I will reply to Sams Character assasination:

Sam, I would provide links of threads assasinating you and your shop for screw ups and less than ethical events, however mysteriously every GTM thread to pop up with a negative tone, has since been deleted Im confused with this myself...
And again refering to my past arguments with members and shops is not a professional assesment of any of the issues at hand, on your end.. All this shows is that anyone who contests GTM or Sam will be subject ot a barraige and flurry of discrediting character assaults. Sounds alot like like a dictatorship to me. I have yet to see GTM ever admit being wrong in any situation. This character assault does not explain the technical information presented to the masses..
Ok so Julian can be a dick, tell the forum something we dont know...
Now lets disect and clarrify..

Vino's motor:
http://www.kptechnologies.com/g35dri...Cblueprint.doc


Final tune took place around 5/2008. Before the final tune the car ran no boost and was broken in for about 1800 miles. during and following the tune, the car displayed some oil smoke under boost but it was not that dramatic at the time. The customer took delivery of the car and returned several weeks later with smoking issues. We did the basic leak down and compression tests, and decided to pull the motor around 6/1/2008. Those are the pictures all dated from 2006, I will clarify before someone calls BS on it. THE DATE ON MY CAMERA WAS NOT SET and the display is 5/1/2006.I can aausre you that these pictures were taken in June of 2008 and the customer will verify.
I never made any statements to Sam about the car making "noise and being 4 QTs low" The car however did consume 4 Qts of oil between changes following the initial tune. The car did make noise form the valve train since brand new and this will be verified by the customer. GTM motors are some of the noisiest valve trains we have experienced, perhaps they dont know how to prperly set the cam lash, which is factualy documented and proven by us.
Sam assure me this was normal, I however knew it was not. We pulled the motor shortly after seeing this.
This is where it becomes a he said she said game of personal interpretation of what took place between Sam and I. I can assure you we did experience issues with 3 motors from GTM at this same time and it was a frustrating and confusing situation. There was tension between Sam and I. like ususal Sam pointed fingers in every possibly direction from MRC, to the Piston manufacturer to the customer, instead of saying "send me the motors back Ill take care of them".
Already having a motor at Sams facility for inspection, (Romes 1st motor), we decided to get an independant inspection of Vino's motor. We felt that Sam would as usual give us a baised and one sided inspection report of the motor in his favor as he has done in the past without having all the facts.

These are the results on page 1 first post of this thread.
These results had many issues for failure, tuning was not one of them. However 30 thousandths ring end gaps and piston to wall clearance issues were...To this date Sam from GTM has not made an explenation towards this report, but has character assaulted MRC and myself instead. Diverting attention and blame away from the issue at hand. If Sam had diverted as much energy in making good on these issues as he has searching the forums for old threads to use to character assault Julian and MRC, this topic would not be an issue.Sam puts more effort in discrediting other shops than making things right.
I admit I am a rather easy target to character assault, having a hot head and known to but heads with people, andalso being such a small facility. And yes, Sam did help us achieve HKS pro dealer status, we flew to California and were trained by HKS. Afterwards we did have questions in some of the features we never or rarely used, and we did call John at HKS as well as Sam for clarification.This simple fact that we "asked questions" does not mean we were not capable or compitant as Sam suggests. In fact it takes a bigger man to admit he had questions and is always learning, over a pompous arrogant person such as Sam, who claimes to know everything and anything..
Sam has yet to explain the results we found on the break down of Vino's motor. I am sure "amatuer" tuning can not magically change ring end gaps 30 thousandths too loose and main journal clearances 10 thousandths too tight...
Vino's motor was a timebomb waiting for boost to be ran through it. Under normal N/A break in it performed fine, when we tuned it for boost it began its rapid spiral downward towards failure..

This motor has been pulled, shipped and disected at our expense 100% thus far.
I will reply to Romes 2 motors shortly i need to watch my daughter for a few..

 

If Rome has been without his car for 6 months, then I think everyone doesnt need to relax.... I think everyone needs to get busy and get this man his car back fixed... quick, fast, and in a hurry. It is not HIS fault this has taken place. Fix the customer, then internet fight. Showing you care about getting his car going no matter what... will say alot about a persons character.

 

Once again, Romes car has been pulled apart 2 timeas already, and he has not since paid me a single dime...

 

and this is solid proof to me that julian is standing behind the products he sells, which are GTM made.

 

Seems like everyone just needs to return to their corner and cool down. People make mistake. Ive seen F-1 cars that cost 7mil+ (not to mention R&D) fail as well. Both parties are honorable and seem to correct any fault of theirs. Everyone just needs to wait for it to play itself out.

 

Romey's Motor:

Some time in June of 2008 or thereabouts, Romey had installed methenol injection and requested a retune on his motor to 18 psi from the 15 he was running. His objective was a safe street tune around 18psi without using race gas. On the dyno upon raising the boost to 17 psi, the coolant blew out of the coolant overflow tank.Classic signs of headlift. We informed Romey of this, and stopped the tuning process.

My tech perhaps thought it may have been an air bubble and proceeded to bleed the system.The car ran fine at 12-14 psi, no head lift following this. Romey requested and insisted on having the car back to drive around for a few days for testing. in fact I believe it was around memorial day weekend.

Romey picked up the car and drove it for several days, I can not be responsible or held accountable for what took place after that, as I do not know what his driving habbits were. And I do not know if Rome was 100% honest with me from this point on and since, however I am going with what we were TOLD by the customer, and have to take that for the truth.. Romey however informed me that the coolant was dissapearing after long drives on low boost.

We brought the car in and began pulling the motor. At this time we called Sam on 3 way with Romey.Sam immidiately suggested tuning as usual. He offerd a few other explenations as to why the heads would lift when the psi was raised, usual culprits, including the mythical 14,000 mile HKS headgasket...

Upon opening the motor we found only one piston to be scraping the sidewalls of the cylinder. There were no immidiate signs of detonation/pitting on the pistons or rod end bearings. (the rod end bearings were confirmed to show "Normal wear" as GTM's later inspection report would show.This contradicts any detonation) The pistons did have a STEAM cleaned look to them, either form the meth or the coolant from the headgasket.
We utilized a Snap-On digital TQ wrench to un TQ the heads, this gave us varying TQ numbers I will post later but there was fluctuations of over 50-60 ft lbs in TQ ratings to break the studs. We also found with GTM motors that the actual studs always appear to have been over TQ'd into the block, rather than hand snug.
From this point on, the motor was sent to GTM for isnpection.Perhaps Sam would be willing to post up the entire reprot he came up with..

Around July 4th weekend, my opened dialog with Sam stopped, and he stopped returning my calls and messages. I will get copies of my cell phone bill to verify. However form this point on Romey dealt directly with Sam as a buffer. From what Romey told me, sam would NOT warranty the Cams, perhaps Romey could post up to clarify this, because at this point I honetly do not know who to believe.

Sam also told Romey that his crank was no good, due to the pulley being loose and turning the end of the crank "blue".
I can attest the pulley was NEVER loose and the crank is blueish at the end form the machining process as all BRAND NEW OEM CRANKS ARE...I can varify with pictures at a later date..Also had the pulley been loose, the keyway on the crank would have been chewed up, this was not the case.
So I was told by romey, that Sam insisted on selling him a new crank, however Sam never provided any Magnaflux reports, and measurments or specs on the existing crank and simply went by face value of his visual inspection..a big NO NO in engine building...From this point on I have no clue what transpired between romey and Sam, as Sam would not speak with me, In fact I even called him a few weeks ago when we recieve Romeys new motor, in an attempt to clean the slate.Sam however never returned the call. I will post up that phone bill also to verify my story..

Romey's NEW MOTOR:

got it back form GTM fully assembled minus the timing chain and cover. We did that install here, and installed the motor in the car. The car started and ran on 3 cylinders. We did a compression test and found one bank to be of much lower compression. We did a leak down and found that the exhaust valves on that particular bank were hanging opened and leaking air.

Contated Romey, who contacted Sam, since Sam was not speaking with me. We arranged a 3 way conference call, between Romey, Sam and I. Romey informed me that Sam was VERY SPECIFIC that he only wanted to speak about the current issue and would NOT discuss any of the past issues we had with his motors or him. I agreed to speak with Sam. Sam's first reply was that we mis timed the motor and bent valves. I assured him this was NOT the case and that we had found that his tolerances on the cam to valve clearances were all over 10 tohusandths to tight. My tech is one of the most methotical and accurate persons to ever set the cam lash I have found.Even some of the professional heads we recieved from other shops did not have as accurate lashes as the ones my tech has set. My mototr is VERY quiet on the valve train as a result.

Long story short, we agreed to send the motor to a 3rd party for teardown.Whoever messed up would fix it fully on their dime. Sam insisted on Sharif. We felt that Sahrif being a GTM customer and friend of Sam would not give us an accurate assesment of the issue, and would hide or attempt to hide things in Sams favor. We wanted no influence from GTM or Sam involved in the teardown.

Romey opted for an engine builder in NJ, who has worked for major race car teams and has set world records in the Import Drace Race scene. We shipped the motor out there and are awaiting the results.
To date we have heard that Sam has been calling the engine builder multiple times during the day, for what reason we do not know...We dropeed the motor off and have had contact with him once thus far.Preliminary break downs have suggested that the cams were timed properly on our part.This would clear MRC fully of any wrongdoing, and all costs incurred would be responsibility of Romey and Sam from this point on...


allow me to clarify, cause there were comments about me "throwing Romey under the bus" by some disgruntled persons on My350Z.com. I am NOT in any way throwing Romey under the bus, however I am simply stating all of the VARIABLES that may possibly be brought up by both educated and uneducated parties that fell they need to throw their two cents in this thread... I am simply acting upon what
A) My observations were at the time.
B)what honestly and actually transpired
C)what my customer relayed to me
D)what my observations and conclusions were at the time.

In no way did i discredit Romey, I am simply utilizing what information he supplied to me at the time. If Romey is being 100% honest with me and sam is not for me to decide. However i have a certain obligation to stand behind him and take what he has told me for gospel and defend him as my customer.
As far as Joe aka USM whatever...you wer eoffered a resolution to your issues and you declined and attempted to defraud me out of $700 for two small door dings in your door that were fixed for $125. i know for a fact you tried to get me to pay for paint for some aftermarket parts on your car..

 

My motor has made this noise (I'm assuming the same) since day one of install/tuning by my shop. Sam assured me then, that it was normal.

 

Hold on, i just found this comment by Sam on MY350. COM.

Now who is the Amature...Sam is reffering to repairing oil squirters with the engine in the car. Does Sam have Any mechanical background relating to the VQ35 motor? Please expound how you would even get to the oil squirters without removing the entire crank? To get the crank out of the car you would need to remove the upper oil pan, which will not come out of the car with the Transmission and lower suspension attatched..At that point you have 2/3rds of the motor pulled. Then not to mention, the pistons will snap off the new oil squirters, and need to be notched to clear. Now that you have notched the pistons, you will need to rebalance the entire rotating assembly...
Is Sam for real?? This type of comment from him would scare me far away from him and his shop..

 

If you did cams, it is not..A simple way of checking this, have your shop remove both valve covers and check the valve lash according to the Nissan assembly manual. It has a very detailed section in the engine section on doing so. If the valve lash is not correct, you will get a noisy valve train, and possibly not opening all of the valves the same distance, therefore effecting performance a bit. We found GTM motors to be all over the place in this respect, Romes last motor had tolerances over 10-13 thousandths too tight and loose cold, when warm the tolerances got tighter, possibly leading to valve damage.Take about 1 hour to check properly.

 

julian i think you should stop attacking sam and rather resolve the main issues...

the customer should be first.

 

Like I have said before, the issues are being resolved on our end...Selective reading once again at work. To date Sam has not stepped up to assist in any form.
And FYI, I have not ATTACKED SAM, he has been the one attacking me, and ignoring the FACTS and issues.

 

julian, your attitute flat out sucks.

dont accuse me of selective reading. who do you think you are?

had you read my posts, you would understand what i mean.

amature reader too...

 

What the hell are you talking about?! I can't take you seriously anymore, lol. It seems MRC has made many efforts to aid r0me (without pay, it should be noted) and GTM has just charged him for more parts on a motor that should have never broken in the first place (albeit, debatably).

 

No cams. Thanks, I had not heard about this check before.

 

X2. And anyone who builds engines would know that a TUNE would not cause the problems shown above.