Rebuilt S52 lasted 289 miles :/

[e30forlife]

Well my rebuilt s52 only lasted 289 miles :/ Ladies and Gentlemen...Be careful when choosing your shop to build your motor. I informed this shop (European Road & Racing in Charleston SC) that the head had machine work and the block was decked. Turns out every piston was slapping the head! Number 6 piston failed and literally blew up.

I tried my best to work with this shop to fix the problem but have only received a cold shoulder from what I thought was a "reputable shop". I now have a shop that wont fix the issue and a blown motor. They literally just bolted stuff down and gave it back to me. They told me they didnt measure anything. I didnt feel comfortable building this motor because of the knowledge to make sure of clearances etc..

Karl Troy @ European Road & Racing in Charleston SC has given me the cold shoulder and will not work with me. I am at loss of words and have a blown motor. He left me with a hack job and has no care to help out someone that is young with 3 kids.

Im only posting this to let other know to educate themselves and research your decision on the next shop you use. The only good thought I have from this situation is I didn't sell this motor to anyone on R3V.

[613EDRTY]

vibes dude...hate hearing about a forum member getting burned like this. Hopefully Karl Troy will man up and do something for you.

[M-technik-3]

BBB report and maybe a small claims court.

[adonwilson]

Man, so sorry to hear that. There has to be some course of action you can take to recoup at least some of the damage. I'd start making calls

[e30forlife]

Thanks for all the encouragement. Just sucks to put what little money I had into a project like this and end up with nothing...I really thought I had made a good decision on using those guys.

[blunttech]

as stated Small claims court. You can file online Takes 5 minutes

[barry]

The key to building a stroker is in measuring, that way you know your clearances upfront.

Custom pistons are extremely important to be made right, with deep pockets to fit the extreme durations of the cams that are available.

Also shaving and decking causes measurement changes that need to be considered prior to ordering your new custom pistons.

Metal gaskets can also play a part in fine tuning a match between your block and head matting

Measuring the crank height is important to adjust for rods and pistons

[e30forlife]

All 6 Pistons making contact to head :/

[frankenbeemer]

That's disappointing. I don't understand why the shop won't take responsibility for this.

[totheredline]

That sucks man. Hopefully the head isn't totally toast.

[matthugie]

Well my rebuilt s52 only lasted 289 miles :/ Ladies and Gentlemen...Be careful when choosing your shop to build your motor. I informed this shop (European Road & Racing in Charleston SC) that the head had machine work and the block was decked. Turns out every piston was slapping the head! Number 6 piston failed and literally blew up.

I tried my best to work with this shop to fix the problem but have only received a cold shoulder from what I thought was a "reputable shop". I now have a shop that wont fix the issue and a blown motor. They literally just bolted stuff down and gave it back to me. They told me they didnt measure anything. I didnt feel comfortable building this motor because of the knowledge to make sure of clearances etc..

Karl Troy @ European Road & Racing in Charleston SC has given me the cold shoulder and will not work with me. I am at loss of words and have a blown motor. He left me with a hack job and has no care to help out someone that is young with 3 kids.

Im only posting this to let other know to educate themselves and research your decision on the next shop you use. The only good thought I have from this situation is I didn't sell this motor to anyone on R3V.

Can you go into more detail in what you had them do, provided them, etc? Karl has a good reputation, both personally and professionally, so I'm curious about the details here.

[reelizmpro]

The Facebook thread was very heated but I can't find it anymore. Basically, the shop allegedly didn't measure anything, just slapped it together and called it good based on the customer's opinion that it was ready to be assembled. Some felt they didn't need to, some felt that a "good" shop will always measure clearances, ring gap, determine HG thickness, etc when assembling an engine.

[matthugie]

The Facebook thread was very heated but I can't find it anymore. Basically, the shop allegedly didn't measure anything, just slapped it together and called it good based on the customer's opinion that it was ready to be assembled. Some felt they didn't need to, some felt that a "good" shop will always measure clearances, ring gap, determine HG thickness, etc when assembling an engine.

That's what I was guessing happened. IMO this should be a shared blame situation, but it surprises me that Karl and ER&R is completely dismissive.

[Zekerbox]

That's what I was guessing happened. IMO this should be a shared blame situation, but it surprises me that Karl and ER&R is completely dismissive.

This could be a case of not all of the info is being given on how this transpired. This is an example of having accurate documentation whenever you are having expensive custom work done. Get it in writing and have the the shop lay out a work order that details what they are doing. Not sure if either party would be totally liable in this situation.

A side note: Maybe I don't know what I think I do, but couldn't you hear piston to head interference before 300 miles went by?

[Todd Black 88]

Why are the valves not damaged in that picture? If the pistons were contacting the head, you would think the valves would have some marks.