turbo_Z

Despite what everybody is saying... don't accept defeat and just walk away. Express to Comp how disappointed you are in their quality control and be sure to let them know you will never purchase another Comp product as long as you live and will take every opportunity presented to tell people your story so they too will stay away from their stuff.

You never hear of these problems with Crane parts.

ZMAN Z28

You are probably right, but it won't hurt to consult with one. I don't disagrre with you, one should and need to check over everything very carefully (I have never seen a non self aligning rocker, so I don't know the difference between the two. So I know I wouldn't know the difference).
But that also doesn't make it right for Comp not to check their work also. Everyone is going to make mistakes, thats part of life. Agree with me or not, but its not ethically right for a company to say sorry bout that, too bad you installed the wrong part that looks extremely close to your original product. The owner of the car, the mechanic and Comp should have noticed the difference. Granted the owner of the car screwd up, but if everyone says its ok to let the big companies screw up their Q.A., they will keep getting away with it.

ZMAN

Z95m6

Yes i never hear of the problems with Cranes stuff. I'm sure it happens but not near the amount of Comp or at least no one says anything. Whats interesting how a company just shifts total responsibility to the buyer, and people just grow accustomed to it and are ok with that. Now its the buyers fault for ordering the correct part he wanted and not getting what he paid for. This kind of thing wouldn't really wouldn't be tolerated in other industries and shouldn't be in this one.

Z95m6

Yeah something like that.

SuperDavez28

Exactly, good point zman. If we give comp a free pass on not checking the parts before they get to us, they're not going to change. This WILL happen to someone else because ill bet 9/10 of those who install rr's
1. don't know the difference between sa, nsa.
2. don't think to check every single rr in a brand new box.

Not to mention things like pushrods that aren't hardened or the wrong springs mixed in a set. I would suggest having a sticky about checking comps parts for people who do not realize to check parts before installing.

I agree that the mechanic could have avoided all this, and this allong with some other mistakes, I believe he was definately not fit for the job.

I can accept that it could be partly my fault for not researching enough, not looking at them myself, buying the parts myself etc...but this is why I paid someone to do it so I wouldn't have to.

I'm not asking for someone to buy me an engine, but having to pick up the entire bill for this is wrong.

shoebox

The experienced guys have it right, IMO. If it wasn't Comp Cams people are blaming, it would be some other manufacturer. No, Crane is not perfect, either. It would not be prudent to assume that every part you get from anyone is going to be the right part 100% of the time (even when multiple parts are in a set). That's why you check stuff. The "experienced" guys have been around long enough to know this is the way of the world.

If I had gotten one wrong rocker in a set, didn't notice and installed it and it caused me trouble, I would be blaming the manufacturer for sending me a wrong part, but even more so, kicking myself for not checking that it was right. Ultimately the blame would fall on me.

Loadre

Apparently I'm the only young one agreeing with the old ones. You buy parts. You check them before you stick them on the car. If they go on the car it's no one's fault but your own. Suck it up and start rebuilding.

WS6T3RROR

crane never has bad parts, ha. i can show you a long line of marine guys who have fubar'ed crane cams when they changed the design and heat treat process of thier HR bbc cores, snapped the cam off right in front of the dist gear. i can also show you a dozen racers who had cranes solid roller lifters fly apart on them and junked some serious parts because of it. i've seen manley valves have issues and i've seen arp bolt sets that didnt have the right amount or length of bolts in them. every manufacturer will have problems now and then its a fact of life.

NEOS97SS

thanks for pointing this thread out man, im the buddy he is talking about and comp cams is the worst customer service company in the world, to this day i hate comp cams and tell everyone dont buy anything comp, i got lucky and the rockers never kicked out the locks, i have a little scaring on the top of the retainer but thats it and the 40 bucks overnight shipping it cost to get my car running again after comp refused to ship it next day and said it woudl be 2 weeks before i got the replacement if i sent it regular. i hate comp cams.

but even worse is another friend of mine with a ford truck just spent a mint rebuilding his fuel injected 460 with the best of everything forged thermal beariers oil shedding the whole nine, very nice engine. well it was that is. not even a 100 miles on the motor and the cam broke in half popped the rear cam seal out lost oil pressure and metal shavings pretty much blasted everything and basically the whole engine was ruined, he even needs a new block. so he contacts comp and tells them what happened and provides pics of the teardown and all damage and then sends the cam back and after in spection that admit to it being a bad casting and yea its there fault.

but heres the kicker, do you know what they offered to do about it? they offered to send him a new cam that he would have to pay shipping on and thats it. refused to cover anything else even after admitting it was there fault. needless to say he is sueing them right now.

ZMAN Z28

When it comes to advice about parts and mechanical advice, I will 99% of the time agree with the older guys. This is partially a mechanical error, and partially a business error. The installer should have verified. But Comp should have sent the correct part. Both are partially to blame. Was there a warning that came with the rocker or the bill of sale stating that this might not be the correct part you ordered, you install it, suck it up. There is a difference between the more experienced builders saying its the installers fault, and proof stating this. Did the mechanic tell the owner of the car, that is you give me parts and I install them, its your fault its the wrong part. The mechanic should have said this is the wrong rocker arm, this is what will happen if you run this motor, then it would be entirely the owner of the cars fault. If I help a friend work on their car, I always tell them before, that if anything goes wrong, and I don't delibretly screw up, then its your responsibility. Thats why I usually don't work on others peoples cars unless they are more and better experienced then me. I'll bet even a few of the more experienced builders on this site are owners of shops or related to this business, and I can see how they will be biased. They wouldn't/ don't want to be held responsible for the actions of others, which they would be right. But in this case, it isn't entirely the installers fault. If I paid someone to do this work, then I am not going to roll over and play dead if something like this were to happen to me.

One thing we can agree on is the older guys aren't going to see my point, and the new guys don't want to see the older guys point. Thats just my opinion. If Comp would have been doing their job properly, this wouln't have happenned.

ZMAN

468Blazer

I know its tough loosing your engine to such a silly mistake but man its best to just bite the bullet and go on. Would I tell comp cams and the mechanic about it, yes but if they both don't do a thing to help I wouldn't be suprised. We live in a wonder world and most everyone is out for thereself. I'm not a old guy, I'm 23 years old but anyone who has messed with any autoparts for a car knows you have to check, and double check. You know how many trips back and forth to the parts store you make, its just part of it. Nothing when involving a vehicle ever goes the way planned 99% of the time.

I'm not the type to seek lawyers ,etc etc but hey if you are ,then you may be like the lady with the coffee at McD's and end up with a new engine. then look at all the time and fees wasted. From the begining of time we as humans have screwed up and will continue to screw up. When combining humans and mechanical items there will always be mistakes. Just my .02.

MachinistOne

I do work in this industry, and I am the one that brought up the fact that it IS the installers fault. He was paid to do the job correctly based on his experiance and knowledge, and he failed. Comp may have some serious problems as far as packaging and shipping, but their part did not fail...it was used in the wrong application.

You obviously did not read these pages, as the experianced guys who may or may not work in this industry are saying that it was NOT comps or the totally the customer's fault, that the mechanic messed up. Part of being in the buisiness and having any chance of growth and survival is accepting responsibility for your mistakes and making good on them in order to keep a happy customer base. If something happens, we determine the cause of the failure; defective part, wrong application, poor machine work, installer error, etc. For a bad part, we fix the problem and then contact the manufacturer. We put our own warrenty over the suppliers so that the customer doesnt have to suffer. If our service department messes up, we take responsibilty and cover everything. Now this rarely happens because we do check ALL parts, and ALL tolerances, that's why all the work can be warrented.

speedmiser

I can't see much good in trying to sue Comp Cams.

Here's their published warranty:

http://www.compcams.com/products/policy.pdf#search='competition%20cams%20warranty'

rskrause

[irony mode on] Why would you try to inject facts into this discussion? Don't you know that "feelings" are much more important than logic and reason? At least the Democrats on the Judciary Committee think so, a la their criticism of the new Chief Justice. [irony mode off]

Rich

OldSStroker

Good call, Rich.

I still think we need a "tongue in cheek" icon for the irony mode. This one isn't quite good enough.