trueimport

iTrader: (8)

Hey guys I want to know if anyone has any solid expreiance with engine builds from Zavier at ZNperformance (rx7 Store) OR Ryan at Shook Motorsports. Any information would be really helpful in making a solid decision. I would like to hear good or bad and if possible longevity of their builds.

Cheers

Jason

iTrader: (5)

Never heard of shook motorsports. Where are they?

Spirit-RE

iTrader: (25)

Rockford, Ill


I can't say from first hand experience, but I've heard nothing but good about Shook.

Mitchocalypse

iTrader: (2)

Sent you a PM.

trueimport

iTrader: (8)

Yeah see thas one of the problems is that I've only "heard" of good things about Shook, I've have yet to see or find any solid info about his builds. Don't he me wrong, he's very knowledgable and I don't doubt his ability, I'm more curious about his longevity and reliability oh and his ability to make good power. Zavier on the ore hand has had a long history on the forum and has had proven high horse powered builds to back it up. Just like everyone else on the planet I'm more then sure he's not perfect so that's why I want to know how his builds stack up to Shook. Two very different approaches on theory, build styles and ways to obtain customers expectations.

JustAnother7

iTrader: (2)

ZN Performance Freedom of speech(RUN RUN RUN)

fendamonky

iTrader: (6)

I've never heard of Shook, but I would NEVER let rx7store touch my car, much less build my engine. I'd rather do a rebuild in my garage, they just seem too shady and have FLAT OUT lied to me in the past about orders and such.

kanundra

iTrader: (11)

Are you limiting your options to just those two? There's several other good shops in the midwest like Banzai and Howard Coleman, or places to ship like Rotary Resurrection or IRP.

Personally, I used Rotary Resurrection and I am very happy with Kevin's service.

trueimport

iTrader: (8)

Not a fan of banzai. Howard Colman seems legit for sure. I've done a lot of research on IRP and they seem to be leaps and bonds above everyone else and haven't looked into rotary reserection much. ZN performance was only brought I to the mix because he was the original builder and Shook Motorsports is the closest. ZN is a joke. The engine was broke down this weekend and found very disturbing things to say the least.

Gilgamesh

Kevin at rotary resurrection broke down the keg i brought him and pointed out what the cause of failure was and what i needed to buy. very honest guy

Banzai-Racing

iTrader: (11)

Trueimport and his scammer friends have been banned from our shop for years, he is not a fan because we refuse to work on his or his friends cars.

JustAnother7

iTrader: (2)

I will go on the record and say in the past years of seeing and talking to people. That have had there cars worked on from chris from banzai. He is definitely putting out top notch builds and top notch parts. I bought an fd that has some banzai's parts on it, i will say I'm very impressed with the quality of them. At this point i wish i did have Banzai do the build for me, everyone out here says great things about your engines builds Congrats Chris.

Because of how bad i was screwed by ZN performance on a build, but that's whole other thing that will be out soon on a different thread with photos to back up how bad he screwed me. It will be a real long thread. For anyone that has had or will have ZN performance do a build do a compression test right away..Don't believe him when he says your compression is low because of your port job. My engine from day 1, when it left his shop was always 55psi and told me it was because of the full bridge. Even thou my engine was still running, i never felt good about his build, so I just had a shop open my engine and WOW did i get the shaft. To be continued.........

But Chris on a separate matter, i don't think trueimport was saying anything bad about your shop, i think its more of personal preference thats all. all he said was not a fan

Jason

iTrader: (5)

RX-7 store and ZN Performance are different shops. RX-7 Store does not do service or rebuilds. ZN performance advertises on RX-7 Store so service emails are routed to them.

Ball joint

iTrader: (6)

Do we still get banned if you say anything bad about RX7store on this forum?

Just to clarify I noticed fendamonky got banned and there was a rumor a while ago about this and is the only reason I'm asking.

I don't plan on bad mouthing anyone.

trueimport

iTrader: (8)

Don't know, give it a try

fendamonky

iTrader: (6)

As far as I'm aware I've only been banned once, and that was several years ago because Mar3 came into BAW, in the lounge.

Bumpstart was recently threatening to ban me because I was arguing with him and Banzai about some dumb ****, but so far as I'm aware I wasn't actually banned.


Being perfectly honest here, I am NOT a fan of rx7store what-so-ever. I did business with them once and it was quite possibly the worst buying experience I've ever had in the car community. That being said, in my experience Jason has been pretty good about not getting his panties in a wad and throwing out (power-tripping) bans when people speak poorly of him.

So... as a business I have little to no respect for rx7store, but as a moderator I think Jason does a good job of not abusing his power/authority on here. Gotta give credit where it's due

Ball joint

iTrader: (6)

Well, I will say this about ZN performance. They attempted to dyno tune my car and in the process were getting very bad breakup at high RPM. After continuously trying to tune it out the motor popped at one point with low compression in the rear rotor.

I drove the car all the way home to Cleveland on one rotor and pulled the engine so me and my engine builder could rebuild it. Not only did the rear rotor go, but a corner of the from front apex seal had broken as well and was a miracle that it didn't make its way into the engine and blow both rotors.

Zavier was very kind about the entire process and even gave me his personal number if I had problems. Zavier is definitely a stand up guy.

Because of this I decided that i would learn how to tune my own car and bought a datalogit. Upon viewing the map I had seen that he rescalled the PIM values for the higher boost I wanted to run, but never shifted the fuel or timing maps in the process, the motor was getting way too much timing. After we rebuilt the motor I tuned the car myself and rescalling all the fuel and ignition tables and tuned it myself from there.

So while Zavier did let me down he was very good about the entire ordeal and I wouldn't know how to tune cars today if it weren't for him.

Hopefully I don't get banned.

Jason

iTrader: (5)

I lost power to ban when I sold the forum 6-7 years ago or else I would perma ban you right now J/K

trueimport

iTrader: (8)

Isn't perma band an OTC drug? Hahaha

GoodfellaFD3S

iTrader: (213)

No one will get banned simply for speaking their mind.... this includes calling me a power-tripping napolean complex midget (unfortunately)

Being rude, vulgar, or insulting can lead to a ban however

Moving this to the feedback section......

Flying_solo

iTrader: (7)

I just dropped off my motor with Howard Coleman Sunday. He actually drove and met me half way. I buy a lot from Banzai and being a native Hoosier it made sense to support them. But, I want to spread a little of the local Rotary Love to all my MidWestern Companies. Howard has contributed so much to the forum and seems to really know his stuff. It was a done deal for me. I have to say, I'm already a big fan of his level of care for my engine and over all car. He's already torn it down today and given me a quick update. I'm very certain I will have a great motor returned to me within a few weeks.

trueimport

iTrader: (8)

Nice keep us updated for sure

zayrx7

Ok! here is the real story! Trueimport and Justanotherimport are so called best friends off and on, so this is why Jusanotherimport had him start this thread. They are back together and they where Banned from Banzai, I should have learn my lesson along time ago and Banned Sal who is true import too. Johnny was Banned from our shop about 5-7 years ago when a laptop went missing from the shop. Sal became a customer of ours years ago when he had a white fc and everything was good with that, but he sold it, in 2010 he contacted me about building his motor in a FD that he had pick up. After several phone conversation I gave him a hell of a deal $ on building a half bridge motor for his car. He drop the block off to me to build and came back to pick it up the following week, we made plans for him to bring it back down for tuning a couples of weeks later after the motor was broken in. So we take the car to the dyno and the car made 350 at around 20lbs-22lbs of boost, could get the horsepower to go any hire even when turning up the boost. Sal wanted 500 plus horsepower, so I explained to him I can't add anymore timing to the map A/R was 11.6-11.7 and I told him that something else is prevented his car from making more power. We did over 5-6 hours of tuning on the dyno with about 60-100 pulls on the motor so i called it a night at 4am in the morning. I told him it was maybe his turbo or something else choking the motor down, we pulled the turbo apart and found the exhaust blades where bad. Sal returned to Chicago, a week or two later he informed me he had purchased a new turbo and wanted to come back down and tune again, so we head back to the dyno and start tuning again. We made 430-475 rwhp on some pull, but we couldn't make anything over that even while turn the boost up. So we turn the boost up more and hit a lean spot 14 A/f and the motor started having problems, I took the motor out and open it up and discover a corner seal spring had collapsed, which mad the corner seal stick. Sal was with me the hole time during the breakdown of the motor along with one of his friends. Sal informed me since the motor was open again he wanted to do a full bridge to the motor so he can make more power, I informed him that with his set up he should be making a least 500-525 hp with no problems. He wanted the full bridge so I went ahead and did the bridge for him, keep in mind that I did not charge him anything on the pulled and rebuild of the motor. Now here is the funny part, he is claiming i put used damage housing in his motor, when he was right there with me when i put the motor back together. Sal inspected the ports and the exhaust ports I did to his motor before we put it back together. During all of this Sal and I had a pretty good customer relationship, I offer to drive to Chicago to finish retuning his car. I made the trip to Chicago twice, on one trip we couldn't tune the car, because the dyno he had set up was a dyno that had the car sitting up the rear wheels so high I told him i didn't fill comfortable with that much tilt on the oil-pan pickup tub so we stop tuning and I agreed to come back. I mad a second trip to Chicago and we tuned the car again with the same results in horsepower. This is when I asked him who made his manifold and he stated he bought it used and he had his employee do some work on it. I never saw the design of the manifold, when i pulled the motor. Sal had so much heat wrap on it, it was concealed, he in formed me that it was a t4 undivided manifold and he had his employee convert it over to a t4 divided manifold to match his turbo. So I started to look at maybe something else was wrong with the car and I couldn't figure it out. The motor was strong car started up good, so I left Chicago and I told him I would have to think some more on what could be holding it back. While this time Sal was out racing his car at the track and had some good 1/4 times in the 10's, he also told me he had been beating every car he raced and that the car doesn't feel like it only had 430hp. Sal would call me every now and then to talk about the car, one day it was the car is fast, I want to do a 20b and I'm going to sell my car. One day he text me pissed off stating that I screw him big time, he took the car to a shop I assume is Shook motors and had a compression test done and that the compression read out was low. He also stated that they told him I had his leading timing advance to 27 degree's on high boost. I told him his map was only set to see 13 degree's in high boost and that if he had 27 degree's of time at 22lbs that motor would not be running in his car. I asked him has he had any hot started in the car and he stated the car starts up good in cold and hot starts. I informed him to do a cold compression in the morning and to see what the numbers came too, he informed me the numbers were the same as hot. I told him that is impossible the numbers can't be the same if you had low compression.
Then he text me he found out the problem it was the port design, I told him I have been porting engines for over 15 plus years and have had many cars making well over 550 with the same ports. So after a couple more conversations he told me the car runs great and it beating cars, he was going to just leave it the way it was. A week ago Sal called me and stated he wants to freshing his motor up with new seals and also informed me he had a guy he was bring down to have me do a bridge-port on his motor and asked me to give him a good discount. I asked him who was the guy and it took a while for him to tell me and he stated it was Johnny, I told him hell no, I don't want that guy anywhere near my shop. Sal new the deal about the laptop being taking from the shop and I told him I don't trust him. Sal begged me and promise me he didn't steal from us, I finally gave in a gave Sal a price of what I would charge to do the motor. We set a date for first weekend in may, 3 days later he cancel.
I asked him to send me pics of his manifold, since he had pulled the motor out of the car, I was shocked of the pics that he sent me. After years of wonder why is car wouldn't make any power, this was the reason why, all those nasty text he sent me cursing me out demanding I make things right with him. I will let you be the judge with the pics I'm going to post. Sal blew his motor because of debris of metal going in the motor. He didn't break any apex seals in the motor. When I informed him what i thought he still would not take my side, he then tried to say i built his manifold not realizing that he had already stated in his previous text that he stated his employee did it. I told him he is a liar and that I was done talking to him. He informed me he was going to sue me and post stuff on all the car clubs and tell everyone i scam him out of money and built him a motor with bad housing.

zayrx7

pics

trueimport

iTrader: (8)

Ok Zavier that's your side of the story now let me tell mine. First off Trueimport is me and only me. I don't share my user log in with anyone. I have no idea who justanotherimport is, I've never even seen that name on here. Secondly this is how the story goes (as for me and my car. I speak for no one else's). I brought my car to you after a horibal horibal horibal experience with Davinci Motorworks. You DID some good things for my car and did get it back up and running after being in your shop for 11 months. Durring those 11 months my rims were stollen, side skirts broken off the car and the entire car riddled with hail damage. The day I picked my car up from you i was there with my wife and two other pissed off customers that had the same thing happen their cars while at your shop. I'm NOT a thief!!! I would have no reason to steal a freaking laptop! Plus how the hell could I have ever taken it, I was with you and or Jason the entire time either in the shop or up front in the office where you, me, Jason and my wife talked over what happend and how to square that up. My wife and I were never not with one of you. Meanwhile two other customers and one VERY pissed off one I might add where left alone in the shop 100% by themselves with no one watching them. So again I ask how the hell could I have taken it? If you have a way to prove it then by all means please do and Ill be more then happy to replace it. Just because we had some heated words over a bad situation doesn't mean I took your stuff. People argue all the time, and that's just it, and argument. I don't see you pointing the fingers at the other pissed customers! Let me also add that my engine has been puking coolant since the day I left your shop and not once did I ever call you out on it, not once did I ever bash you for it, and not once did I ever request you fix it. No what I did was end that bad relationship and move on. I tried for many many years to work out the cooling issues with this car but to no avail they keep coming back so that's why I've been looking into a rebuild.

Now why do you think I started this thread in the first place? It was to see if you or Shook had any good credibility to go based on and make a good educated decision. I have been tired of getting jerked around with this car and just wanted to get it built properly once and for all. You're right, I did ask Sal to see if you would build my engine again because let's be honest you do have solid building expreiances and do in fact have documented high hp cars on this forum so why wouldn't I want to see if you would build mine. Hell you said it yourself that his car was cracking off quick times and if you are the builder of his car then that's what I want too so again thats why I had him call you to see if you would do it. After pulling my motor this past weekend I was feeling confident that the motor was strong so I was going to leave it and just fix other small things here and there. Sal decided to have another shop do the rebuild instead of you for what ever his own reasons were. That shop offered to switch out my front cover for a very reasonable price. Sals motor was first to be broke down. After seeing what I saw come out of his engine made my stomach turn so I got cold feet about leaving mine as is since you build both our engines. He had quite a few more miles on his than mine even though mine was years prior. Mine has less than 2k on it since you built it. We opened mine to find out that it in fact does have a bad coolant seal as well as a collapsed corner seal and 17 thousandths gap of side seal corner seal clearance. So you answer me this, how if a customer pays for an engine to be fully rebuilt does the tolerances jump to 17 thousandths when Mazda states 2-7 is acceptable? Putting used part in an engine, that's how. And lets not mention the fully blocked coolant passages filled with silicone, the hacked oil pan, the steel braided oil cooler lines and fuel system lines held on with hose clams just to name a few. Your right Zavier you are a top notch guy with top notch perfect builds.

If anyone's looking for pic proof of anything please PM me directly and I'll be more then happy to show your Zaviers stellar craftsmen ship.