Unfortunately IPS strikes again....

[Kevin R.]

Eli, I understand this, and unfortunatly Jamie has made us aware of this before the customer, once we hear the issue from our customer who spent their hard earned money we will resolve that then; its hard to solve a problem you did not realize was a problem. We are very good people to work with, and I am certain that the owner of this motor will take any issue he has up with us.

 

Jamie has a point, we do look over motors, you would be ignorant not to as a performance shop. But this was a tricky situation on this motor, as we never had a chance to literally unwrap it. The day we picked the motor up from the machine shop, was the day the customers father came in to take it home till his son gets back over the holidays. The customer sent us used parts off a forum not knowing their condition, neither did we; the parts arrived, and we sent them to the machine shop, and the waiting game began. He then decieded to go a differnt direction with the cars build up due to choosing a differnt engine managment system unrealted to the motor (he is serving in Iraq right now and I hope like all other service men he is well as I have not heard from him in a month now). He spoke very highly of us through the whole process of the motor build, and we told him exaclty everything he every asked, he was happy with who was going to be doing the machine work, as were we. Unfortunatly it seems from Jamie's post we may have some issues to work out. IPS does, and has always taken responsibility for our customers issues an complaints, this time will be no different. There is always a twist to a story when you want it to be percieved a certain way, this is why we have lawers an a judical system, an it seems Jamie is the unassigned prosecutor.

 

I see no need like Brian said, to drag any names through the mud, but some feel the need, thats politics; you have to play the game Hillary says.

 

Interesting though once the truth comes out IE Greg powers then people stop crying wolf. This is all the more IPS will delve into the topic.

 

-Brandon

 

I don't remember where you were during all the last IPS vs. XXXX debates or if you have just changed your tune but I say "bravo" to that response as a representative of your company.

[thorne]

Yeah, Thats kinda uncooth for Jamie to come on here and talk like A. IPS built the block. B. He's the customer. Ok maybe you like your shop (AP) but does that give you a right to rip into another shop for a issue that they were not even made aware of? OR Given a chance to make right.

 

When I had my downpipe put on it rattled. This was a DP I purchased myself against Brandons suggestion. Well it was a figment issue of my China bay pipe. When i made a comment to Brandon about all of this it was REPAIRED at no charge to me.

 

I think honestly Jamie you jumped the gun and should let the parties involved deal with the issue.

 

BTW Brandon thanks for getting me in Friday on such short notice and staying a bit late to let me finish up my tune.

[GRN96WS6]

Why can't the kid who this happened to post this shit? Why is it always a friend of theirs?

 

Secondly why the fuck wouldn't you go to IPS FIRST then post something if the resolution isn't up to your standards?

 

Another reason why people suck.

[SpaceGhost]

This is not going to the kitchen, keep it clean, they are a sponsor of ours and I'm sure they will do whatever is necessary to resolve the issue. Any bullshit will get your post deleted. I really don't see a need for anyone else to post in this thread since Jamie and IPS have responded. Nothing will be solved on here. When IPS resolves this dispute they may post the outcome if they wish. I think that is what we should wait for.

[Big Steve]

It would be easy for the kid to talk if he was not in Iraq! Read the posts guys. Waiting game it is!

[Scotty2Hotty]

I see what IPS is saying. When people buy parts off the internet or forums, they're putting full trust into someone that the part is 100% correct. There honestly shouldn't be much fault at all in IPS if the kid bought some random ass parts ONLINE. People are always trying to save a buck by buying their parts online, but are always salty when it's wrong or places like IPS can not install it. Where I work, we charge more than our normal install rate if the customer BRINGS us his/her parts. We have no way of knowing that the parts are correct for that specific vehicle. I wouldn't blame IPS just yet.

[SpaceGhost]

if the kid bought some random ass parts offline.

 

Scott when you buy parts on the internet, you don't buy them "offline", you buy them "ONline". You have no Idea how many people say this and it sounds so retarded.

[Scotty2Hotty]

Scott when you buy parts on the internet, you don't buy them "offline", you buy them "ONline". You have no Idea how many people say this and it sounds so retarded.

SORRY EBAY parts there, ONLINE.

[SpaceGhost]

Thank you.

[Guest Hal]

This is why we rarely install customer supplied parts. If we do, there is no warranty of parts or labor.

[hpfiend]

Sort of off topic but I can't believe some people are willing to install used internal engine parts anyhow!!! I was over at another shop and someone was paying to have a used camshafts installed. The labor costs on these parts or the PITA involved if you are doing it yourself is NOT WORTH the money you are saving if they are damaged/wore out/ or wrong/ how many of you would pull out perfectly good camshafts, connecting rods, pistons, etc if something catastrophic didn't go wrong with the engine.... if someone is pulling it out of a junkyard motor, how do you know what that engine went through, if that guy isn't installing the parts in his engine do you think he is being as careful as he should be with those fragile machined surfaces, covering rod bolts with rubber caps, etc... IMO not worth the risk....

 

But again- there is no excuse for some of the issues that were discovered.

 

Also as someone else astutely pointed out- the customer is not currently in the country, he is in IRAQ.

[Scotty2Hotty]

Thank you.

You're welcome, my grammar thanks you. Same as what Hal said, no way to warranty parts/labor on parts that are brought in by a customer. Saving a dollar goes so far in the automotive world. If you go cheap, you'll get cheap for the most part.

[ohioko4s4]

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

[ohioko4s4]

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

[SpaceGhost]

eye eye