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Mark - Jesel has inspected them and found no material defect and has set up an evaluation of the entire valve train with a local vendor who tests parts for them. That inspection/evaluation is scheduled for this Friday.

A big thanks to Jersey Panteras member, Mel Goldenberg, for letting me use his pickup and newly purchased enclosed trailer to transport my Pantera. For those of you who don't Mel he is one of the most genuine and generous individuals you could ever know. His help and support for years has been essential in me totally re-doing the car cosmetically and mechanically.

I will report back with the results as soon as possible.
I was sent a link to this forum by someone who thought i should take a lok here.
The first issue to clear up here with Chris or others who think this is a warranty issue, they may wll be correct. However the only way a company can help a customer is if the customer tells the company they have a problem. We have had no calls or any form ofcommuniction from Chris on this isue or any other. We are not mind readers. Yesterday we recieved a call from a shop who said they were working on Chris's car asked if the cam could be switched to a hydraulic. No mention of any part faiure was mentioned. The person did have a very strong opinion of the usage of the car. I have no facts on this, just his opinion.
I expect the reason that we have not gotten any communication from Chris is he probably feels bad about doing so since the last dealing we had with him was him attempying to try to stiff us with a credit card charge. He stopped payment saying he never recieved product. We went a copy of all Chris's e-mails to the credit card company which proved he had recieved the product and the credit card company reversed the stop payment and paid us back. i think Chris has a sor taste from this and just wants to cause trouble as a bit of revenge. Sorry Chris, In the eyes of the Credit card companies the customer is right and the vendors are wrong until proven right. We had enough evidence on you to reverse their decision. Next time don't try to stiff anyone and you will then have nerve enough to call and ask for help if you need it.
Anyone who wants to discuss anything with me is more than wecome to contact me and do so. I have my full name and contact info listed because that is how we do business..up front. We don't hide behind screen names or get our friends who hide behind screen names to try to cause trouble or throw accusations. We are always open to professional conversation. If in doubt, call me and then call the other parties, (if they will give you their contact info).
Thanks for responding Mark. I think we'd all like to hear the whole story, but since we have no standing in the transaction to demand the truth, we could only go with the info we had. Now we have more.
There is a tendency for a person of integrity to not respond to false charges. They feel that their reputation speaks for itself and that someone that would drag them through the mud will probably reveal themselves and their true character to those that they complain to...and that the charges will carry little weight with the listener.
The problem with the internet is that these kind of arguments have a massive reach and can really do damage. MME has been referred to in many posts by many of the participants on this board. I've been to your web site on numerous occasions. Many here feel like they know you even though we have never met. I'm glad to get your side of this story.
It's hard to imagine that DJEZC would go to such lengths to trash you. He has claimed to have contacted your company on numerous occasions and that your company refused to respond in any way. You say he never contacted you about his engine problems at all.
It seems pretty clear that someone is not being truthful.
Are we to understand that that DJEZC's bill is paid in full? If so, are you interested in helping him with his problem? If he never cleared up his bill, then I have sympathy for your position as a business man.
Then again, if DJEZC's engine failed immediately and you refused to help him, I can see how he would withhold payment as his only recourse to encourage you to address his problem. Then I'd have sympathy with his position as a customer.
Is there anything that either of you want to say to clear this up?
Right now, I'm personally ticked off at one of you, just don't know which one.
Mooso
Mark,

I said my peace .. an issue like this can do more bad then good to a Good Business Reputation. If it was, is and even a hint of a money problem .. you said enough, you did the right thing .. cut the cord .. period.

QUOTE " We don't hide behind screen names or get our friends who hide behind screen names to try to cause trouble or throw accusations."

Just because Chris and I live in the same town doesnt mean we are friends. One thing you can bet on ..there is no hiding on my part .. especially behind a screen name.

Ron
Mark - First let's clear up the credit card thing.

This was related to the charges for a custom set of valve covers as you should recall. We had very specific discussions about what I wanted and you assured me through the process you could deliver. Remember that you originally quoted me a cost of $350 for a custom set of valve covers?

The valve covers were supposed to be delivered as a set of anodized or powder coated blue valve covers with contrasting silver lettering engraved through the powder coating or anodizing. They were supposed to have breathers and a filler.

When they were delivered they did not have breathers or a filler and the powder coating covered the engraving making it impossible to see the lettering (Lettering that clearly advertised it was an MME product.)

When I offered a compromise to have a plain set of valve covers and have you take those back you refused what was a very fair solution to the problem.

They were returned to you and you were in possesion of them when I asked my credit card company to reverse the charges based on the fact that A) I had sent them back and was no longer in possesion of them. B) They were not what I had contracted for based on the fact that they were both functionally not correct and cosmetically not we had agreed on.

At this point I had paid you about $900.00 for valve covers I did not have, so of course I was within my rights to try and have the charges reversed.

You got the credit company to agree with you because you told them it was a custom part. Since all the discussions about the cosmetics were verbal, unfortunately I had nothing to send the credit card company proving I had ordered what I had ordered, the credit card company sided with you. Ok my loss, I eat $900 for a set of valve covers you still have to this day.

And then months later, to add insult to injury, after you finally put some hardware in the covers and etched it out with an electric pencil you tried to charge me another, what was it $450-$500? $1400 for a set of valve covers?

Mark, make sure you tell the truth when you respond. There are many reputable people on this board who were witnesses to these facts. In particular Mel Goldenberg.

AS for the cost of the engine being $21K. Your bill to me was for about $15,800.00 in round numbers. Ad to that the cost of the intake and heads, $3500.00, an Aviaid oil pan $500, an MSD distributor and ignition box another $600 and that gets you up to around $21k in round numbers. That was the total cost of the engine.

Now given that per your website you charge $15,999 for this package with the CHI heads I would think that you had plenty of profit margin in the build. I don't have any problem with the fact that you charged me almost what you charge somebody who did not provide about $4600 to their build. So you made $4600 plus whatever you you would make on the $15,999 engine package on your website.

Let me make it clear to the board memebers an Mark Mckeown, I don't begrudge Mark one dime of a fair and reasonable profit OR what he made on my engine build. He told me what it was going to be, I as an adult agreed to it.

But Mark let me ask you this. Clearly there was a reasonable level of profit in my build for you, so why did you charge me for phone calls to parts suppliers? Was that necessary? Did you really need to extract another, what was it $105, for one call to Dennis Quella to make sure I had the right flywheel, pressure plate and clutch?

Did you need to charge me for the two phone calls to Pat Mical so he could fab up the headers, that I recall you saying you wanted to copy, that would fit my car the first time without any hassle? (To be clear I was charged about $105 for all three calls)

Also wasn't it you that said you could not provide a detailed list of parts with their associated numbers because you thought I would give it to some engine builder who would turn out dozens of copies of your work? Yet you were very quick to step up and say you were interested in copying Pat's header design since they made 26 more HP on the dyno than a set of headers you tried.

I can only hope that you are man enough to respond truthfully here. As for me I would swear on any stack of bibles, appear in public court and be willing to testify as to THESE FACTS.

Mark in closing you should really think about a couple of things. If you had been a little more flexible and come to a compromise we would not be in this situation. You would not have a pissed off customer. If you had agreed to swap the valve covers for a plain set you could have gladly kept my $900 and I would have been a happy camper. If you had not sent me another bill when you took months to finally finish them I would still be ok with that also.

If you only knew how many car shows the car has been to and how many people have said they love the car you would be kicking yourself for all the lost promotional opportunities. I would have gladly have been the greatest MME promoter if you had just gone the extra couple steps.

It truly makes me sad.

CHRIS LEWIS
I want to address one additional point, communication with MME.

During one of my last communications with MME, I was attempting to reach a compromise on the valve covers. I was informed by Heather McKeown that she could no longer talk to me on the phone because MME, WAS LOSING MONEY ON ME!

I don't know about other board members but let me ask you this. You get done with a 4-5 month engine build, you paid for the whole thing, and the owner is telling you they are losing money on you? ( I won't re-hash the details of what was paid, parts provided by me vs what MME charges for an almost identical package. You can see that in my first post responding)

Aren't you feeling more than a little insulted?

(The engine minus the valve covers was paid for weeks before it was picked up. In fact I was very insistent that all costs were listed up front so there would be no surprises and I could pay for everything and not be in over my head financially. I paid MME in advance every step of the way. The valve covers were not ready at the time I took delivery of the engine, their costs were omitted from the bill for the engine and were to be a seperate transaction. The engine went home minus valve covers and they were to be delivered and paid for later. When I showed up for run-in and dynoing of the engine, all that was left to be paid was a few hundred dollars, which again I gladly paid because I was excited about getting a premium engine build from an engine builder who had made a name for themselves in a national engine building competition with a very similar build.)

Anyway after being insulted what more do you say to someone like that? My communication since then has been through James Malin who works on my Pantera.

I am not in anyway embarrassed to talk to Mark, I just don't want to have somebody tell me they are losing money on me after I spent a good and considerable sum of money that I have worked very hard and made many sacrifices to earn.

THAT IS NOT HOW YOU TREAT YOUR CUSTOMERS.
Chris, is there any update on the cause of the rocker arm failures? At the core of all this is the fact that you have an engine that has a serious problem and I know we're all interested in the diagnosis by experts who have no loyalty to either side.
For anyone considering a Cleveland rebuild, this is important information.
Thanks, Mooso.
Wow Chris,

This has been a gut wrenching story. And the engine still breaks after every couple hundred miles. Un-freaking-believable. I hope you find out what's wrong and get it fixed once and for all. No customer should have to deal with threse issues regarless of the price... Please keep us posted as things progress.

I wonder if/how MME will reposond...

Billy
#3382
The latest update for all the interested watchers to this thread is that the car was transported last Thursday night to Big Daddy Performance in Lakewood, NJ. Big Daddy tests parts for Jesel and I was sent by Jesel to him to have the problem diagnosed.

I expect to hear from him by the end of this week as to what he finds. Obviously I am anxious to find out what is wrong and how much the solution is going to cost.

As soon as I hear, you guys will hear.

Not Hiding Behind Screen Names

Chris Lewis
clewis@dmn.net
845-369-8889
Some preliminary observations are in:

A) The springs are supposed to be 280lbs on the seat and they show only 230lbs.

B)The push rods are potentially the wrong length.

C)The valves show clear indications of floating.

D)Some of the rocker arms registered over 45 ft/lbs of torque applied on the adjuster.

E)The valve retainers were loose and did not appear to be correct for the springs.

F)The installed height of the valves was listed as 2.00, but measured 1.940.

So what do you guys think? Should an engine be experiencing this number and level of problems with 1200 to 1500 miles? Whose fault would these problems be?

Your input here is appreciated.
Not that I want to get involved, but springs do soften when they run in. so if they were 280 new, they will soften to that.
May be important to know the 'over the nose' pressure, should be around 700+
if the pushrods were wrong length were they hitting the arms ? ( the sides of the pushrods)
The shorter installed height is not so important as long as the srings are not bottoming out.
Moly retainers ? or titanium ?
I would think a titanium retainer should be a good fit.more importantly than a moly ( harder) retainer.
Chris and Pantera World

I am an honest business man and when problems like this arise, I try to stay as neutral as possible. We must all remember that we are human and not perfect. I have taken this job on to help the situation not inflate it. I hope all parties involved have the same attitude and what's important is getting to the root of the problem.. If this problem continues to be dealt with on the internet I will not continue to work on this problem. Thank You

BD@BDP

Dwayne "Big Daddy" Gutridge
OWNER: Big Daddy Performance Inc
Phone 1-732-363-6236...
quote:
Originally posted by DJEZC:
Some preliminary observations are in:

A) The springs are supposed to be 280lbs on the seat and they show only 230lbs.

B)The push rods are potentially the wrong length.

C)The valves show clear indications of floating.

D)Some of the rocker arms registered over 45 ft/lbs of torque applied on the adjuster.

E)The valve retainers were loose and did not appear to be correct for the springs.

F)The installed height of the valves was listed as 2.00, but measured 1.940.

So what do you guys think? Should an engine be experiencing this number and level of problems with 1200 to 1500 miles? Whose fault would these problems be?

Your input here is appreciated.


Hum, that's what, 3000 or so 1/4mile runs? The valve train just needed to be replaced 500 runs ago. Put in something reasonable. 700 pound springs are ridiculous for a street car.

The rocker arms broke for one reason, you have valve bind. The only question is why.
quote:
Hum, that's what, 3000 or so 1/4mile runs? The valve train just needed to be replaced 500 runs ago. Put in something reasonable. 700 pound springs are ridiculous for a street car. The rocker arms broke for one reason, you have valve bind. The only question is why.


Wow, where do you get your info a kracker jacks box. He tells you 1200 miles and you turn that in to 3000 miles and 1/4 mile runs. That motor should run for atleast 5000 mile before any adjustment to lash or distributor gear checking. And to asume that he's getting coil bind with out knowing is just a bad guess. Maybe get more info before you voice your lame guess.
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