indirocz28
New member
Okay,
I am stationed at Fort Hood,TX in the Army. My parents live in SW Florida. So back in July we got to take leave and my girlfriend and I took my vette to Florida for the trip.
Everything was fine until about 40 miles outside of Tallahassee when we hit what was left of some medium tropical storm and in all of the rainfall my engine sucked up water through the Vara-ram causing my engine to hydro lock, bend the #3 rod, and push a valve through the piston breaking it off and shoving the piston into the cylinder wall.
So, somewhat lucky for me, I have roadside assistance on my INS policy. However it only covers 15 miles or to the nearest service center. So I had the tow truck take me 15 miles closer to Tallahassee where we unloaded the car, stayed the day in a hotel room until my parents could drive 6 1/2 hours up from Cape Coral to come get us and the car with the trailer.
So, I called in the claim from where we broke down, the INS said that a wrecker would come Monday morning to come pick up my car to take it to one of their "preferred repair shops". Which happened to be a body shop. So no way in hell am I going to let a body shop do engine repair on my Z06.
Being that I don't really know any good shops in the CC/FM area I knew only of Gulf Coast down in Bonita Springs, as I had heard about them doing Deloreans from a guy in Houston at our Cars & Coffee and a local web forum. So I looked them up, and called them to talk to the service manager (Kevin) about my problem. He said they can send the truck to pick it up and that they would do the insurance inspection and the repairs, and that I could relax and would be in good hands with having them repair my car.
So, Gulf Coast sent the tow truck, they inspected my car, and found what I mentioned earlier. I showed up just as the insurance adjuster was writing the check. Being that I still have a loan on the car, INS had to write the check to the shop and myself, and I had to sign it over to the shop or else the bank would hold the check until I paid for the repairs out of pocket ( said the INS adjuster).
Whatever, so their shop is clean, and I looked around and felt very comfortable with Gulf Coast upon first meeting. Then once money started needing to be spent for parts since I needed a new engine, and belts and etc etc. All of a sudden costs just start racking up. Even though the shop didn't do a damn thing about finding my parts, as I found almost all of them by myself and told the shop what to buy and from where, and what price (so we could stay in budget of the INS check). I find out that they pretty much banked $1350 that the INS wrote into the check as a 25% markup on the engine that I found and had delivered to the shop, and even had the engine shop put on the heads and cam package as well.
So #1 right there, the INS actually gave $6697 for the engine, and Gulf Coast is keeping $1350 of that as 25% mark up to put into pocket saying INS is paying them that to use whatever engine we come up with.
Next, I find out that all the other parts I found at public cost to you and I, were marked up an additional 25%. Gaskets, slave cylinder, belts, balancer, hoses, spark plugs, etc. $1000 in mark up costs for stuff that I picked out. They also had to replace the first new slave cylinder because it was leaking too.
Thats when I called GCM and said they needed to shim the slave for the new clutch. Obviously they didn't listen. And during our argument over the $ Kevin said they were going to charge me 9.6hrs to replace it since Tick Performance wasn't going to pay for the labor to replace the slave.
I also had to pay them the $1000 deductible for my insurance claim too. Even though I did everything to stay inside the $10,000 insurance check budget. They tacked on all these markups and stuff just to get every cent out of me.
The next issue was them saying that they couldn't get my car to start. Kept saying my body control module was bad. They messed with that for about 2 weeks and then supposedly took my car to an electronics diag shop. Who then said that my nearly new (2 month old) Optima Red top battery was bad and my ECU was fried. Our guess is they F*cked up my ECU and battery when they tried to the tune it on a dead battery, and then stuck it on the charger on the "START" setting. Then they replaced my OPTIMA battery with an INTERSTATE battery.
In LATE September, my car is finally ready to be tuned they say.
So, they said they were going to tune my car as well (because of new cam and heads, and injector setup), so I said, yes, it needs done.
It takes them a week to tune it, and I am okay with that because I thought, well they must be getting it REALLY dialed in you know.
Well it made 432/387 on a 10:2:1 forged LS6 short block with 225cc CNC heads with 64cc chambers, oversize valves, EPS 238/242 .612/.615 cam, 47# injectors, FAST 92/90, and Vararam, with RPS dual disk clutch, and new LS6 GM slave cyl.
So im thinking- okay, those numbers seem low, but I know the compression ratio is down, and it took them a long time so it must be good.
So, out of pocket total I had to pay GCM $2360 in over charges, deductable and BS, $800 was for my clutch.
Gulf Coast shipped the car back to me in TX, where I had to have my girlfriend meed the delivery driver to so she could drive the car back to her apt while I was gone in the field for 3 weeks. She says its very hard to drive, and that it is hard to shift it. ( I think, okay, well dual disk clutch + female= doesn't know what she's talking about). WRONG
Two weeks ago I come out of the field and expect to be able to jump in my car and drive like normal. Nope... I get in, push in the clutch pedal, notice it feels a bit weak,start it, let it warm up a bit, try to put it in gear, and I almost had to heftily force the shifter into reverse.
Get it into gear, drive it to the corner to fill it up with gas, and its having a VERY rough time shifting. I get it back to the apt, and check the clutch master cyl- Bone dry. So i filled it up, blead the line, and got my pedal pressure back. Thats when I looked under the car.. Hydraulic fluid is just dripping out of my torque tube and bell housing onto the ground. - Awesome.
I look up a bit further and find there is oil dripping out of my oil pan as well. Even more awesome.
I go drive it around a little bit and notice the tune sucks, its drinking gas like a top fuel dragster, and there is a BAAD vibration at 3500 +rpms.
So, the car drives now. Last Sunday morning I take it to my buddies place who has a lift, and we put it up to investigate a little bit better.
Found out that
#1 They cracked my oil pan for my vette ( $800 just for the pan)
#2 They let my car leave their shop with a leaking slave cylinder which just bleeds itself dry due to gravity by sitting.
#3 They put my exhaust on but didn't adjust it so that it didn't hit my rear end -causing serious vibration issues
#4 In the tune they turned my knock sensors off because of the vibration issues
#5 They set my tune for 60# injectors instead of 47# injectors that I gave them flow rates to from Lingenfelter.
#6 They changed my Commanded AFR from normal 14.7:1 to 14.3:1
#7 They didn't even attempt to adjust my MAF settings for the aftermarket components
#8 Countless other tables in the tune that should have been changed that are still stock, making my car run pretty weird, and die at random times
#9 Lower pan gasket is leaking oil out as well
#10 They tried to use grey silicone to seal up where my pan is cracked
#11 Lost some of the spare parts that came with my engine when it was delivered that GCM was supposed to put in my trunk
#12 Tried to keep MY HP Tuners cable and module
So, No, I am not happy at all with my experience from a shop that charges $110 an hour, and prides themselves on building Lamborghini's and servicing super cars.
I had previously gotten into an argument with Kevin as soon as I found out how much they were over charging me, but just decided that paying a lawyer wasn't worth all the extra time and $ I would have to spend on that. Plus in that time GCM could claim a mechanics lean on my car and take it from me (within only 7 days!). So I decided to pay the $ and get my car out of there as fast as possible once I got the bill.
After I was able to get back to my car and found these issues wrong, I decided to let my INS adjuster deal with GCM and work out whatever to get my car fixed. So this past Friday they sent out an adjuster here in TX to come document the issues caused by GCM. The slave just drips itself dry, and the oil just seems to run out of the pan as well. These pics were from last week. So the adjuster took pics and that is where I am at this time, waiting on them.
As my car sits right now, it has 116 miles on it since my girlfriend picked it up from the vehicle shipper a month ago now. In that 123 miles it has drank just over 3/4 tank of gas.
My new forged, built LS6 I had assembled at Action Auto in Naples I believe it was (Carlos hooked me up, did a great job from what I can tell, and the engine runs pretty smooth mechanically):
I am stationed at Fort Hood,TX in the Army. My parents live in SW Florida. So back in July we got to take leave and my girlfriend and I took my vette to Florida for the trip.
Everything was fine until about 40 miles outside of Tallahassee when we hit what was left of some medium tropical storm and in all of the rainfall my engine sucked up water through the Vara-ram causing my engine to hydro lock, bend the #3 rod, and push a valve through the piston breaking it off and shoving the piston into the cylinder wall.
So, somewhat lucky for me, I have roadside assistance on my INS policy. However it only covers 15 miles or to the nearest service center. So I had the tow truck take me 15 miles closer to Tallahassee where we unloaded the car, stayed the day in a hotel room until my parents could drive 6 1/2 hours up from Cape Coral to come get us and the car with the trailer.
So, I called in the claim from where we broke down, the INS said that a wrecker would come Monday morning to come pick up my car to take it to one of their "preferred repair shops". Which happened to be a body shop. So no way in hell am I going to let a body shop do engine repair on my Z06.
Being that I don't really know any good shops in the CC/FM area I knew only of Gulf Coast down in Bonita Springs, as I had heard about them doing Deloreans from a guy in Houston at our Cars & Coffee and a local web forum. So I looked them up, and called them to talk to the service manager (Kevin) about my problem. He said they can send the truck to pick it up and that they would do the insurance inspection and the repairs, and that I could relax and would be in good hands with having them repair my car.
So, Gulf Coast sent the tow truck, they inspected my car, and found what I mentioned earlier. I showed up just as the insurance adjuster was writing the check. Being that I still have a loan on the car, INS had to write the check to the shop and myself, and I had to sign it over to the shop or else the bank would hold the check until I paid for the repairs out of pocket ( said the INS adjuster).
Whatever, so their shop is clean, and I looked around and felt very comfortable with Gulf Coast upon first meeting. Then once money started needing to be spent for parts since I needed a new engine, and belts and etc etc. All of a sudden costs just start racking up. Even though the shop didn't do a damn thing about finding my parts, as I found almost all of them by myself and told the shop what to buy and from where, and what price (so we could stay in budget of the INS check). I find out that they pretty much banked $1350 that the INS wrote into the check as a 25% markup on the engine that I found and had delivered to the shop, and even had the engine shop put on the heads and cam package as well.
So #1 right there, the INS actually gave $6697 for the engine, and Gulf Coast is keeping $1350 of that as 25% mark up to put into pocket saying INS is paying them that to use whatever engine we come up with.
Next, I find out that all the other parts I found at public cost to you and I, were marked up an additional 25%. Gaskets, slave cylinder, belts, balancer, hoses, spark plugs, etc. $1000 in mark up costs for stuff that I picked out. They also had to replace the first new slave cylinder because it was leaking too.
Thats when I called GCM and said they needed to shim the slave for the new clutch. Obviously they didn't listen. And during our argument over the $ Kevin said they were going to charge me 9.6hrs to replace it since Tick Performance wasn't going to pay for the labor to replace the slave.
I also had to pay them the $1000 deductible for my insurance claim too. Even though I did everything to stay inside the $10,000 insurance check budget. They tacked on all these markups and stuff just to get every cent out of me.
The next issue was them saying that they couldn't get my car to start. Kept saying my body control module was bad. They messed with that for about 2 weeks and then supposedly took my car to an electronics diag shop. Who then said that my nearly new (2 month old) Optima Red top battery was bad and my ECU was fried. Our guess is they F*cked up my ECU and battery when they tried to the tune it on a dead battery, and then stuck it on the charger on the "START" setting. Then they replaced my OPTIMA battery with an INTERSTATE battery.
In LATE September, my car is finally ready to be tuned they say.
So, they said they were going to tune my car as well (because of new cam and heads, and injector setup), so I said, yes, it needs done.
It takes them a week to tune it, and I am okay with that because I thought, well they must be getting it REALLY dialed in you know.
Well it made 432/387 on a 10:2:1 forged LS6 short block with 225cc CNC heads with 64cc chambers, oversize valves, EPS 238/242 .612/.615 cam, 47# injectors, FAST 92/90, and Vararam, with RPS dual disk clutch, and new LS6 GM slave cyl.
So im thinking- okay, those numbers seem low, but I know the compression ratio is down, and it took them a long time so it must be good.
So, out of pocket total I had to pay GCM $2360 in over charges, deductable and BS, $800 was for my clutch.
Gulf Coast shipped the car back to me in TX, where I had to have my girlfriend meed the delivery driver to so she could drive the car back to her apt while I was gone in the field for 3 weeks. She says its very hard to drive, and that it is hard to shift it. ( I think, okay, well dual disk clutch + female= doesn't know what she's talking about). WRONG
Two weeks ago I come out of the field and expect to be able to jump in my car and drive like normal. Nope... I get in, push in the clutch pedal, notice it feels a bit weak,start it, let it warm up a bit, try to put it in gear, and I almost had to heftily force the shifter into reverse.
Get it into gear, drive it to the corner to fill it up with gas, and its having a VERY rough time shifting. I get it back to the apt, and check the clutch master cyl- Bone dry. So i filled it up, blead the line, and got my pedal pressure back. Thats when I looked under the car.. Hydraulic fluid is just dripping out of my torque tube and bell housing onto the ground. - Awesome.
I look up a bit further and find there is oil dripping out of my oil pan as well. Even more awesome.
I go drive it around a little bit and notice the tune sucks, its drinking gas like a top fuel dragster, and there is a BAAD vibration at 3500 +rpms.
So, the car drives now. Last Sunday morning I take it to my buddies place who has a lift, and we put it up to investigate a little bit better.
Found out that
#1 They cracked my oil pan for my vette ( $800 just for the pan)
#2 They let my car leave their shop with a leaking slave cylinder which just bleeds itself dry due to gravity by sitting.
#3 They put my exhaust on but didn't adjust it so that it didn't hit my rear end -causing serious vibration issues
#4 In the tune they turned my knock sensors off because of the vibration issues
#5 They set my tune for 60# injectors instead of 47# injectors that I gave them flow rates to from Lingenfelter.
#6 They changed my Commanded AFR from normal 14.7:1 to 14.3:1
#7 They didn't even attempt to adjust my MAF settings for the aftermarket components
#8 Countless other tables in the tune that should have been changed that are still stock, making my car run pretty weird, and die at random times
#9 Lower pan gasket is leaking oil out as well
#10 They tried to use grey silicone to seal up where my pan is cracked
#11 Lost some of the spare parts that came with my engine when it was delivered that GCM was supposed to put in my trunk
#12 Tried to keep MY HP Tuners cable and module
So, No, I am not happy at all with my experience from a shop that charges $110 an hour, and prides themselves on building Lamborghini's and servicing super cars.
I had previously gotten into an argument with Kevin as soon as I found out how much they were over charging me, but just decided that paying a lawyer wasn't worth all the extra time and $ I would have to spend on that. Plus in that time GCM could claim a mechanics lean on my car and take it from me (within only 7 days!). So I decided to pay the $ and get my car out of there as fast as possible once I got the bill.
After I was able to get back to my car and found these issues wrong, I decided to let my INS adjuster deal with GCM and work out whatever to get my car fixed. So this past Friday they sent out an adjuster here in TX to come document the issues caused by GCM. The slave just drips itself dry, and the oil just seems to run out of the pan as well. These pics were from last week. So the adjuster took pics and that is where I am at this time, waiting on them.
As my car sits right now, it has 116 miles on it since my girlfriend picked it up from the vehicle shipper a month ago now. In that 123 miles it has drank just over 3/4 tank of gas.
My new forged, built LS6 I had assembled at Action Auto in Naples I believe it was (Carlos hooked me up, did a great job from what I can tell, and the engine runs pretty smooth mechanically):
