My 8 month HORROR story. What would you do?

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It is no secret I have the upmost respect for Mr. Clark. Yes, I call him Mr. Clark not Richard. He has earned that respect IMO...

Mr. Clark has MY PERSONAL TFS car that we built here from the frame up. A bad wideband blew the head gaskets twice and the second time I had bad damage. Long story short I choose Mr. Clark to rebuild my engine... I haven't picked it up yet.

Anyway I am not picking sides, but I will say if Mr. Clark said bring the car back he would fix it, I am not sure what else he can do...

Hope you can come to some agreement...

I will leave this thread open as long as the two people involved still continue to post. Please members, keep it clean and civil so hopefully this can be resolved...
 
Yes there are two sides to every story. I've gotten three stories from each one of the the people who work at Richards.
His past reputation I am not interested in at this point, I originally went to him because of his reputation. He Failed ME.
I was as nice as I could be along the way and couldn't get a straight answer form anyone at that shop as far as timing, condition of engine, a each person either didn't know what was going on or was afraid to say.

I knew there was a lot of RCG supporters that will come on here and flame me, but how would you feel if you got screwed out of a lot of money and then you get yelled at like you've got some nerve questioning anything about your engine build. Now after two tries to get this engine right he wants me to bring my car up to him so he can fix it. My car is mint and I will not take it to RCG and let it sit outside and rot while I wait for him to get around to it. A third try to fix my motor Isn't going to happen.

I only want the lies and deception to be exposed here and be compensated for my losses, so this is where this has wound up:

http://www.peopleclaim.com/complaint-details/richard-clarks-garage-burlington-nc-6630489
Yes there are two sides to every story. I've gotten three stories from each one of the the people who work at Richards.
His past reputation I am not interested in at this point, I originally went to him because of his reputation. He Failed ME.
I was as nice as I could be along the way and couldn't get a straight answer form anyone at that shop as far as timing, condition of engine, a each person either didn't know what was going on or was afraid to say.

I knew there was a lot of RCG supporters that will come on here and flame me, but how would you feel if you got screwed out of a lot of money and then you get yelled at like you've got some nerve questioning anything about your engine build. Now after two tries to get this engine right he wants me to bring my car up to him so he can fix it. My car is mint and I will not take it to RCG and let it sit outside and rot while I wait for him to get around to it. A third try to fix my motor Isn't going to happen.

I only want the lies and deception to be exposed here and be compensated for my losses, so this is where this has wound up:

http://www.peopleclaim.com/complaint-details/richard-clarks-garage-burlington-nc-6630489
Not taking sides but you have not answered a few questions.
1. Did you indeed hear a clean clear running engine at his shop?
2. Did you see pictures of every bearing surface in your motor and agree they were not damaged?
3. Did you agree to send the man the money after satisfactorily hearing a finished engine and taking possession of it?
4. Did you refuse to let them drive to you and install or at least be present at the start up of the motor?
5. Are you really posting threatening texts and voicemails to Xavier and Richard in the middle of the night?
I’ll wait for your response to these questions.
They will be critical in forming an open minded opinion after hearing both sides.
 
Man I hate to gloat, but....

You have to realize that people that do carry out engines and transmissions deal with comebacks that aren't their fault ALL THE TIME. He might be wrong to assume that it's not his problem but I guarantee he's been bitten in the ass many times by incompetent fucks that think they are mechanics. Makes a person bitter. As I stated before. IF this person knows their way around a Buick V6 as you must have seen before you took it to them, give them a chance to hear it in car and make it right IF it's indeed their screw up. Everyone's human. It's still possible your guy fucked up too.

As a person who's worked doing carry out transmissions I will definitely stay in neutral ground until it's proven who fucked up. Hell the local independent shops were just as bad as the guy in his garage. At least the guy in his garage was humble enough to call and ask a "stupid" question instead of thinking they knew it all.

NAILED IT!

Sir I think you may have put too much faith in your local guy. I understand not wanting the car to sit outside etc but you need to show up at richards with your hat in your hand and let them figure out what happened. He's a better man than I and that's all I will say. {steps out of thread}
 
Here is the video of the engine run on RCG engine stand after Richard warmed the engine for a few minutes. This is the second and last go around with the complete engine returned to RCG, after he just inspected a few bearings and stopped there. There was never a mention to me of going into that engine with a camera at this point. As I said the knock quiets down considerably from when it's cold. BTW, the voice in the video is mine asking how the oil pressure is. I was asked later how it sounded and I said, "I can't tell, but if it sounds good to you I guess your telling me it's OK". Fortunately the video picked up the noise I couldn't here on RCG run stand.

Look at the video at 0:24 that's where you can still detect the noise.
 
Since your personal mechanic left the seal off have you checked the torque converter bolts? If loose it makes a heck of a noise. If they are tight make sure the converter is secure to the flywheel, on some converters they will bottom out. And if the tensioner is suspect simply remove the belt and crank the engine...Hope this gets resolved.
 
Audio is terrible... still, I do not hear any lower end knock. Lower end rod knocks are usually pretty recognizable and get worse pretty quick.

You still never answered my questions.
 
First of all I want to say I’m very sorry about your frustration with the motor. I’ve been through it. Several times. In fact after dumping about 20,000 into my car it was wrecked by a dumbass less than 2 months after getting it back on the road. I was gutted. But we move on and do the best we can. Just know that my goal from the start has never been to blame or point fingers, but to ensure you are happy with the product.

In addition to Richards response I wanted to chime in with some details I was around for. Ron contacted me when his motor was in our shop the second time. I listened to his situation and assured him that if we found anything wrong with the engine we would fix it free of charge. Since this would be the first time since I’ve worked for Richard that a motor was DOA I told Mr. Mooney that it was extremely important that I be there for the startup the second time in his car. As Richard mentions, a lot can go wrong without proper experience and training with these cars. Personally, if someone brings me a car that has had an engine failure; I clean or replace everything related to the oiling system. Including oil coolers, filters, lines etc. I prime the motor before starting it even if it had just run on the engine stand. I prime the fuel system. I check the coil pack and module. I make damn sure that every sensor, wire etc is perfect so that I know when that key is turned the motor will fire up and doesn’t spend its first few minutes of life being cranked. All this I mentioned to Ron and more crucially I made it clear: I do not care who’s fault it is that the engine is making noise, my goal is to make sure the problem is fixed and that the customer is happy with the result. To that end I offered to install the motor or at least help with the install at his preferred shop since at this point Ron was upset and did not want to bring his car to us. Ron stated that it would be a waste of my time and that his guy was a premier Mustang builder. I stated that while that is probably the case, for my peace of mind and Richards I insisted that I be there for when it was started in the car for the first time. I told Ron that no matter when it was, no matter what time of day, when he was ready to fire up the engine I would hop in my car and drive straight down there no matter what I was doing.

Fast forward to a week or so later. We had found nothing wrong with the engine. All the tolerances were exactly as they had been when the engine had left the first time. No damage was found. The only issue was that Ron’s engine installer had left the rear of the intake manifold unsealed. We had wasted a day and would waste one more setting the engine up on a runstand to ensure it made no aberrant noises. I then left for a rare 3 day break to spend time with my family. It was during this time that Ron had picked up his motor. I was upset upon my return to learn that Ron had ducked out of paying for the wasted effort. However, I wanted to understand his reason for doing so. I made several attempts to call Mr. Mooney for the next few days but was greeted by his voicemail only. I learned that this was the same result that Richard and one other employee would get when attempting to reach his cell phone. This is a classic sign that your number has been blocked so I made an attempt to call him from my wifes phone. The phone rang 5 times before forwarding to his voicemail. It was at this point that I texted him telling him that I was dissapointed with this behavior. I figured that was that. We had wasted our time and more importantly I would not get the chance to ensure that Mr. Mooney ended up with a satisfactory result from our business together.

Now here we are. I am writing this instead of spending valuable time with my family. I am writing this instead of doing what I love. In the interest of transparency I believe Mr. Mooney should know that neither I nor Richard collect a paycheck from our work at the garage. Though you accuse Richard of being greedy he and I invest every cent we make back into the company in hopes of making it into a hub and a community for those who share our interest in these cars. I say this because Mr. Mooney has taken it upon himself to harass us with multiple online complaints, threats, late night texts punctuated with “sleep well” after a menacing threat. We made our offer: we will fix whatever is wrong. If it is our fault we will do so at our own cost. This is much much more than any other engine builder has ever offered me or anyone that I know. There is nothing more that we can offer. What else can we do? You ignored my offer to install the motor the second time. You ignored my request to be there at startup. How can I warranty an engine if I’m not allowed to see it in person to know that it is actually faulty? Am I to trust your word after all of your harassment?

This job has not been easy. After the fire that destroyed much of the shop several years ago we have been doing our very best to get the shop back to shape while still completing customer cars in a reasonable time frame. I have made mistakes along the way for sure. But I will always do my very best to correct those mistakes. Dealing with Mr. Mooneys constant harassment has very nearly drained me of what energy I have at the end of every day. Yet he does not allow me the ability to solve this problem. I work an average of 15 hours a day on weekdays and all of my saturdays too. In the very few moments I have to spend with my family I get to deal with this nonsense instead. To that end, This will be only reply to you. The offer still stands, but your threats and insults will continue to be ignored. For the sake of my family and my sanity.

To conclude this nightmare I would like to say that despite all of what has transpired, my personal offer to come to you and diagnose your issue as well repair and warranty anything that may be our doing still stands. In addition, if you can prove to me via an independent, well respected and mutually agreed upon party that the engine noise is our fault; I will personally repay you every cent you have spent at our shop and will cover the outstanding tear down bill that you chose to duck out on. This is not something that Richard wants me to do but it is my feeling that it is the right thing.

Finally, for everyone watching, you should all know that I have known Richard for almost 3 years now. In that time I’ve met hundreds of his friends, colleagues and customers. Not a one does not have a story of Richard going the extra mile for them. There’s not a single one of them that Richard would not give the shirt off his back to. He has told me time and time again that the way he has succeeded in life is to share in everything he learns. He is gracious, compassionate, and generous to a fault. I am grateful to call him my friend and my mentor. Do not be too quick to judge him on the rantings of an angry person. He would never do the same to you.



Xavier, I know why you jumped in here as I'm sure you were prompted to do so by your ex-employer, just like the scripted text you sent me on 8/6/2018 at 11:16 pm telling me "You were appalled by my behavior, someone my age should know better". Now you make it sound like you were inconvenienced by having to look through my motor. You found out about this after you returned from your three days off. Get your stories straight. There are also lots of discrepancies in you post above.

Also, if you remember, about a month after I dropped off my original motor I called you to see if anything was done to the motor and you told me you had just ordered my new cam.......BULLSHIT ! When I came to pick up first motor I asked your co-worker where's Xavier and I was told you had left RCG. Then I said, "what type of cam did he order" and I was told you never order a cam.

At this point, since you blatantly lied about ordering a cam why the hell should I take anything you say as the truth.
I only met you face to face "ONCE" and talked to you maybe twice on the phone so why are you shooting off your mouth like you were involved in this situation since you don't work there . Just had to clear this up !
 
You still never answered my questions.

2. Did you see pictures of every bearing surface in your motor and agree they were not damaged?
3. Did you agree to send the man the money after satisfactorily hearing a finished engine and taking possession of it?
4. Did you refuse to let them drive to you and install or at least be present at the start up of the motor?
5. Are you really posting threatening texts and voicemails to Xavier and Richard in the middle of the night?
6. Did you ever cut open an oil filter and look at it?
I was forbidden to start my new stroker engine with the factory oil cooler lines hooked up. I had to wait until I got my new radiator installed just for the reason of debris trapped in it that ruins new engines.
Please answer the questions.
 
Xavier, I know why you jumped in here as I'm sure you were prompted to do so by your ex-employer, just like the scripted text you sent me on 8/6/2018 at 11:16 pm telling me "You were appalled by my behavior, someone my age should know better". Now you make it sound like you were inconvenienced by having to look through my motor. You found out about this after you returned from your three days off. Get your stories straight. There are also lots of discrepancies in you post above.

Also, if you remember, about a month after I dropped off my original motor I called you to see if anything was done to the motor and you told me you had just ordered my new cam.......BULLSHIT ! When I came to pick up first motor I asked your co-worker where's Xavier and I was told you had left RCG. Then I said, "what type of cam did he order" and I was told you never order a cam.

At this point, since you blatantly lied about ordering a cam why the hell should I take anything you say as the truth.
I only met you face to face "ONCE" and talked to you maybe twice on the phone so why are you shooting off your mouth like you were involved in this situation since you don't work there . Just had to clear this up !
You’re right. Xavier does not work there any longer....but he is dedicated to helping and that’s why he worked thru the nights during the TurboBuick.com Nationals almost every night we were there. He still turns plenty of wrenches at the shop.
 
[QUOTE="SGRIM, post: 3831701,
I will leave this thread open as long as the two people involved still continue to post. Please members, keep it clean and civil so hopefully this can be resolved...[/QUOTE]

I am only going to respond to the people involved in this engine build. I don't have time to respond to every post on this thread.

I stepped up like a man to let everyone know we are all human and each and everyone of us makes mistakes. I will not be talked down to like I was, I will not tolerate liars, I always pay for "LEGITIMATE" services rendered and will not tolerate the finger pointing when the motor wasn't looked at "THOROUGHLY". I have gotten texts and E-Mail stories since I posted my thread, from people who have had gripes with this shop that never reached the web.

I paid for inferior work only to be told there is no Knock and then told it must be my mechanics fault. Get your story straight. Stupid I'm not, we all heard the noise and it's still there......so who owes who money at this point ?
 
You’re right. Xavier does not work there any longer....but he is dedicated to helping and that’s why he worked thru the nights during the TurboBuick.com Nationals almost every night we were there. He still turns plenty of wrenches at the shop.
Idk who spread the story that I don’t work there anymore but I do lol. Just work weird hours. I work at least 40 hours a week at rcg.
 
Idk who spread the story that I don’t work there anymore but I do lol. Just work weird hours. I work at least 40 hours a week at rcg.

What are the specs on the cam you said you ordered for my motor back around the end of February 2018 ?
 
[QUOTE="SGRIM, post: 3831701,
I will leave this thread open as long as the two people involved still continue to post. Please members, keep it clean and civil so hopefully this can be resolved...

I am only going to respond to the people involved in this engine build. I don't have time to respond to every post on this thread.

I stepped up like a man to let everyone know we are all human and each and everyone of us makes mistakes. I will not be talked down to like I was, I will not tolerate liars, I always pay for "LEGITIMATE" services rendered and will not tolerate the finger pointing when the motor wasn't looked at "THOROUGHLY". I have gotten texts and E-Mail stories since I posted my thread, from people who have had gripes with this shop that never reached the web.

I paid for inferior work only to be told there is no Knock and then told it must be my mechanics fault. Get your story straight. Stupid I'm not, we all heard the noise and it's still there......so who owes who money at this point ?[/QUOTE]
Good work. Quote the Big Boss man and then use his post to duck the questions that would help us form an unbiased opinion. Your title was “What would you do?”
Answer the damn questions and I’ll tell you what I would do. Duck the questions and well.....it looks bad. Real bad.
He’s taking the 5th people....

I’m out before Shane puts me in the corner for a few days.....
 
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Richard Clark:
I just reviewed my original $4,100 bill and there is absolutely no mention or charge for a NEW SET OF LIFTERS. I know you charge for every nut and bolt, Isn't it common sense to install NEW LIFTERS with a NEW CAM ?

I know that when you install a new cam a new set of lifters is mandatory, to quote your remark about my mechanic......"THAT SURE LOOKS LIKE A ROOKIE MOVE" !

See bills above ^^^^^^^^^
 
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