Personally I dont blame David. To be honest, if I was him, I wouldn't touch it either... especially as you are not the original purchaser, and had someone else tear it apart.... Almost all warranties are for the original purchaser and cannot be transferred. You purchased a used item. At this point, id say its on you. Just the way I see the situation. In all regards, it sucks no doubt. Hopefully everything works out and you get that engine up in running in your EVO! Good luck

 

Now that you changed your first post the story sounds quite a bit different. Hope you get it resolved.

 

I didn't have the motor torn apart until David refused to work with me. I wanted to ship it to him and have him fix it.



I bought the block HERE on EvoM. The seller (Chris) seemed very honest through everything; even throwing in a free intake with the turbo kit he sold me. A couple days before heading down, he tells me an issue just came up with the block. Apparently pistons 1 and 4 were up when they removed it, hiding the damage. He immediately dropped the price and offered a refund of my deposit. I drove 10 hours each way down to PA and picked it up, along with some other goodies. I saw his face drop when I showed him the endplay, I don't think theres anything fishy going on.

 

There is nothing to excuse a motor having 0.001 PTW clearance. And the "reason" no warranty was given was because Buschur didn't install and tune motor. So anyone ordering a short block should realize this is policy when purchasing an engine. This was a bad build. Mistakes happen no big deal until the buyer who is a veteran and was overseas when the car was built was left hanging. I installed the short block. I know what the car went through. The car was running when it was pulled and the damage was a complete surprise. Chris is a very honest person. Had we not noticed the damage however the situation would have been terrible because there was no indication of a trash engine and I would not have believed a 250 mile motor was ruined. That would have been a sticky situation.

Good luck building your car.

 

The machine shop who eventually tore it down confirmed there was no oiling issues or damage from tune. I have pics of the damage and I did pull a single rod cap to see how they looked when the damage was noticed.

 

Whats the purchase date on the reciept ?

 

Oct 2012 is when I sent the core block to BR. I don't know exactly what the dates were.

 

And it has 250 miles on it ? How?

 

I'm pretty sure the guy was overseas. I bought the coilovers off this car and they also had 250 miles. They looked like they were never even installed they were so fresh.

 

After analyzing the pictures of three damaged cylinders, it looked like a classic example of
the clearance being to tight for the application and or a bad tune that could of raised the piston temperature beyond the set clearance.

After rereading the post above, I then realized this could be a oiling issue. If the crank had .250" of end play, something went amiss with the oil pressure. The only way these two failures can happen at the same interval of 250 miles would be from lack of lubrication. If the piston, cylinder failure would have been the only damage, then I would of believed that the clearances may have been incorrect.

Yes, I am questioning the measurements. I have seen local machine shops go out of there way to make other businesses look bad. I wish I would of had the chance to measure the clearances to verify what the machine shop quoted.

My professional opinion is, in 250 miles, the two failed areas can only happen at the same time from lack of oil.

Now you must understand that all the facts are not provided. The condition of the rod bearings along with the mains would be helpful. I would have enjoyed the challenge of playing detective and seeing this engine in person.

Don

 

How was the rod bearing?

 

Thank you and thanks for helping clear everything up!

I have no doubt they were in Mint condition. When I drove down there, every piece of his car was in NEW condition. I'm kicking myself for not buying more stuff while I was there.

Thank you for you input Don. I've halted having any work done to the block, just incase a solution comes up. It is sitting at the machine shop, clearances can still be measured. Pictures, etc. of all of the above can still be taken. 1/4" may have been an exaggeration, but regardless it was enough to damage the crank. My thoughts would be if the outer pistons 1 and 4 were sticking they would put opposing force on the crank causing it to heat up/move. I am not quite sure what happened, but i will be going to verify measurements and take photos.

 

I would recommend a second opinion from a reputable machine shop that has experience with 4G63's. If the cylinders are in fact .004 tighter then their recommended clearances. [ most 4G63 piston clearances on a high horsepower engine are approximately .004 to .006 and depending on the piston manufacturer even as high as .008. ] Why would your block need bored? It could clean up from the damage by honing.

Pictures of all the rod and main bearings would be great.

Please get a second opinion elsewhere.

Don