Hey guys, i posted 2 months ago how i was stacking a second short stack intercooler, adding a new wizair cai, smaller pulley, ported the inlet of the supercharger to match a northstar throttle body kit as well as running e85. i originally brought the car running to the shop on august 6th with the parts in my friends car that followed me to the shop. the car RAN mint and was driven to the shop the day the work was going to be started.
long story short, the car sat for sometime because a few parts were ordered wrong for my build but the mechanic seemed to neglect the car on the side of his building even when correct parts were received at his shop. he kept pushing it off on the second to last friday in august he told me that day that he would get all of this done in 1 day because he was taking a week vacation that he sprung upon me last minute and that the car would sit until e got back. anyway the car was at his ship for 1 month. the worst part is that i didn't realize that the hood would not close due to the raising of the blower from the second intercooler. he tells me this as everything is back together so now the hood sits 3 inches from the bumper where it closes.
while this is happening the fuel buckets for the injectors did not reach so i had to drive an hour away to go to a performance shop that had another set so i could double bucket the injectors to fit to the rails, and the hour ride back. as this occurred the car had sat for a few more days on the side of his shop and of course it rained and the hood was left in its 3inch opening on the side of his building. anyone could just walk over and open the hood and steal parts and cut wires. the mechanic did not even offer to buy a bike lock just to make me feel secure.
i asked him constantly to put it in his shop but he said" when I'm alone i can't the car is too heavy and the garage is slightly uphill" i said yeah but thats your job you took it on how would you feel if your car was in a low class area and easy to open the hood and steal parts? he goes "well no one really mods these cars and by the way its been out here most of the time and it would have happened already". that didn't sit right with me. i bought a bike lock myself just to feel a bit secure yet i know they can be cut. the worst part of the story is this. i have dated pictures of when the car was sitting, guys....he did not cover the current intercooler core on the car or even the intake opening when it was being built. there was a few rainstorms and since the hood is 3 inches sitting on a block so it doesn't break my wiring harness, you know water and moisture had to get into the engine.
i didn't even think that this could happen because i was so focused on getting the car flatbedded out of there and to my tuner. the tuner receives the car and drained the 93 octane. he puts in the e85 and puts a base tune on the pcm and did not adjust the timing yet to be safe. he calls me up and says "your motor seems like its shot there is loud banging noises coming from the valve train" I'm freaking out at this point so i drive down to the tuner that lives an hour away and hear it for myself. we don't let the car run long as it barely wanted to start after 5 cranks. by the way guys the original mechanic told me that the spark plug wires might not be in the right place, so i called him and my tuner spoke to him and yea they were in the wrong place.
i paid the mechanic 2200$ and the job technically was not complete. how do you not look up a diagram to put the wires back in the right spot? you were paid to complete a job and you did not. whatever i didnt care i wanted this car running. anyway my tuner said he would need to rip off everything and get into the lower intake manifold and check it out. i said go for it. so guess what? the car ran find the day i dropped it off to the mechanic. it didn't run for a month while part installation. the tuner found a bent pushrod, and a shot lifter, and also my engine was HYDROLOCKED!. he said this is probably from the mechanic neglecting to cover the open parts. how could water get in the engine guys?
it drove fine the day i brought it to the mechanic and i had my new trans installed. don't you think the trans guy would have noticed something? also he said the cam took a beating because the bottom of the lifter was shot. so i bought an xpz cam, new ls7 lifters and new pushrods and the whole job now with hopefully draining the hydro engine is 3700$. I'm in the whole big time here. my mechanic has no idea it went this far with problems. honeslty the tuner said he will take pictures and include everything on the bill because i think i am taking legal action at this point. everything was fine up until i gave it to the mechanic. i should have stayed with my normal tuner but this mechanic was a good family friend and he said he could do it. apparently not. any advice guys? thanks for reading. i really think i should take this guy to court p.s. if i could post pics for you guys i would but the site hates my iPhone !

 

Also the car is an 03 with only 76k on the clock and has been heavily modded for 5k mikes

 

I'm trying to read the story but I keep stumbling on what is the next line to read. Can you modify your original post and break it into paragraphs. Makes it much easier for the rest of us to read it since it's obviously a long story

 

i agree with habbibie, that was VERY hard to read!

so the tuner drained the 93 octane and filled with e85, got a base tune on it then said something is wrong with the engine? then says its hydrolocked? i believe if it was hydrolocked it would of never ran long enough to get a base tune on it.

second why are you stacking intercoolers on top of intercoolers? just buy a full stack and be done with this. your now gonna have to modify the hood a lot and/ or get cradle spacers to help with clearance.

also how did he put a base tune on the car if it was misfiring from plug wires being wrong? was his base tune done with a misfire? if i were you i would be checking the bottom end of that engine as well if it was loud banging noises.....

you should of never took the car to a mechanic that couldnt tune it and have it running correctly but since you did and you paid him and took the car its your word against his on what happened to that car once it left his shop. also by you taking it and paying for services that closes that transaction, if you had issues with his work you should of not paid, left the car there and lawyered up against him.

IMO there is too many hands in the pot to point fingers to who is the cause of the engine failure now, your gonna have to buck up and deal with it, move on, and learn from your mistakes

 

that does not matter if i paid and the job was done.he had the car and it was his responsibility, also i forgot to mention that after the build he did not even want to start the car even with 93 in it. with the current tune the car was on would have been fine just to turn the engine over but to me that means he had a feeling something went wrong with his install. buck up? Im paying thousands of dollars to have this car running again and its been 2.5 months and I'm handling quite well as now I'm starting to get a little anxious. according to the tuner and also me thinking about the situation, i have documented pictures of the engine parts left open as well as the hood left open. the car ran fine until it was in his hands and the only explanation for water in the engine is the open hood and open parts which is his problem not mine. i stacked the ic because a stage 2 would not fit my build as it was originally an l36 m90 kit but i changed it to a front belt setup. bottom line is that it ran fine to his shop and after his neglect to cover open parts with an open hood , left outside during rainstorms the engine because hydrolocked because water got inside the engine. how else wouldd it be hydrolocked and why would my pushrod bend? i never beat on the car and never floored it.
Also, receiving a bill from the tuner with detailed info on repair is what he will be billed for because thats bs. if it was your car you would probably be infuriated more than me because you probably spent thousands more than i did on the car for your build. I do realize I should have stayed with my tuner. I appreciate your input as it helps me with this scenario and please don't take it with any offense but more as a debate turbo. Thanks

 

the hood was not the whole way open it was cracked, i dont see no way rain flooded that engine by not having the intake opening covered or the intercooler core covered.

as i said before hopefully you learned to not have a shop do the work if there not willing to tune it. im sure you are anxious, my one build took my 7 months so i know all about anxious. he may of got coolant in there from doing the intercooler core install but not rain water i doubt. and if im not mistaking if it was hydorlocked it would of never even turned over to start. further more a hydrolocked engine bends connecting rods and damages the bottom end. a pushrod can bend from a failed lifter though.

trust me i had a trans built by a guy and it was not done right, nothing i could do other than deal with it and have someone else fix the mistake on my dollar. infuriated? yes! move on, fix it, and learn from mistakes on who to trust? YES!

 

Got ya but the hood was literally 3-3.5 inches lifted all around tho that's the thing water defiantly got in especially with wind

 

I believe if it was truly hydro-locked before the tuner got the car, as Turbo Monte said, the car never should have started. So, bottom line, if the car started and ran, I don't see the rain water being a factor here. The hood should have protected it 90% from the rain (I agree that a little more care should have been done to protect the engine while it was open, maybe a tarp, towl, something, but that's me and how I do things).
So if it hydrolocked while your tuning guy had the car, my question is, what cause fluid to get in the cylinders while he ran the car? Is the fluid anti-freeze, water, fuel?

I remember the push rod/lifter story from another thread. Has a root cause been found why that happened? I think either wrong parts were put in, bad install or somewhere is a geometry problem.

Sounds like you were never a fan of the neighborhood your mechanic worked out of (which would discourage me from the strart from going to him). It also sounds like this mechanic should have been vetted a little, how many performance builds has he done (or does he just do break/fix work), how is his customer service (not sounding too good), and any other questions/concerns. Based on this story, this guy is not used to this type of work and he should have walked away from this project.

This is all part of why I am my own mechanic. If the stuff goes bad, I am the one to blame.

My honest opinion, I am not sure there is enough based on what I read so far to support a legal case.

I'm sorry how much this is costing, along with the added stress. I hope something turns around favorable.

 

Thanks guys. I'm going to call the tuner because I'm
Thinking about what you said about it not being hydrolocked he said that there is water in one of the cylinders. You guys are saying that the car wouldn't start at all if it was hydrolocked but it's definitely possible there is still water in the cylinders. I don't think he would make that up. Would the car still start with water in one of the cylinders? I guess it shouldn't be called hydrolocked than idk he wouldn't make this up.

 

The car will not even turn over if a cylinder is full of water. The only way it would turn over is if the water was drained or the connecting rod snapped on the cylinder that has water in it...... water doesn't compress like air that's why it's impossible to start if water is in the cylinder.