what happened to it with the prior owner.

 

I agree. I know Jonathan personally and I can tell you he is NOT one to slander someones name. In this case we know where it was built, who paid for the work and that it ran for a while. It did did have some issues when he got the car that we just couldn't put our finger on. It turns out it was the missing bolts.

Now is it POSSIBLE that someone inbetween the shop and when we got it could have done this? Yes. Hence the discretion. I think Jonathan was just making a point. Having serviced a majority of FD's in our state we've seen plenty of bad "NEW" engines from a variety of builders. It's just something we come to expect. I can think of 3 engines not including this one that was put together shitty and they were all from different places. This one was from a fourth source (In the event it was done by the place itself and not the interim owner) and Jonathan felt like posting about it.

I personally hope that he decides to speak to the shop directly to see if they want to do anything with it.

To clarify my comments above, what I mean by shitty engine builds is engines that aren't as nice as I've seen built personally by Mr. Barry Bordes. No Barry doesn't sell engines. He just builds them for himself and close friends mostly but he takes an amzing amount of care with each one and his attention to detail taught me a new definition of detail. I personally think everyone should build an engine this way. It just SEEMS that isn't the case.

All this said, my motor was built by a well-known rotary shop and it's rock-solid. I personally couldn't ask for more.

I think the whole point of this thread was for you out there who are mechanically inclined to inspect the engines you buy before you use.

 

indeed that is also true, the possibilities can get pretty ridiculous out there.

 

it can also be difficult to convey one's point via text, many things can be taken out of context and or misunderstood

 

.......DO IT!!!

 

After buying a special rebuilt 13B-REW from Hayes Rotary in Washington in 1998, I decided to rebuild my own. Why, the engine burned 1 qt oil per about 450 miles since day one of running. The side housings did not look like they had been lapped, and the oil seals looked used and overheated along with the rotors. When I ask for compensation for new seals, etc to rebuild it myself, they agreed but never paid up.

I scrapped parts of that engine and replaced them with new parts. The results of MY LABAOR is an engine with over 35000 miles of making over 350+ WHP and still in great condition.

I trust my engine builder because it is me!

 

Amen, Chuck. If you want something done right....

-Rob

 

Horse **** engines rebuilds are quite common. Every time a customer comes in with a fresh rebuild, everyone here shakes their head. I haven't seen the missing bolts before, that is a good one.I've seen them loose causing the same symptoms..

 

Locktite on the front and rear stat gear bolts, oil pump bolts, pickup bolts goes a long way.......

 

I'm smelling some bullshit here.. He is saying the engine had 3k on a rebuild and found this? Come on.. How long would a engine last without these bolts.. Not that long...That's why he isn't posting the builder.. Either this or his facts are not right...

 

^^^^ I would call bull **** on your bull ****. I know Jonathan, and first off would make up some BS story to entertain you. He knows his **** when it comes to these vehicles, so why would be make something up like this? I really dont understand why you would question his story?