876portturbo

iTrader: (4)

Just a warning to anyone in the North Texas area, Marvelspeed in Rowlett is a terrible shop. I had them port and rebuild my motor last summer, I got it, installed it and then took the car up there for a 6port turbo project. They were to install the Haltech, fab the IC piping, battery relocate, build a custom turbo manifold, and install my bosch 044. During the months that it took to do all of this I bought all of the small parts that they needed, even though I had already prepaid for the job, since they had absolutely no money-seriously, there were cars that were sitting in the shop waiting to be fixed because they needed cheap parts and they could'nt even come up with that. The money I paid them for the project went straight to the owner and he was gone for a couple of weeks at least after that and did'nt give his brother who was doing the work a dime. Its hard to stay motivated when your working for free, and since the owner was'nt there hardly ever, I don't blame his brother for all the mistakes I'm about to list, I blame Don Marvel the owner. So on the day I go to tow the car home(I was supposed to be able to drive it home, turn key job, that did'nt happen) I am told that Don wants me to pay 1500 more dollars! I had overpaid by 500 dollars of the original amount to prevent this from happening, and without any warning he hits me up with that. A good shop would tell you mid project that it is going to be more than originally expected, not drop a bombshell on you whenever you've already paid through the teeth for poor work. So for good faith I gave his brother 500 more dollars(so he would get paid something)and got him to write all paid on the invoice and sign it to cover my ***. Now the list of problem it had when I get home:

The drain line for the turbo is made of heater hose-OMG-Don told me I had a bad turbo thats why it was smoking like spy hunter-I had a brand new garrett so I knew that was BS.
All of the oil it wasnt able to drain found every exhaust leak it had-every weld on the exhaust had oil pissing out of it.
The crankcase ventilation was capped off, and my gastank ventilation was capped off. Kinked rubber drain line and no crankcase ventilation, and this came from a shop? I had to get an AN fitting welded onto the oil pan and build a stainless drain line and of course vent my crankcase and gastank.
The manifold was completely warped, when I took it off it had not been milled at all, had to get it smoothed down.
They were supposed to install a marren FPD, got lazy and just JB welded the stock one, shitty job on that it still seeped out a little bit, had to repair that.

Lots if crossthreaded bolts, my haltech coolant temp sensor was completly crooked and leaked.
They had used just enough fuel line to fit on the rails, they leaked fairly soon after making a nice puddle on top of the motor.
The bosch 044 was zip tied to the Ebrake cable, had to build an actual bracket for that.
The crank angle sensor was stabbed a full tooth off, really advanced, hello pre-ignition, had BDC take care of that.

So after getting all of that repaired, there probably things I'm forgetting, I got through the break-in mileage, only got to boost it a few times after I got it tuned, I kept noticing little flakes in my oil. The first couple of oil changes I found excuses for what it could be, and it had always smoked more than I expected it would, I decided to tear it apart. Well, when BDC(the guy I wish I would have known about when I decided to do this)got it apart the oil control rings were crap and the bearings were showing some copper. The motor was never cleaned out after the porting and had shitloads of metal flakes inside the motor, looked like mud in the coolant passages.All of the seals were fine, I was actually suprised at this point that it really got 3mm seals put in it. So BDC had it cleaned, put it back together, and I have already installed the new new motor and have started it a couple of times, I really hope things go better this time around, even though the car has not let me down yet, just a victim like me of shitty workmanship and a whole lot of money spent.

On a more positive note, the shop across from them Arturbo www.Arturbo.com did some incredible welding on my aluminum IC piping, really it was perfect, they also put the AN fitting onto the oil pan later.

Sorry it was so long but these guys did screw me pretty badly and I wanted to warn others to stay away-They have done alot of good work in the past, but the lasy year or so that place has went to ****, and I went there from their previous reputation which was good work at a fair price, the job they did on my car was absolutely terrible-but its back together now and I'm just trying to be positive about the car now since i am yet get to really get to enjoy it, not to mention I am back to engine break-in AGAIN UGGHH, I just want to rip this thing, but I will be patient do it right, thanks for listening and if you go to that shop after this warning you will be sorry.

Gremlin

Sucks to hear that stuff like that happens. Glad to know that things look on the up and up for you. Hope everything works out.

Wompa164

iTrader: (4)

Ah ****, my FD is over there right now with the engine pulled out. I'm not exactly sure what I'm gonna do now.

876portturbo

iTrader: (4)

I'm actually kinda suprised that they are still open, things seemed pretty grim when I left there last summer. I would just try to go by there as much as possible and more importantly get a hard dollar amount so you don't get any suprises like me. I had a friend who had an engine installed in his TII a couple of years ago and it was OK, but things have went south as of late. Not sure if they have gotten their **** together or not but I would recommend people that just need a engine rebuild to try Brian Dcain- he will do the work for less and do a much more detailed job and his tuning is top notch, not to mention his porting. I just could'nt believe that they did'nt clean out the motor, it was full of metal flakes. I had to get the oil cooler flushed at a radiator shop. I wish the best for ya, maybe they will treat you right. Its just sad that since its such a nitch market that they can't take more pride in their work, I hardly see RX7s around too often and thats too bad because these cars are fun fun fun.

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

Simple, bring it over to Gotham Racing.