ohioko4s4

I guess his name was Alex, 24 yrs old. No one really knew him at SF. His myspace page I believe was taken down today....what a shame that the jackass in the Altima would do that to an innocent bystander.

Thanks everyone for the comments. I'm really happy with it so far. alittlelessordinary - 2 stage: 50 shot plate and 150 direct port Ray - The stand alone keeps the a/r rock solid for the direct port, but we had trouble getting the a/r dialed in on both stages. We may need a bigger regulator. We basically needed some more runs, but ran out of nitrous Linn - 555/513. We could probably get some more out of it with some more timing, but Patrick knows I won't be on motor much, so we didn't spend much time N/A. Tilley - Thanks. Glad to hear you're back on track! I'd love to get the cars together and give them hell next spring. Sam - Yea, the Z doesn't hook nearly as well at the GT2 did. The stock 19's are worthless. But with the gear lock out and running just the plate kit in 1st and maybe 2nd depending on conditions, I should be ok. The 18" 345 DR's hook much better. Patrick told me he took out a stock GSXR-1000 down in Texas from a 3rd gear roll on just the direct port, but my butt dyno isn't quite sure about that against a good rider. The car is really smooth though, so it's a bit faster than it seems.

Below is a video I shot of the last dyno run we did Monday night after a night of tuning. We still have some minor A/F adjustments to make on the two stage and we decided to continue tuning on the street once the weather warms up next spring. http://videos.streetfire.net/video/23ea4c62-5266-4e4d-a82b-99fc001ad73d.htm I've been really impressed with this car so far. Incredibly smooth power. Rides almost like a luxury car on the highway. We've run a total of 8 bottles through it over the past 30 days and knock on wood, it's been completely drama free. Not a single issue. When built right, these LS7's seem to be pretty bulletproof. Let's have some fun this coming spring

If you registered a supra, I'll buy it from you

We'll be in Akron Monday night on a dyno starting around 8pm or so. PM if you're still interested in coming up and I'll get you directions.

No were using Brubaker's down in Akron.

First, there aren't going to be a bunch of folks running off to get their cars tuned....I posted this as a favor for those who know of Patrick and wanted to either meet him or perhaps get some work done if the timing worked. I appreciate you trying to be protective of your forum family, but I don't fuck around and wouldn't recommend a "swinging dick" nor would I have just anyone work on my cars. Second, wild thing is not his screen name. Like I said earlier, he doesn't post on LS1Tech.

He's not on the forums. In my experience many of the best in the industry occasionally look at them, but rarely if ever post anything. Patrick is an example. He does have a sales guy named Carlos that posts under Hardtop something on CF. Patrick was the lead tuner and engine builder at 21st Century Musclecars which was the only authorized LFE installer in the country. He left 9 months ago to start his own shop. Just 3 guys in a small facility in Dallas. He reminds me a bit of Don Summerton from Accelerated Performance. Young, pretty low key, and very talented. I've been really impressed with him and his work so far. I wouldn't steer you guys wrong

Oh shit, I hope I didn't make a mistake!

will be at my house near Cleveland tomorrow am through Tuesday afternoon if any of you LS guys are interested in a tune. He is one of the country's best with HPtuners. Let me know if you're interested in coming up - he should have some time to put your car on the dyno Sunday/Monday/Tuesday.

Update: Brandon and I spoke. He seemed like an good, honest guy and volunteered to take care of whatever Craig asks in return (within reason). Good for IPS. Accelerated Performance will finish the build and deliver the car to Craig when he returns. For what it's worth, Brandon did talk to Titan to confirm the parts list, but since Titan also doesn't assemble their own motors, they many times aren't the best resource for these types of questions (hence the wrong bearings and wrist pin information). As for Fowler, someone should beat down whoever did the actual machining. Brandon and I both want to see Craig thrilled with his new Supra so since this issue is now resolved, the thread should probably be closed. Jamie

Brandon, Your second post was much better than your first, talking about libel, etc. so that's cool. I got your PM as well, so I'll call you shortly. But let me clear up the speculation going on...Don called me last night bitching about how poorly this motor was machined and assembled and how he can't believe someone would let this type of work leave their shop. By the way, Don does not know anyone from IPS or anything about you guys, so he has no ax to grind. And the reason Don called me in the first place is that he is swamped trying to meet the timeline for my Supra....and this was the last thing he needed to deal with. Craig can't post or read these forums from Iraq, so when I heard about this, it really pissed me off. Partly because I am passionate about kick-ass 2JZ builds. And partly because I feel for this kid. He obviously doesn't earn a lot of money, is risking his life in Iraq, and wants to have something to come back for. By spending the rest of his budget to assemble the head, drop everything into the car, start the tune, only to have it blow up the same day would have probably ended up costing him another $10k to rip everything apart, replace parts, and rebuild everything again. Although he could be independently wealthy, I can only assume that this additional cost would have been nearly impossible for him to justify, not counting the lost time and heartbreak. So that's what got me fired up. Yes, maybe I should have called you first, but I was just flat out pissed about it. And remember, this is a far different situation than the IPS/Tilley nightmare. Tilley is friends with IPS, they were attempting to do some unique things, and Tilley can afford to spend the money. That project should not have failed, but unfortunately it did. Life goes on. But this is a standard Supra build which has been done hundreds of times before. Nothing about this project was cutting edge, so there is no reason for it not to run reliably for years. As for those assuming he randomly bought used parts, that's not the case. I understand that he brought in a used block and crank. Everything else was purchased new. And even if he had used rods, etc, the issue was the quality of the work, not the quality of the parts. If you or anyone else had concerns about what looked like a detonated rod, you would have refused to send it out, right? Or an incorrectly spec'd wrist pin. Don't you know which pins should be used? Or at least called someone familiar with how to properly build these motors to make sure what you sent off was correct? And the excuse that IPS has to order everything is complete BS. Again, these 2JZ builds are standard....we all use pretty much the same parts and if you saw something, anything, that didn't look right, you should have never sent it off to the machine shop. Brandon, this motor was assembled and wrapped, ready to attach the head. There was nothing left for you to do. There is no way you were planning on tearing everything back apart to "look everything over." That's crazy. No ones does that. Plus it's physically impossible for you to have noticed all the fuck-ups once it's assembled anyway. You don't have the tools to do it. Craig trusted you guys to build this motor properly, regardless what machine shop you chose. Whether Fowler used a new machinist or had a bad day, we'll never know. But you guys are responsible for this motor and should have known better than to just drop it off and "play the wait and see game." That's not how a good shop works effectively with their machinist. Don personally oversees all his STi, Evo, Honda, Toyota machining along with the machinist, then assembles it himself after triple checking everything so that he is 100% confident everything is dead on. Yes it takes more time, but that's partly why he has the reputation he does. His mad fab skills are just a plus Obviously Craig is not going to send the motor back to IPS and Fowler, given how it was signed off during the first attempt. So in all fairness, you won't have the opportunity to re-machine everything for free and make it right. But since I believe he lives in the Columbus area, you do have a chance to keep a customer in the future by working out some type of refund once he is available. And I'll be the first one to post that you guys did that. Jamie

Ok, fair enough. You can move it if you like. I'm going to bed and will try to respond to questions in the am.

Well for one the piston was coated, so in addition to being noisy, it would lead to some pretty bad skirt scuffing. But you're right, this particular issue would not have led to catastrophic failure. It's just sloppy work. The issue here was they were way too tight for the power this motor would have made....in fact I doubt they did anything at all to clearance the bearings.

Someone needs to put a stop to the incompetence coming from this shop. Accelerated Performance received a newly built 2JZ a few weeks ago from a local Columbus customer suspecting something might be wrong. So during his off hours, Don did this guy a favor and inspected the build. In all his years, Don said he had never seen work like this before. He found: * Piston bore .001 too big * Mains .0002 UNDER the factory low side limit * Rods .0003 UNDER the factory low side limit * The billet mains were ground with what looked like a belt sander leaving no crush for the main cap * Wrong wrist pins * Wrong bearings * Dirt throughout the bearings * Crooked thrust bearing The thrust bearing would have fucked the motor within minutes...all the other rookie mistakes would have at least let the motor run until it hit the dyno for the break-in In all seriousness, this is complete bullshit. I admit I used to laugh at the stuff I heard going on with their customers over the years, but this latest fuck up pissed me off. The guy works his ass off for the little money he earns to build his dream car and it's now going to probably cost him $1500 to re-machine everything....assuming Don can even fix the caps. Shame on you IPS for fucking this kid over. Stick to installing exhausts and the occasional BBK. You have no business touching a motor, let alone building one. And don't blame the machine shop. Don triple checks everything at the machine shop before he assembles. The customer came to you and you are responsible for assuring it's done right. IPS - refunding his money would be a start to fixing this mess. Jamie

One would think! I have severe ADD....

Don't sell it! Learn from my mistakes....I've regretted every car I've sold

Trent and I were up there last Sunday, it was liking having our own track rental...but with tech

Russells are the best dogs in the world I love mine! Post pics when you get him!!!

Good luck with your project Sam.

Sell it and buy Trent's Evo

Bill, I was in the CGT. David did hit the brakes because we both thought we jumped the start. Once Trent spooled we chased him. We started around 4500 in 2nd but would be happy to hear your suggestion on which gear we should have been in.

I was in the CGT and I'd put money that it would have beaten the modded GT if they both left on time....but probably not by much. We hit the brakes and both jumped out pretty good on us. Trent pulled away hard, but we pulled slightly on the GT while we were chasing it. Post the video.

That's what I thought too until I drove it. I've had an opportunity to drive an F1, Murci, 360, etc. over the years and the GT "feels" so much better than all of them. Plus trapping low 130's on pump gas bone stock is fast enough to have fun for at least a month

Yea, although I'm seriously considering selling everything with a motor in my garage to buy one in the future (and still take out a loan), with my mentality, I'm afraid I'd fuck it all up by trying to mod it