Wow this is turning into more trouble for Julian than just some motors.

I have not taken any sides in this either but as I do have a built motor from Sam I wanted to see how this unfolds, but I must say that with 40,000 miles on my engine and it being my daily driver I have never had any such issues and even when I do have small hiccups Sam has always helped me out which is more important than to me than just buying a product.

Hopefully this will make the shop better than it is now

 

Julian quite playing vitcim...yes gtm still has to admit that there could be issues with the engines in question even if its just 0.003% of their whole engine sales....arrogant attitude and jumping the gun on blame need to disappear, in the end they showed they are going to help rome out more than you, and backtracked on the issue of the cams and are trying to remedy things, being humble is better pr than playing to be godlike.
Julian, REMEMBER, YOU BROUGHT ALL THIS TO YOURSELF NOW, HOW ON EARTH DID YOU THINK YOU WERE GOING TO GET SUPPORT BY THROWING ROME UNDER THE BUS???? and now you are quitting? ...now its time for you to man up and honor your word which you said was "stronger than oak" and help in getting rome back on the road..and learn that you simply cannot "SHlT where you eat"

 

I am a GTM customer and I have been lurking in this forum as well as my350z for quite a while.

I live in Singapore and my G35 is modded and tuned in a HKS Technical Factory here.

I have tried to keep out of this thread as I was seriously concerned about the accusations made. But now that more info is available, I feel more comfortable about my relationship with GTM and Sam.

I first bought a 4.2L sleeved engine from Sam and it was delivered to Singapore sometime in January last year.

The engine was installed and on first start up, there was a small oil leak at one spot of the head gasket. It was more like a seepage where oil stained the metal than a continuous leakage.

We called Sam about it and sent him photos of the seepage and he thought that the engine may have been damaged in transit to Singapore.

New HGs were sent over and installed an the seepage was gone.

The engine was broken in and then tuned with Fcon VPro and we got 700+ whp The tuner was surprised at the amount of torque and was raving about the engine.

I was happy with the car and was driving it constantly to Kuala Lumpur where I can really open the throttle.

But we noticed that after a hard run, there was moisture on the underside of the oil fill cap. It was visible to the naked eye. But yet when we drained the oil, we could find no water contamination. It was a puzzle and we decided to send the engine back to Sam for him to analyze. We did not do a teardown here as we did not want to compromise the engine before Sam gets his hands on it.

In the meantime, I got a Cosworth longblock to replace the 4.2. I missed the torque of the 4.2 but loved the high revving cossi 3.5

Sam eventually got back to me and told me that the sleeves were damaged and thought it could be a combination of the hot and humid climate here and the fact that sleeved engines run hotter. He suggested that I go for a 4.0L non sleeved and I agreed.

But I needed another engine urgently as the cossie has done over 300 hard miles at Sepang International Circuit and was due for a teardown.

Sam then sold me a stage 2 3.5L longblock for $7000+ and got it to me within 2 weeks.

This is the engine that is currently in my car and it has been running with no problems for the last 3000 miles including 80 hard miles in Sepang

The 4.0 has arrived and is waiting to go into my car. Sam did not do a straight replacement or warranty though. I had to pay another $7000 cos some parts were upgraded, like cams and cooling system, while others could not be used again, like the head cos of different piston diameter.

I thought that the sum was a bit high and felt that he should have absorbed more cost as I was footing the shipping cost ( which is USD900 one way ), but I am a big boy and i know how the game is played. We cannot prove conclusively that the sleeves were damaged by one party or the other. And the car did run well except for the moisture under the oil cap. So I accepted the cost.

The engine will be installed in November and hopefully all will be well.

Is Sam perfect? Not by a long shot. There were times that I was really frustrated with him. And yes...sometimes he comes across as a know it all. I remember at one stage he was questioning the mechanical and diagnostic skills of my mechanics as well as the skills of the tuner.

It was only after I told him that these mechanics rebuild high power engines on a constant basis and the tuner is a certified HKS trainer, meaning he trains other tuners to tune the Fcon did he accept that skill was not an issue here.

I was also frustrated with his turnaround time. I can work out a schedule with him and the schedule will get delayed again and again.

There were a few times I came away from a conversation with him disappointed and frustrated.

For better or for worse, I stuck with it and now, the engine is back in Singapore and it looks good.

Will I do business with Sam again? Yes.

While he can be a pain to deal with, I must say that he knows his VQ quite well. Even the people from HKS Japan was impressed with the 4.2L.

And when playing this game, I come in with the mindset that there will always be problems as in a way, the few of us that got the 4.2L sleeved are pioneers. It is the same thing as buying a 1st generation car.

As long as communication with Sam is kept civil, and facts are presented, he will eventually admit that he may be wrong...not an easy thing to do, but still doable

I also realize that having the engine from one source and installation and tuning from another source puts me at a disadvantage and I cannot really blame anybody unless the failure is conclusive enough to lay blame on one or the other. So, I don't play the blame game, but work with all involved to resolve the problems.

I wonder how many customers that have bought, installed and tuned their engines at GTM are unhappy?

I now have 4 engines The original 3.5L, a GTM stage 2 3.5L, a Cosworth 3.5L and a GTM 4.0L non sleeved.

If the 4.0L runs well, that will be my primary engine while the rest will be backups

 

A big +1 to that!!!

 

I've been reading this thread an refraining from posting much because I knew there was already a lot of BS to sort through here to get to the main point. I've met Sam and although things seemed to be stacked against him in the beginning, I could only think about my personal experience with him when I met and talked to him about my car (which unfortunately hasn't made it to GTM yet due to my own financial reasons), and knew it just can't all be true what is being said here.

That being said, I think Sam proved his point, Julian needed to let of some steam and left Sam that VMail, but I don't see it necessary to kick him while he's down and try to do something like that. That would only make people look at Sam and GTM in a negative way.

 

Dude, that is a lot of expensive motors!!!!

 

On a lighter note... I just noticed your sig and it made me LMAO!

 

I don't know if i would say that Julian through romey under a bus as everyone else is so quick to say. The problem with these types of threads is that everyone wants to clearly see a good guy and a bad guy. The fact is that both parties are likely at fault to an extent. Remember that if it wasn't for this thread being brought out before the public, we don't know with any certainty that GTM would or would not have made good on the promises they made in regards to the warranty. So in a way, even though it kind of screwed up julian and romey's personal relationship, it may have saved him from spending thousands more on parts before getting on the road again. Again, by starting out on the wrong foot julian kind of screwed himself over in the end, but i can sympathize with him. he took a chance starting this thread, and i am sure it was in a moment of anger, GTM replied, and obviously with two tempers flaring and a bunch of spectators cheering it on, it took a turn for the worst. All i can say is hopefully everything gets resolved behind the scenes, both shops have good reputations thus far, and when you think about the number of VQ enthusiasts, there really are not THAT many good tuners around, so it would be a shame to see one or both hurt by the results. best of luck to everyone involved. this has been an interesting few days to say the least

 

Those of us that know r0mey personally and have been involved behind the scenes of this forum thread know that Julian threw r0mey under the bus.

I do agree though that this thread brought GTM into the spotlight, and as a result, other suspect GTM motors were brought out of the silence on my350z which are not involved/affiliated with MRC.

 

Allow me to reply one final time:

Since day one Rome and I hit it off and had a business and friendship relationship. We did his car for him, and his build up was pretty pricey admittedly. He was in a constant competition to see who the fastest was between him, Evo Dan, and Multiple others. Whatever, thats his thing, I dont fault him for that.
He always wanted more and more power, it is addictive. What most people do not realize in the high performance industry, is that failures occur, no matter what precautions one takes. it is the nature of the beast. Nothing after market is warrantied like one would think.
Now you all assume the worst of me, however I will give a brief background on Romey and I and what I have done for him. We spent countless hours on Romey's car after the install diagnosing a misfire problem he was having. I went as far as delivering the car to him at his house and attempts to do so several times, but the problem would re-occur after about 20-30 minutes of driving. We changed out the following on his car FREE OF CHARGE:
Injectors, coil packs, Fcon, Harness for Fcon,Throttle body,and did several multi session of data logging. In the end it was his sponsored Clutchmasters Stage 7 multi disc clutch that he got on his own from Clutchmasters direct.

We swapped out the clutch for FREE. which on a 350Z with Greddy Turbos and wastegates is easilly a 6-8 hour job @$80 per hour. all in all I DID NOT CHARGE ROMEY ONE SINGLE PENNY for what amounted to about $1500-$1800 of diagnostics and labor. For an issue that was 100% not MRC's fault of install related.

During the swap out and diagnostics I loaned Romey my brand new Mazda speed6 for over 1 week. How many shop owners have you know to do that?


We did multiple tune sessions for Romey for free and gave him a sponsor ship labor rate of $45 per hour. No written agreement, just friends remember.

Romes car was tuned for 12-15 psi by me, on several occasions he called me and told me he was putting 100 octane in the car to run Evodan and raised the boost to 18psi on his own without re-tuning for it. Rome never seemed to listen to my advise, and I honestly should have locked him out of the boost controller.

In the beginning of this summer Romey came to me to install a meth kit, open dumps, and some other stuff, with a retune. Upon raising the boost to 18psi the heads showed signs of lifting. I should Note there have been MULTIPLE CASES of GTM motors having failed headgaskets all over the forums, tuned by multiple shops including GTM themselves, you just dont hear about it.
We contacted Sam, he stated he would look at the motor if we sent it to him. In my opinion the GTM headstuds were not properly installed/TQ.d. At this time the car did NOT lift the heads at 14psi low boost map. And was drivable within reason. Rome wanted the car back to go to a car show around that time, and I gave him the car back. I was reluctant and should have been more persistent that he not take it, looking back now. I honestly trusted Rome, not to beat on the car, and advised him not to do so, since it might be hurt. We were not 100% sure the heads were lifted at the time.
I risked my reputation and blamed Sam for the motor failure. He does repairs to the motor, sends it back and charges Romey for some stuff he did, perhaps Romey will clarify.
Now keep in mind, we have not yet billed rome for any of the work we did up until this point which includes the meth install, dump install, heat wrapping,removing the motor, stripping all of the components off it , packing it up and shipping it to GTM. Not a single penny was out of Romes pocket. We agreed to help him out with a further discounted labor rate, feeling bad for him at the time.
The motor comes back 2 months later, we install it, start the car and one side of the motor is not firing. Matt verifies there is fuel coming from the injectors,confirms there is spark, and even tries swapping out the Fcon unit.

Matt proceeds to do a compression test and comes up with 145psi across one bank and 110 psi compression in the other. He does a leak down test, and verifies the valves were not sealing. We contact Sam from GTM who automatically stated we mistimed the motor and bent valves.

We agree to send the motor out to a 3rd party for inspection, to see who F'd up. The inspection comes back today, verifying valve leakage and that three cylinders were not firing. Well they wont fire with low compression, thats common knowledge.

At this point is where it gets screwed up. I come to find out from a person that knows Rome that when the first motor was hurt, and he took the car he was street racing it at 19psi, with a possibly hurt headgasket. Then i find the video on youtube. I flip out, that Rome was not honest with me and upfront with me the whole time. He was out drag racing his first motor, and turned a simple headgasket issue to a 3 month fiasco. I put my reputation on the line backing Rome and he was not 100% upfront with me..

Was posting the video about him wrong? Yes, it was not the right thing to do on my end and could have been handled differently.But understand my anger and how i felt i was being deceived and taken advantage of by a friend. A friend whom i was trying to back and help out.

I am out alot of labor on an issue that was not my fault, and as always GTM comes up smelling like roses. I agreed with Rome to AS A FRIEND work out the labor he owes and we will take care of the current labor for issues we feel we may be responsible for.

We will remain friends in the end, however we agreed to no longer do business together when all is said and done and issues are resolved and what is owed is squared away.


Was i 100% right? No, absolutely not...Did I let my emotions get the best of me? Sure did.. Did I learn valuable lessons? Yup..I will never again, befriend a customer of mine, business is business and personal is personal..

I just want you to know that we have gone way above and beyond what most performance shops would have done in this case...Not trying to sound right, just trying to be heard form my point of view.

As far as my message to Sam,
Anyone should not trust him, he talks about ALL of you other sponsors/vendors behind your back. He called JT a hack, Sharif didnt know sh*t when Albertos motor failed, Injected was a bunch of tool and the Haltech sucked,the pro efi is a pos, ect.. he talkes about ALL of you guys behind your back but is a gentleman in your face.He is an accomplished and well spoken business man, and that is where he is superior to me, Im not in the industry long enough and possibly do not have the tact to get it done like Sam. He is smooth like a con man, i am clumbsy like a baffon at time, I admit
My message to him was a heated one, that if Im out there in Cali, ill stop by and we can deal with our issues man to man ( I did not threaten him with bodily harm at any point) I also called him a Cack Suka, cause that how i protray him.Dont trust him.If your content and have the money to spend on multiple motors with failed sleeves from Humidity then be my guest...Honestly i had a great time on these forums, and made friends and enemies and will take some hard learned lessons with me in life...

 

Julian I would get the oustanding money from Romey first and get that squared away before moving forward with getting his second engine resolved, I am not saying you threw him under the bus but you need to get paid for work which has been done before starting any new work.

 

Julian,

If internet drama wasn't so important to you, no one would be in the situation they are in now, would they???

 

Julian is correct we will remain friends. MRC has done alot for me and Im sure they will to get me back on the road soon enough. I am truely sorry to see them go as I have alot of great memories there. I will be trying to contact both GTM and MRC tommorrow to work out a 3 way with all the parties including the 3rd party to arrange everyone to speak at once. I have no hard feelings towards Julian as I know he is a passionate guy and some times that passion boils over. I wish him the best and it will be a sad sad sad day when they close up shop.

 

I post a thread about an unamed shop that built a motor that we had inspected with building defects, speced out to the T with pictures...The topic gets twisted around to all of this by GTM, myself and the reast of the community...I find out that my friend/customer was not 100% upfront with me the whole time, 6 months..Ya..I love Drama.

 

Thank rome..No need for a 3 way, Sam already washed himself clean despite some evidence that the issue was 50% his fault, i dont need to speak with him any further he will not help you out, and if this thread did not start, do you think your Cams would be warrantied Rome? NO...