thinking about buying a crate engine...

[grumpyvette]

read thru this thread

 

post#19

 

http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43472&page=2&am p;highlight=settled

[2003z]

best to pay the difference and get a manufacturer crate engine?

[Pop N Wood]

Man. I had that place bookmarked when I was thinking of an LT1 stroker.

 

Golen had some dynamite engines listed. Just too expensive.

 

Glad I bought straight from the General.

[Forces]

That post oughta be smeared all over every automotive forum on the net. What a bunch of b/s.

[Kevin Shasteen]

Golen Engines was just plain stupid. It has been over 7 years since I worked for an insurance co where I handled Product Liability Claims.

 

Remember the old saying to all of us (myself not included, of course) who want to speed in their sports cars, "You cant outrun the radio" referencing the radio coms that the policing agencies use..,

 

Well using the same principle regarding reputation of an engine builder - You can NOT outrun the Internet!

 

Let us even hypothetically say the customer did run the engine to hot and caused the damage to the engine. The engine as delivered didnt have the parts in it that were suppose to be in it...that alone should've caused the engine builder to pony up IMMEDIATELY to save his reputation.

 

If the engine builder would've accepted responsibility ASAP I would've shrugged my shoulders and concluded the engine builder at the time of the engine being built had an angry employee attempting to tarnish said reputation of the engine builder by throwing an engine together w/an assorted hodge podge of engine parts.

 

BUT, due to the fact the owner fought the claim to the very end - IMHO..., has GUILTY AS CHARGED written all over it.

 

This will tarnish his sales and he may not shut him down, but it has already affected his wallet and reputation.

 

This is just wrong - I hate liars and the hot rodding crowd is as a whole a very good/great bunch of people. I cant stand it when something like this happens.

 

I agree that this should be pasted all over the net and continue pasting it once a month not to mention a letter to the magazine editors whose magazine pages run the engine builder's adds.

 

Kevin,

(Yea,Still an Inliner)

[lbhsbZ]

I'm going to point out a different take on the situation. I am in the automotive industry and hear tons of stories, every day, similar to this. Say Golen engines didn't screw up. We still, after reading that thread, have no first hand evidence that the engine was as described. Every complaint was started with "My mechanic said..."

 

I find it extremely difficult to believe that ANYONE would ever assemble an engine using 3 different types of rods. Even the greatest idiot wouldn't do something like that (I wouldn't do something like that). There's more to this story that we're not hearing, so for everyone to draw the conclusion that Golen is badness is jumping the gun IMO. His mechanic is the one who installed the engine I imagine....and there was a problem. Is the mechanic going to accept blame for a mistake he made or bullshit his way through the situation blaming whoever else was involved (golen), knowing that if he slips it could cost him thousands of dollars and a bunch or hours working on a corvette, which everyone hates working on. I turned wrenches professionally for 8 years, and now I run the technical support dept for a large brake parts manufacturer. I had someone call up the other day and tell me that they were going to sue our company because the pads that we sold caused their ABS light to come on. Thats like saying a spark plug was worn out and thats why the tire went flat. I can't count the number of "sticking caliper" labor claims I recieve back that I can squeeze the pistons back into with one hand....ironically enough, every single one of them replaced brake hoses at the same time the "defective" calipers were replaced. People who don't know the whole story are always quick to jump to conclusions. The whole story is rarely discussed on the interweb...

[grumpyvette]

while what you say is true...I seriously doubt GOLEN would have lost in court without PROOF that what the engine purchaser stated was at least mostly true, if in fact the engine was as described vs represented and described to the purchaser then the builder is SCAMING the customer, you can,t FAKE the use of components like , 2 bolt vs 4 bolt blocks,or scat vs EAGLE CRANKS

 

if the customer paid for a 4 bolt block and eagle crank, and got anything else he was SCAMMED

[Kevin Shasteen]

The 2 bolt vs 4 bolt, the wrong crank, and wrong rods is what I was concentrating on.

 

This is what I meant when I said it sounded to me like he had an employee who was mad at his employer and assembled an engine to make his employer look bad - that would be about the only excuse for Golen to "not know" what was going on...if Golen did know what was going on then he is even more culpable.

 

I understand the product liability side of it and can gaurantee his atty was claiming "spoiliation"...as in once his mechanic took said engine apart w/out a rep from Golen Engines being present...then one could assume that said engine was taken apart prior to the "alleged" first dissassembly whereby the alleged first assembly was actually the second dissassembly and therefor not the product Golen had intially sold.

 

Yet the owner had character witnesses and was able to overcome this hurdle.

 

There is always more to the case than meets the eye. There are people out there attempting to scam the merchants. If the customer could prove there wasnt any hanky-panky going on - then the merchant should've bit the bullet just to save his reputation and go straight into damage control.

 

FWIW: anytime any of you come across a product liability issue - always write to the mfg of said product to let them know that your expert will be tearing into said product on the Month/Day/Year and give the mfg enough time to agree to a date in which said item will be inspected by your expert so that they can also have one of their experts present. If they ignore your offer then they have dishonered their right to complain about it at a later date. Send two letters to them and give them 30 days to respond to each letter.

 

If they fail to respond to each letter and fail to show up on the day that said item was to be inspected - then they cant claim spoiliation and have given up their right to complain at a later date in court.

 

Kevin,

(Yea,Still an Inliner)