Redzee

I have seen guys make there own out of a damaged old head, just mill the cylinder bore through them. The worst thing about having someone local do the the l-series head is that very few people have the same expertiise that Jim Thomspon aquiired through all his developement, I still find it hard to fathom a guy with that kind of reputation doing such a thing

I appreciate that Tony I guess had I been on here prior to that it would have been interesting to have someone question him..I have not had any luck at all trying to get any type of communication at all for a very long time now

I have been in contact with Jim Thompson since October of 2011, while he was still at Kinetic. I was wanting him to build a head for a NA L28 that I have had since the mid 80's. The block had be worked and detailed with threaded oil gallery plugs as was the crank, all casting flash had been removed etc. The demise of the motor was theft, someone had stolen the cylinder head and carbs. The real problem with putting the motor back together was the domed pistons, the head would have to have someone knowledgeable with the L series heads, open up the combustion chambers to get the compression down to a street-able level. This is where Jim was the most desirable choice in my opinion. I also like the idea of his custom ground camshafts. Well to make a long story short I was put off by Jim from October 2011 until July 2013, reason being that Kinetic's racing program had him just swamped, with all the track time as well as with the development of the Optima's. I had maintained contact with him through out, and he did express interest in doing the build. In July 2013 we had a conversation with him asking if I was still interested in doing the build, he had left Kinetic and now would have time to again build customer engines, well I was elated. Upon discussing the project, we decided to ditch the almost 30 year old Venolia pistons in favor of new type construction forged pistons, so it was decided that the entire engine would be sent to GA, and Jim would assess it, supply a complete head, check the detailed, peened rods etc. Basically go through everything and build a bullet proof autocross/street engine to run on pump gas. The engine was to be complete by the end of September 2013. Perfect right. I sent Jim a little over $4000.00 to get started, before long the head was complete, according to Jim, he needed more money for parts, then more money, then he had a Stahl header he would sell me, then another $1000.00 for a customs bond. Anyway by the end August $10,000.00 had gone his way. Okay, I'm excited, after almost 30 years I will have the motor of my dreams resurrected, and it will be even better than before. The motor and all of the parts needed to assemble the motor are in a custom built crate, all enclosed in plywood, so no damage could come to my prize possession. The only problem is that the crate is still in my garage, not in GA at the machine shop. Well Jim was busy, he was in Europe with the Lambos, all over the US at the race tracks, running 4,5, even 6 cars. But he guaranteed he would get my motor picked up and built. Promised pictures of my head and parts, He had trusted people at the machine shop, no pictures, engine still in my garage. I gave Jim the option of getting out of the deal, since he did not have time for the build, but no, I want to get this done for you he said, he guaranteed, the motor would get picked up, never did. I asked for my money back, my parts if he had them, no just let me build this for you he said, I guarantee, you will have the motor by April, 2014, Okay he was very convincing, after all why would a man with Jim's reputation do anything but the honorable thing , he is just very busy right? Well to expedite things after yet again being reassured by Jim that this was indeed going to happen, I arranged the shipping, Jim was going to look after the customs end of things since I had already sent him money to do that, so the motor finally left my garage in the first part of March, boy was I excited, we had talked about me flying to GA to witness the engine go together, and to meet this amazing engine guru, it was an event of a lifetime for me. the motor would be there in a week, Jim had all the parts, a few weeks and it would be a dream come true.....not so the motor ended up stranded at the border for almost three weeks, customs paperwork was not done by JIm, Customs people were hounding him, freight company was hounding him, Finally 19 days later the motor was en-route to the machine shop. Oh but there were storage charges, guess who got the bill, yup, yours truly, although Jim said he paid them, he never did provide and documentation of such to the freight company. Anyway to cut to the chase, the motor did make it to the machine shop, sat there for almost 9 months, exactly as it had arrived, countless texts, emails, promises of phone calls, parts, spec sheets and money being sent to the machine shop, none of which happened. I talked to the owner of the machine shop and I was not the only one looking for Jim Thompson, there were others in the same boat as me, I personally spoke to two people, and with me included Jim had $48,000.00 and the three of us had nothing but empty promises. After not having a telephone conversation with Jim for almost 3 months( not due to lack of trying) I , under the advise of my lawyer had the motor brought home, and it arrived as it had left, the box never being opened. I have tried to contact Jim via Telephone, email and text with no response for months, other than one day mid November I was blowing up his phone and he text ed that he was in Malaysia and would be back on the 26th. Now here I sit with all the money I had to allocate to my engine gone, and the motor the same as it has been since 1985...in pieces Thank you Mr Thompson, I sincerely hope no one gets caught in the same situation, and if anyone one has any information on the where a bouts and dealings of James D. Thompson, former proprietor of Sunbelt Engines, that they get in touch with me. Thank you for reading about my experience

Thank you to all that pass this on, I have personally spoken to individuals that are in a similar situation with Jim and have had no luck with the return of their money or getting the work done. I know he is highly competent and regarded in the racing world, and I cannot begin to speculate on what circumstances have transpired to have him behave and treat customers as he has me and others, I only hope that by word getting out that others will not have to deal with the financial loss and frustration that I've dealt with. Oh and of course if there is a miraculous change of events and Jim does at least make some attempt to make things right, I will gladly inform one and all of what transpires

hmm interesting, yes it is a strange hiccup

I found a guy willing to go for a test drive with his tech II program to see if we can capture what the computer is seeing when the thing falls on its face, got my fingures crossed

even smooth shift,

Electrical short in the MAF and IAT to ECU

haha, no not drag racing this time of year, little too slippery, cold pavement or ice LOL, yes even on the street if you go hard from third to fourth, no clutch slippage, tires hook good in second, 3.55 rear end ratio, fuel pressure is cockpit visiible, maybe a short when the load on the engine increases with the higher gear??

I shift a 6000 to 6200rpm

I rarely eat big greasy hamburgers

fuel pressure is consistant at 60 psi, fuel tank and filters are clean, running 1/4 mile, no sputtering or missing just no power, like you shut the key off Tires are 225- 50 16's at 22 psi, never been on Nitrous. seems to pull 4th gear fine on the dyno, tuner said the MAF and IAT reading seem to be a little irratic

I was wondering if anyone has had any issues with their cars losing power when shifting into 4th gear at the drag strip? the car pulls hard through the first 3 gears and goes flat after the 3rd to 4th gear shift, if you pedal it a few times it recovers. I thought it might be a fuel supply issue so I increased the size of the pickup from the fuel tank, still no change (1/2" pickup) then I thought it might a be fuel sloshing issue so I added a surge tank, changed the fuel pump, still no improvement. fuel pressure is rock solid at 60 psi through out. but the car still loses power when shifting into four gear. it is a 2002 ls1 dynoed at 380 RWH...no issues on the dyno carter super pump feeding surge tank with #10 lines walbro 255 with a #8 suction and # 6 supply lines aeromotive regulator, stock rails and injectors

Unfortunately no logs yet, when it did it last year I plummed the pressure gauge up so I could see it and it was losing fuel pressure in conjunction with the power loss,so after some research I thought the surge tank would solve the problem, I like to have some track time with the car when it is done as well so I thought the surge tank would also work well for cornering. Might even be as simple as a bad pump but not sure

I don't have a pic, but the pump is well below the surge tank and almost at the bottom of the 240 fuel tank. the reason I went to the set up because it was doing it at the drag strip going into fourth gear. The first thought was that the stock pick up was too small to I had that increased to 1/2". That did not solve the problem so I thought it might be that the fuel was sloshing around so much the the fuel was getting aerated, hence the surge tank. Which fuel tank are you running in your car?