Paul Ashbacher

The old saying goes: "The customer is always right"

Unfortunately in this case, it is certainly not the truth.

I will respond to this review with facts only, but it will be a long response since I want to make my point clear.

As Paul stated, the motor ran perfectly for 700+ miles and something failed which caused major damage to the #2 cylinder.

The motor was sent to us for inspection.

During the inspection we found that 2 exhaust valves had broken off in the #2 cylinder. This caused major damage in the #2 cylinder. It punched a huge hole in the combustion camber and caused one of the exhaust seats to break and come out. We also noticed that all the exhaust valves in the #4 and #6 cylinders were bent.

I inspected the long block myself(I have 20 years experience building Nissan and Infiniti motors) and I also had my machine shop(they have over 30 years experience machining and repairing motors) inspect the long block. We inspected the valve guides to see if there was any binding and did not find any. We inspected the valves and valve seats to see if anything looked wrong and could not find anything wrong.

We both came to the conclusion that either a foreign object entered the cylinder and caused the damage or the valves hit the pistons.

The issue was the motor had run perfectly for 700+ miles before this failure happened, so we knew the initial timing was probably set correctly but it seemed like the exhaust cam became retarded at some point and caused all of the exhaust valves to contact the pistons. We just didn't have any reason to suspect the timing, since it had ran perfectly for 700+ miles(more on that later), so the foreign object was a possibility.

I gave the news to Paul and he asked for a quote to get it fixed for him. He said he could get a replacement head to replace the one that was damaged. So I quoted him $2500 to redo the replacement head(port and polish the runners, do a valve job on the valves, and new valve seals), redo another block(bore, hone, balance the crank), a new piston to replace the damaged one, all new piston rings, all new bearings, new head gaskets, and a new oil pump. Basically a new long block just reusing the one undamaged head and his crank since it was not damaged.

He refused and asked for his motor to be shipped back to his shop. I shipped his motor back at his request and paid for the return shipping. I also put full coverage insurance on the motor in case anything happened. If you have ever received a motor from me, you know I have shipped every motor the same way. Here is an example: Engine shipping.

His shop received the motor and signed for it with no noted damage or issues( BOL ). Never was I contacted about it arriving on a broken pallet nor was an insurance claim started. The first I heard of it was on Paul's first FB review back in July which he has since deleted.

I did ask Paul for pictures and he sent me this: pallet

You can clearly see the strap that is wrapped around a completely broken pallet and the motor is sitting upside down on another pallet. If you have ever shipped anything, you would know that the shipper would NEVER accept something that looked like that. Especially if it had full coverage insurance on it(Insurance )

The pallet was broken during transport and they put it on top of another pallet. If Paul or his shop that received it had an issue with how it arrived, they certainly could have started an insurance claim, since it was fully covered. So I am not sure why that is an issue with Paul, since I clearly had enough insurance to completely replace the complete motor if any damage was noted.

So back to the motor. Paul put up a Facebook review back in mid July and then started a Better Business Bureau(BBB) complaint in late July. On his FB review, he stated that he thought it was bad valve guides(both myself and my machine shop checked them) and then on the BBB complaint he switched to blaming a bad valve seat. That was the first time he started asking for me to pay for/warranty his motor since it was sent back in April. So I told Paul that I would pay for him to take it to a 3rd party inspector that was familiar with building and repairing motors. Paul choose Steve at All Pro Automotive Machine & Fabrication LLC who has 43 years building and repairing motors and is also located in Colorado.

Steve inspected the damaged head first and could not find anything that would indicate a machining error on our part. Paul had a very conflicting story to what Steve @ All pro told me, so I was advised to start recording our conversations in case this went south. Colorado and Texas are both a one party consent state for recorded phone calls.

So on the second call to Steve you can clearly hear him state that he did not find any machining errors on the damaged head (No machining error ). You can also hear him state that he thought it was a failed part(more on that later) or timing issue that caused the failure. I relayed this to Paul and to the BBB. Paul again refused to believe any of it.

So I told Steve at All Pro that Paul was still not happy with what was found and he stated this: Inspect 2nd Head

So I asked Paul if he would take the other head to Steve for inspection and I would pay for it.

I told Steve @ All Pro that Paul thought it was a bad valve seat and to check the seats in the good head and let me know if he found anything wrong. Here is his report after checking the other/good head: no valve seat error

So I let Paul and the BBB know what was found and of course Paul refused to accept this inspection also.

Then 9 months into this I was forwarded an email from Paul's installer(the person who installed the motor and also tore it down after the damage) and lo and behold he stated: "The chain tensioner guide was broken and it looks like the valves on the bad head have lightly touched the pistons."

Talk about some info that would have helped diagnose this 8+ months ago. I am not sure why this information was kept from me for 8+ months. So I asked for pictures and was sent this: Broken Tensioner

You can clearly see that the guide is completely broken off and the tensioner and chain are metal to metal. Plus the fact that part of the guide is stuck on the piston that controls the tensioner. This is on the head that had the 2 broken off valves and the other 4 that were bent.

I brought up the failed tensioner to Steve @ All Pro, once I was made aware of it, and his and my conversations went like this: Tensioner Caused and Metal to Metal

So to recap: 1. We had 2 exhaust valves broken off on cylinder #2. Both broken off at basically the same part of the valve stem. 2. Major damage occurred in the cylinder #2 where the 2 broken exhaust valves were bouncing around. 3. We also have the exhaust valves in cylinder #4 and cylinder #6 bent from contacting the pistons. These are all on the same head. 4. 9 months in, we find out the tensioner on the damaged head had failed/was broken. One very important thing that could change the timing of the exhaust cam and cause valves to hit pistons. 5. No other damage was found on the other head and the other 2 tensioners were not affected at all.

So here are my pictures when I first took the long block apart and inspected it. Head damage

In this picture you can see the huge hole that was broken out of the head circled in yellow. More than likely one of the exhaust valves broke off, turned sideways, and the piston pushed it into the head and punched the huge hole in the head. When I was first contacted about the issue, the installer shop said they thought the head gasket failed since it had some much coolant in the oil but clearly you can see that the hole just dumped a ton off coolant into the cylinder.

So you can also see that when the huge chuck was broken out of the head it broke both the intake and exhaust seats as circled in red. The exhaust seat came completely out and parts of it are highlighted in blue. The intake seat stayed in place since the intake valve was not broken off due to hitting the piston like the exhaust valves. You can actually see one of the exhaust valves wedged in between the head and intake valve as circled in purple.

So a closer look here: Seats & Valve Stems

In this picture you can better see where the huge chuck that was broken out has damaged both the intake and exhaust seats as circled in red on the left. The exhaust seat is completely broken out/pushed out. You can see where the huge piece of broken head pushed it out on the top right red circle. The lower right red circle shows a 1/4 piece of the intake seat is broken.

The red circle on the right shows the other exhaust seat that was beat up due to all the parts flying around but was not pushed out like the left seat due to the huge piece of head that was broken out.

Lastly you can see both exhaust stems circled in purple that were broken off at basically the same place due to contacting the piston.

So if you have read this far; I applaud you!! LOL

If you know me, you do know that I take my customer service and my business very seriously. I have learned that I can not make everyone happy but I also can't sit back and let people talk bad about me without merit.

I waited to make this response until the BBB file was closed and they emailed me late yesterday with this: "We forwarded your response to Paul Ashbacher. Unfortunately, the consumer notified our office they are not satisfied. BBB has determined your company has addressed the issues within the complaint; therefore we have closed this case in our files. This matter will appear in your BBB Business Review as: “Answered - the business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer remains dissatisfied.”

So obviously they also feel that I have done my best to satisfy Paul and explain why his warranty is not valid, but he just keeps refusing everyone.

One of his last Emails to me stated: "I will go find another expert that disagrees with your collection of theories, maybe even two, and we can just take it to court. Instead of seeking warranty work at that point it'll be for cash."

So I guess I will just wait for what is next, even though 3 experts have told him that is was nothing due to an error on our part. Steve @ All Pro even stated that he would do a written statement for me if needed ( Written statement ) . The BBB also has reviewed everything and has determined that I addressed all of Paul's issues, but he is unwilling to accept it.

Thanks for reading!!