Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

  • 3 weeks later...
  • Replies 85
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

My Experience with Richard...

Dropped 180sx off there November 2006. Many of you may have seen my car in there, it took them 12 months to build a boat anchor so in that time it collected its fair share of black carbon dust and scratches.

2804891_1_full.jpg

Had spun a big end bearing due to wrong type of filter blowing off on another dyno.

Wanted him to rebuild engine, with darton sleeves and 90mm CP pistons.

Supplied him the sleeves and pistons on day 1. Give 1000 cash deposit.

2 weeks later drop off Pauter COnnecting Rods

2 months later (this is how long it takes obviously to inspect engine) he tellsme the crank is scorched and will need a new one.

Phone Japanese Garage, grab Brian Crower stroker crankshaft, Milos drives the thing up to my house the same day and ATS have it the day after.

Work again begins on the engine.

Now... it takes them 6 months to get the machining done. Then another 2 to assemble the engine. I have paid 5000 in cash, and the only parts they needed to supply were a set of ARP main/head studs, which apparently are 700 all up.

The engine blows smoke like a bitch and Richard starts saying it could be the head/sleeves/rings (which they had the work done on).

After another month they have pulled apart the engine to see what is wrong.

"Oh the darton sleeves you supplied arent suitable for turbocharged engines and failed..."

Oh Richard, aren't those the same sleeves used in this ...

<--- 11,000rpm 1400hp gt45r s15

which were also handed to you on day 1, 10 months ago? (dont rememberyou mentioning anything about darton being NA sleeves then)

He then has the gall to send mean updated invoice requesting ANOTHER $9000 in labour, which includes the cost of pulling apart the engine to see what went wrong, and the cost of over $1000 dyno tuning a stuffed engine.

You be the judge.

Luckily now I have letters from darton, mazworx, jack bros. and other 'reputable' shops showing his incompetence.

Edited by simvgas
My Experience with Richard...

Dropped 180sx off there November 2006. Many of you may have seen my car in there, it took them 12 months to build a boat anchor so in that time it collected its fair share of black carbon dust and scratches.

2804891_1_full.jpg

Had spun a big end bearing due to wrong type of filter blowing off on another dyno.

Wanted him to rebuild engine, with darton sleeves and 90mm CP pistons.

Supplied him the sleeves and pistons on day 1. Give 1000 cash deposit.

2 weeks later drop off Pauter COnnecting Rods

2 months later (this is how long it takes obviously to inspect engine) he tellsme the crank is scorched and will need a new one.

Phone Japanese Garage, grab Brian Crower stroker crankshaft, Milos drives the thing up to my house the same day and ATS have it the day after.

Work again begins on the engine.

Now... it takes them 6 months to get the machining done. Then another 2 to assemble the engine. I have paid 5000 in cash, and the only parts they needed to supply were a set of ARP main/head studs, which apparently are 700 all up.

The engine blows smoke like a bitch and Richard starts saying it could be the head/sleeves/rings (which they had the work done on).

After another month they have pulled apart the engine to see what is wrong.

"Oh the darton sleeves you supplied arent suitable for turbocharged engines and failed..."

Oh Richard, aren't those the same sleeves used in this ...

<--- 11,000rpm 1400hp gt45r s15

which were also handed to you on day 1, 10 months ago? (dont rememberyou mentioning anything about darton being NA sleeves then)

He then has the gall to send mean updated invoice requesting ANOTHER $9000 in labour, which includes the cost of pulling apart the engine to see what went wrong, and the cost of over $1000 dyno tuning a stuffed engine.

You be the judge.

Luckily now I have letters from darton, mazworx, jack bros. and other 'reputable' shops showing his incompetence.

wow so then what happend? have you got your car back?

thought id add, after 3 weeks waiting for an update from them, i got fed up and went and collected my car this mornig, when i got there i was told by richard that he tested another r34 auto ecu ((from the guys next door!!!)) and the same error came up, he then inspected the coil packs to discover voltage errors, so he made a new earth for them and bam says im not sure if problem is fixed but take it and let me knwo if it happens..

anyway i took it away and my dad and i went and did 212 kms of driving up to glass house mountains giving it a bit of flog , and no warning lights, car is fine.

im so glad that i didnt buy a haltech under the impression from them that my ecu was f**ked, BUT IM ANNOYED I WAITED 3 WEEKS FOR A EARTH WIRE.....(considering they told me they extensivly tested the car to make sure it was def the ecu... and guarenteed me that it was..

I wont be going back there,

Edited by Silver_R34_GT-T
Eventually got car back after he threatened to keep and sell it.

Now in a legal battle. Anyone willing to help with anything would be appreciated.

Cheers

I remember seeing your car there twice i think ( in between 5000k services ) and its a really nice car mate, i just assumed it was some project they were doing, Like that green r33 thats always on the hoist at the back, )

That car has been there for ages!!! You were damn lucky it didn't get torched when they had the fire on the dyno. Your car was absolutely covered in foam and powder from the extinguishers!!! Am also surprised there wasn't more dents/scratches as it was never moved much to make way for other projects. I too go elsewhere now... took a couple of rebuilds though...

That car has been there for ages!!! You were damn lucky it didn't get torched when they had the fire on the dyno. Your car was absolutely covered in foam and powder from the extinguishers!!! Am also surprised there wasn't more dents/scratches as it was never moved much to make way for other projects. I too go elsewhere now... took a couple of rebuilds though...

oh well there ya go. didnt even know that. all i know is the awesome paint and panel i had done at Adrenalin is looking pretty average.

massive gash on the back bar that was never fixed. imagine saying darton liners are only for NA engines though... you could write what he knows about engine building on the back of a stamp with a crayon. awesome if you have an old peugeot 205 though thats just not quote right and needs a haltech e11.

Like that green r33 thats always on the hoist at the back, )

It belongs to a mate of mine... He ended up buying an R34 GTR cause it was taking to long...

You should have a close look at that r33 tho, its show car quality paint and panel is one of a kind with moulded bumpers (cost just under $20g in panel work)

Hey Col, not being a smart arse or anything, but I thought u were abig fan of Allstar...

Not really, I just researve many opinions from posting on the forums thats all...

Im a bit of a positive spin type of guy, you know look on the upside...

All I said is in this thread was for every good experience you hear about there is at least 10 bad experiences posted...

Its rare to find a shop with a absolute smick record, hence why I do all my own work (within reason)...

That all said I have disagreed with Richard on a few occasions and when I did the second dyno day in 2007 I choose to use Godzilla instead due to many reasons...

I also have spoken with Bryn quite abit about his situation in th past few weeks and told him to go and get the car as what Richard was suggesting was not the right solution...

So in short officially no im not a fan of this particular establishment...

I had a few good experiences and a few bad ones with Allstar, not my first choice is another way to put it...

It belongs to a mate of mine... He ended up buying an R34 GTR cause it was taking to long...

You should have a close look at that r33 tho, its show car quality paint and panel is one of a kind with moulded bumpers (cost just under $20g in panel work)

Haha! Your on the money there man, it has been there since around october last year... I'm just getting them to put the front suspension back in so i can roll it out of there back to another shed. Going to hang onto the shell to possibly complete the project one day :cheers: On another note, my brother took his WRX there when it was blowing smoke, they diagnosed (literally without doing anything more then listening to it and viewing the smoke) that it was a blown turbo and did up all the quotes and pricing. He took it to subaru for a second opinion, turned out to by bad fuel...

thought id add, after 3 weeks waiting for an update from them, i got fed up and went and collected my car this mornig, when i got there i was told by richard that he tested another r34 auto ecu ((from the guys next door!!!)) and the same error came up, he then inspected the coil packs to discover voltage errors, so he made a new earth for them and bam says im not sure if problem is fixed but take it and let me knwo if it happens..

anyway i took it away and my dad and i went and did 212 kms of driving up to glass house mountains giving it a bit of flog , and no warning lights, car is fine.

im so glad that i didnt buy a haltech under the impression from them that my ecu was f**ked, BUT IM ANNOYED I WAITED 3 WEEKS FOR A EARTH WIRE.....(considering they told me they extensivly tested the car to make sure it was def the ecu... and guarenteed me that it was..

I wont be going back there,

Since then,.... 4 days after collecting the car, the lgihts have come back on, BUT im fairly certain its coil packs, so im going to replace them and see what happens. still, ive been told by a mate that the coils shouldnt have the second earth that they have wried to my battery as its going to cause issues, so i might remove taht when putting new ones in.

GOt Boost, what were you doing with the Green r33? track car or daily?

Since then,.... 4 days after collecting the car, the lgihts have come back on, BUT im fairly certain its coil packs, so im going to replace them and see what happens. still, ive been told by a mate that the coils shouldnt have the second earth that they have wried to my battery as its going to cause issues, so i might remove taht when putting new ones in.

GOt Boost, what were you doing with the Green r33? track car or daily?

Was going to be a daily, had a RB25/30 with T04Z, gearbox rebuilt with PAR gearset and a whole lot of shit all done for it, then when the motor was finished (6 months) i decided to sell it all off and go for the GTR. All i have left now is the shell, suspension and wheels and stuff like that.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • I had 3 counts over the last couple of weeks once where i got stranded at a jdm paint yard booking in some work. 2nd time was moving the car into the drive way for the inspection and the 3rd was during the inspection for the co2 leak test. Fix: 1st, car off for a hour and half disconnected battery 10mins 4th try car started 2nd, 5th try started 3rd, countless time starting disconnected battery dude was under the hood listening to the starting sequence fuel pump ect.   
    • This. As for your options - I suggest remote mounting the Nissan sensor further away on a length of steel tube. That tube to have a loop in it to handle vibration, etc etc. You will need to either put a tee and a bleed fitting near the sensor, or crack the fitting at the sensor to bleed it full of oil when you first set it up, otherwise you won't get the line filled. But this is a small problem. Just needs enough access to get it done.
    • The time is always correct. Only the date is wrong. It currently thinks it is January 19. Tomorrow it will say it is January 20. The date and time are ( should be ! ) retrieved from the GPS navigation system.
    • Buy yourself a set of easy outs. See if they will get a good bite in and unthread it.   Very very lucky the whole sender didn't let go while on the track and cost you a motor!
    • Well GTSBoy, prepare yourself further. I did a track day with 1/2 a day prep on Friday, inpromptu. The good news is that I got home, and didn't drive the car into a wall. Everything seemed mostly okay. The car was even a little faster than it was last time. I also got to get some good datalog data too. I also noticed a tiny bit of knock which was (luckily?) recorded. All I know is the knock sensors got recalibrated.... and are notorious for false knock. So I don't know if they are too sensitive, not sensitive enough... or some other third option. But I reduced timing anyway. It wasn't every pull through the session either. Think along the lines of -1 degree of timing for say, three instances while at the top of 4th in a 20 minute all-hot-lap session. Unfortunately at the end of session 2... I noticed a little oil. I borrowed some jack stands and a jack and took a look under there, but as is often the case, messing around with it kinda half cleaned it up, it was not conclusive where it was coming from. I decided to give it another go and see how it was. The amount of oil was maybe one/two small drops. I did another 20 minute session and car went well, and I was just starting to get into it and not be terrified of driving on track. I pulled over and checked in the pits and saw this: This is where I called it, packed up and went home as I live ~20 min from the track with a VERY VERY CLOSE EYE on Oil Pressure on the way home. The volume wasn't much but you never know. I checked it today when I had my own space/tools/time to find out what was going on, wanted to clean it up, run the car and see if any of the fittings from around the oil filter were causing it. I have like.. 5 fittings there, so I suspected one was (hopefully?) the culprit. It became immediately apparent as soon as I looked around more closely. 795d266d-a034-4b8c-89c9-d83860f5d00a.mp4       This is the R34 GTT oil sender connected via an adapter to an oil cooler block I have installed which runs AN lines to my cooler (and back). There's also an oil temp sensor on top.  Just after that video, I attempted to unthread the sensor to see if it's loose/worn and it disintegrated in my hand. So yes. I am glad I noticed that oil because it would appear that complete and utter catastrophic engine failure was about 1 second of engine runtime away. I did try to drill the fitting out, and only succeeded in drilling the middle hole much larger and now there's a... smooth hole in there with what looks like a damn sleeve still incredibly tight in there. Not really sure how to proceed from here. My options: 1) Find someone who can remove the stuck fitting, and use a steel adapter so it won't fatigue? (Female BSPT for the R34 sender to 1/8NPT male - HARD to find). IF it isn't possible to remove - Buy a new block ($320) and have someone tap a new 1/8NPT in the top of it ($????) and hope the steel adapter works better. 2) Buy a new block and give up on the OEM pressure sender for the dash entirely, and use the supplied 1/8 NPT for the oil temp sender. Having the oil pressure read 0 in the dash with the warning lamp will give me a lot of anxiety driving around. I do have the actual GM sensor/sender working, but it needs OBD2 as a gauge. If I'm datalogging I don't actually have a readout of what the gauge is currently displaying. 3) Other? Find a new location for the OEM sender? Though I don't know of anywhere that will work. I also don't know if a steel adapter is actually functionally smart here. It's clearly leveraged itself through vibration of the motor and snapped in half. This doesn't seem like a setup a smart person would replicate given the weight of the OEM sender. Still pretty happy being lucky for once and seeing this at the absolute last moment before bye bye motor in a big way, even if an adapter is apparently 6 weeks+ delivery and I have no way to free the current stuck/potentially destroyed threads in the current oil block.
×
×
  • Create New...