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  1. #1
    Member Since 1998 Mecinoid's Avatar
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    '98,'00-B 93,03,11,14-V

    Please help me make sense of this ...

    Sad story:

    I spend $11K on Procharger System for my LS1 which included installation at a shop that is well known and has good references from two other shops saying this company does good work. Then after 4years but, only 3K miles the harmonic balancer comes off.

    Shop owner is shown harmonic balancer and says no big deal even though I tell him that machine shop said it was trashed and so is the crank according to him. Installing company says don't worry we'll take care of it no charge just tow it over.

    I tow the car 25 miles (second tow from scene) to his shop and leave the car. Installer says car will be ready within a week. I show him the harmonic balancer inside bore and he says, "so what I've seen harmonic balancers before." I tried to explain to that I wanted him to look at it and make sure it would work. He stated after looking at it, "no problem, we seen these before I'll take care of it." I told him how relieved I was and left happy that my car was going to back together by the end of the week for cruisin'

    Today I call over because I remember I have wheel lock and they will need it for dyno. The installer says I have some bad news for you.
    I'm like WTF? He says the crank is toast as well as the harmonic balancer and that he'll have to give me a price to repair it.It will also take 4-5 weeks to repair. I said that sounds expensive. He says cranks are cheap and so are cams and they will take care of the labor and throw in a tune because of my trouble. I'm kind of happy and then pissed at the same time but, I don't want to fire on him or he might back out on his offer to take care of the labor.

    Now, I'm out of work and I told him so. So I can not afford much right now. It would be better to park the car in my garage and wait six months. But, hey he said it wouldn't be expensive and cranks are cheap. So cheap is $200 for crank and $100 for cam to me. I see where it is that cheap on some V8's. Now, I'm stuck having my car over at this shop torn apart and no money to pay for even this $300-400 bill now. However, researching this further; it looks like it easily will be over $1000 including gaskets and all for just the motor repair. This really upsets me. Which of course is compounded now because I feel this was caused by him not torqueing down the crank bolt or using locktite red on the treads of the crank bolt for harmonic dampener and he is miss leading me.

    I'm waiting his pricing but, the cheapest crank I can find is over $700 for my LS1 so I'm expecting the worst. My car only has 40K miles on it so I do not want a used crank put in it of course.

    Furthermore, I asked shouldn't we put in a forged crank. He said it would cost a lot of extra work. Not sure if that it true. I know to get the most advantage out of purchase it would be wise to get connection rod and new pistons etc... but, for $150 more it might just be worth getting a Eagle forged crank vs. a Chevy cast crank. This installer says, " Oh no, that would require extra balancing and extra machine work. I wonder if this is true? I mean wouldn't you have to do the same whether it is forged or not? I'm not thinking of changing the stroke or anything. Just getting a forged replacement.

    What to do? I considered going to action line but, I figure this will make things worse.

    All I have is bad things going through my head and I can not sleep.

    Do you guys have any suggestions?
    Last edited by Mecinoid; 05-09-2013 at 02:52 AM. Reason: Add signature
    Life comes at you fast. Grab it and hold onto it with all your might.

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  2. #2
    Veteran pajeff02's Avatar
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    Black & Blue
    '02 WS.6 / '07 Suburban

    I would put the brakes on that project. The guy sounds like a complete asshat and there is no way he would touch our car. There is no difference in installation method for a forged crank. I am curious as to whether they re-used the stock balancer bolt as I believe it is torque to yield. Was the balancer pinned? Anyone know if the snout can be sleeved on an LS1?

  3. #3
    Member Since 1998 Mecinoid's Avatar
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    '98,'00-B 93,03,11,14-V

    Quote Originally Posted by pajeff02 View Post
    I would put the brakes on that project. The guy sounds like a complete asshat and there is no way he would touch our car. There is no difference in installation method for a forged crank. I am curious as to whether they re-used the stock balancer bolt as I believe it is torque to yield. Was the balancer pinned? Anyone know if the snout can be sleeved on an LS1?
    I talked to a couple of machinists and they say you can not sleeve the crank. Sorry, you'll have to replace it. The balancer was pinned. It was supposed to be double pinned and the guys swears it was pinned properly. It looked to me like he used the square slot in the crank to pin it and I did not see any place in the back of the balancer where the pin would index. I'm calling BS on that. I expect he doesn't want to admit he messed it up and therefore messed up the balancer and crank.

    I feel stuck because if I go somewhere else I'll have to pay to pull the motor and pay for the parts etc.. That will be big bucks. I so wish I had a lift. I think this is something I could do. The thing is I shouldn't have to. That would be another problem though, around here it takes a month to get a crank installed at the local machine shops. All three that we have tried seem to take their pro race car and repair shop clients ahead of us. That makes sense I guess.

    The only thing I can do right now is wait until I see what the estimate is.
    Last edited by Mecinoid; 05-09-2013 at 10:08 AM.

  4. #4
    Veteran 0rion's Avatar
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    98 Formula
    06 duramax

    hate to hear that....I do think it's an installation error that caused it but I got a feeling you're really not going to like what this guy comes back with. He's not going to pay out of pocket to fix the car just due to it being 4 years so just parts alone are going to cost you. He doesn't know if someone else messed with it or not so I can kinda see his side too and unless you have in writing a warranty out past the 4 year mark you're kinda screwed here. I wouldn't have taken the car back to him myself. If he messed up that install lord knows what he's going to do with a crank and you're really only saving labor on the deal which is a chunk of change but worthless if it's bad labor. I would probably pick the car up and save some coin to have it done right once by a better shop.

  5. #5
    Member c5z28's Avatar
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    On your ass flashing
    my highbeams

    My suggestion is to the name the shop and post your concerns on local forums like norcal-lsx.com(taking wheels off for dyno gives me an idea) . There have been a couple threads about shops messing up and it would help others to not fall victim to this sort of thing, it also lets other locals see how the owner handles mistakes. You might also get help from unexpected places doing so.

    Sorry to hear that, I wish the best.
    Last edited by c5z28; 06-18-2013 at 10:16 PM.

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