[DoughBoy]

Where the hell are my MAF, chip, and injectors?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

It's been over 3 1/2 months and the car FINALLY started again last night. Now the only damn thing I'm waiting for is the MIC.

 

[1turbofocus]

If UPS had not of screwed up you would of had them months ago ,When you say it like you did every one thinks you have been waiting 3.5 months for it and you have but please tell every one what happen

And the bad news is up till yesterday UPS lost them again they are being sent back to me and i sent you others out yesterday yours are in Tocoma Wa

Yes we are slow getting stuff out ,We will work on getting faster ,I am sorry for this but it isnt all on me

Tom

 

[DoughBoy]

If UPS had not of screwed up you would of had them months ago ,When you say it like you did every one thinks you have been waiting 3.5 months for it and you have but please tell every one what happen

And the bad news is up till yesterday UPS lost them again they are being sent back to me and i sent you others out yesterday yours are in Tocoma Wa

Yes we are slow getting stuff out ,We will work on getting faster ,I am sorry for this but it isnt all on me

Tom

It's official- I HATE UPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tom, I agree that this whole hellish deal hasn't been all your fault, but communication along the way would have been nice. I did call you on Wednesday of last week and they didn't get sent out, then you called on Monday to get the computer code and it got sent out on Tuesday, then I called you 3 times yesterday and never got a call back. If you would have called and let me know what was up, I wouldn't have had to post anything.



As for the full story of Eric trying to fix his car, it's long as hell but I'll put down as much as I can still remember (better grab a beer and a comfy chair for this):


It all starts on May 11 when I was driving home for Mother's Day. While driving on the freeway my oil pressure light came on. I knew I had a slow leak somewhere in my oil system but hadn't figured out where yet (I know, dumb move on my part.

). I figured I was just a little low on oil and I knew there was a Target about a mile down the road so I waited to take that exit. My thought was I would check the oil, if I was low I'd top it off, then do a full oil change when I got to my parents (about 20 miles away). Well, as soon as I got off the freeway, the engine siezed. Turns out I blew a line on the external oil cooler and dumped about 5 quarts of oil on I-35- since it was raining I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary in my rear view mirror. I am in no way blaming anybody but myself for this and I know I should have paid more attention- too late now.
Since the car died about 90 miles from my home, I had to borrow a friend's brother-in-law's truck, rent a car dolly, and drive back down to pick the car up the next day. We tore it down over the next two days and found the problem- I spun a bearing and siezed the 4th rod to the crank.

Since I had the Aerocharger Stage III, I decided to order a built short-block from Tom (w/ Crower rods) along with a MIC to get rid of the fifth injector. With his experience and tuning knowledge I figured it was the best bet. Plus my car would be a hell of a lot safer for now and ready to handle a crapload more power in the future. I called Tom and he said it shouldn't take more than 2 weeks to get one built. We talked about the options; I said cool and sent him a check on May 24. I wait a week or more for the check to get there, call Tom a number of times along the way to see if it arrived, and get the same 'no' answer each time. So finally I say screw it- mail must have lost the check. I'm really itching for my car back so I decide to spend $15 to overnight another $3350 check on June 3. So that one gets there and Tom starts working on the shortblock. At this point I figure it should be about 2 1/2 weeks and I should have my built shortblock, MAF, chip, and injectors in my hands so we can start rebuilding the engine....

Here's where the UPS and delay fun begins (if I can even remember it all). First, the 9.0:1 pistons from JE get delayed- should have arrived on a Thursday, don't get there till Monday. Then the piston rings are wrong and won't work- since it's the first time he's used JE, Tom orders another set from JE and has them overnighted. Again, the rings don't work so Tom calls JE and gets pissed off at the idiot saying that Tom has no idea what he's doing. So someone calls Tom back and says that they grabbed parts off their shelf and the rings do NOT work. They get the right ones and send him another set. So there's about a week of delay with shipping and all the other crap.

So the motor finally gets built a week or two later than expected. Tom had issues in the past with blocks getting damaged in shipping so he has a cabinet maker build a crate out of 3/4" plywood & 2x4's, bolts the block in to the crate, throws in the MIC and sends it out. (I honestly don't even remember how long ago that was but it was probably late June or early July.) So wait impatiently for everything to show up at work. When it does, the block is in a ripped up plastic bag, there is no sign of the crate that it was bolted in to, and the MAF chip and injectors are nowhere to be seen!! UPS completely destroyed and lost everythig that was with it.

I called Tom to tell him what happened and he did jump all over it. To make a long story short(er), I had to repackage the block and send it back to UPS. Their guy said that nothing was wrong with it.

So it gets sent back down to Tom so he can tear down the block, recheck the deck, the balance, the pistons etc and replace/rebuild anything that was damamged. So you figure a week to ship it back down, a few days to check and rebuild it, and another week to ship it back up to me.....

About 2 weeks after sending it back to UPS I gave Tom a call to see what the status was. Turns out the deck and pistons were fine but the front and rear seal had some damage so those and the oil pump were replaced. At this point I figure I should have the block back in about a week. After almost 2 weeks I called back down to Tom's shop to see when it was shipped out- IT STILL HADN'T LEFT. This time it was the cabinet maker that was dragging his feet.

Tom said that he had threatened the cabinet guy to take all of his business somewhere else if it didn't get done in the next 2 days. So about a week later I FINALLY get my built shortblock in one piece (but with no MIC because Tom was out of mass-air sensors). I'm not positive, but I think the day I got the block was August 7. Tom said that he would send out the MIC as soon as he had all the parts in stock.

We started working on the engine on the 11th or so. Two weekends ago we got the majority of the motor rebuilt on the stand and were planning on getting it back in the car on the 23rd. On that Wednesday I called Tom to see what was up with the MIC. I said that we were putting the engine back in on Saturday and that would be the only thing holding us up. He said it hadn't went out yet and that he would send it out that day via 3-Day Select shipping. Well, Friday and Saturday came but the MIC did not. So I get a call on Monday morning saying that they tried to send it out on Friday but someone ripped my computer code off the sheet the specs were written on so they couldn't do the chip. Tom said it would leave that day and I should see it in 3 days or so. So it comes to Friday (yesterday) and I still don't have my MIC. I called Tom's shop and he says it was shipped out on Tuesday and that he'd call the shipping place and see what's up then give me a call back. I called again 2 hours later and he still wasn't sure because he got tied up- he'd call them right away and let me know.

That was the last I heard before I made the above post.

So now after 3 1/2 months of my car sitting dead in the garage, the engine totally rebuilt, the car is running, I still don't have my MIC.

Tom, I know this wasn't all your fault and that you had a lot of other issues going on during this time too, but the lack of communication is what has pissed me off along the way as much as anything else. I received probably less than 5 phone calls over the 3 month ordeal and I never got any kind of tracking numbers for any shipments. It seems to me that I had to beg and scratch for any kind of updates or information when I spent over three thousand dollars and was insanely patient and understanding with the whole debacle.

If I've left anything out, please feel free to add more facts or your perspective on events. I tried to be as objective as possible and leave emotion out of it.


So what's the moral of the story?.....
If your oil light ever comes on, STOP YOUR CAR IMMEDIATELY.
Oh yeah, and UPS is the axis of Evil!

 

[1turbofocus]

Nope that about covers it

After talking to UPS and the lost package department and didnt feel like it would get found any time soon i sent out another one and drove about 30 miles to drop it at a late night dropoff to get it to you by the first of the week,,The 2nd MIC was shipped from Gastonis NC late Friday if you receive both just send the other back

You did fail to mention i repaired and replaced ALL of the broke and damaged parts at no charge and sent out a total of 3 MIC now

To keep the communication open something i may need to work on more the tracking # on the 3rd MIC is 1z210x200313493775

Tom

 

[DoughBoy]

After talking to UPS and the lost package department and didnt feel like it would get found any time soon i sent out another one and drove about 30 miles to drop it at a late night dropoff to get it to you by the first of the week,,The 2nd MIC was shipped from Gastonis NC late Friday if you receive both just send the other back.

the tracking # on the 3rd MIC is 1z210x200313493775

I appreciate it.
I work in the retail industry so I know how it goes with certain situations getting all jacked up. I understand that it's not all your fault and that you've had to deal with a whole bunch of crap on your end as well.
If I could give one piece of advice it would be to have better follow-up with customers. Information is the key. Small things like the tracking number make a big difference.

 

[ax0n]

Tom, do you, per chance, have any of the insurance paperwork, reciepts, tracking numbers and such, from all these incidents? What's UPS's excuse?

 

[1turbofocus]

Yes all were insured ,the wooden box that was sent the first time has never shown up or the MIC that was in it and the wooden box i sent the second time he said was also damaged ,,We are talking a 3/4 inch plywood box screwed together and was braced inside

I am fighting with UPS over paying for the missing parts and damage to the parts,They are saying it was NOT packaged properly go figure

Tom

 

[PGZX3]

small beans here, and its a slim chance, I know, but is it possible that you took pictures of the packaging before it was shipped and possibly during construction????? That would be a good wa to cover yourself in the future, to have pictures, and make sure UPS KNOWS when the package is shipped that there is photographic proof of the products condition before it ever hits their trucks. I can honestly say it goes a long way to getting money from them, and yes UPS = THE AXIS OF EVIL

 

[SonicBluSVT 02']

I have stopped using UPS because of this exact issue. I had sent out a computer to my grandparents. During shipping it was damaged. UPS had someone come out and check the packaging and take pics. They told me it wasn't packaged properly. I said how is that? I used boxes from Dell that my company gets their computers in. So after fighting back and forth they made another trip out and said ok they will pay me what I insured it for and send me the computer back. Of course I never got the computer. It is still sitting in KS somewhere for the past 2 months. I don't care, I got my money. oh, it took them 4 months to finally get this situation resolved.

Fedex and an other carrier probably aren't that much better, but UPS will never get my business or my grandparents business again!

 

[DoughBoy]

......and it's only getting better.....

Well, we got everything up and running yesterday and ran in to a slight problem- white smoke out of the tailpipe.

We let it run for a bit to see if it would burn off but it didn't. We pulled the plugs and #1 was white.

Tom, have you (or anyone else out there) used the ARP head studs on the Focus yet? If so, have you had any problems with them? We went by the Ford's recommended torque specs when we put them on but maybe that wasn't the best bet. Any recommendations?

 

[1turbofocus]

I have used the ARP studs in about 20 Focus engines now and not had any problems

Did you use the 3 piece steel gasket or the composit gasket

PM me your phone number and i will call and see if i can help you out

Tom

 

[CTZX3]

i too have stopped using UPS. its USPS now, sofar so good.

 

[Shevvvvv]

UPS and FEDEX are not so different. Fedex, especially, always leave the stuff in front of the door if no one is at home. I've experienced that lots of time. UPS? Poor packaging ruined my CF hood.

I'd say USPS is still the better one.