I'm curious how long other members here have had to wait to get a 383 built from an LT1 because I'm getting frustrated waiting for mine. I brought it to Strictly Performance in Van Nuys, CA in what was supposed to be a 3 day turn around. Basically the 383 was prebuilt, and once that was ready I brought my car in for the swap. 3 months later and the car isn't ready yet.

Is this normal? The guy I talk with there seems nice enough, and he does seem knowlegable. The current state we are at is this: After waiting over 4 weeks for them to figure out how to reprogram the computer, I got tired of waiting and managed to find another shop down in Inglewood that did it over a weekend, including a dyno tune. The guy at Strictly Performance was nice enough to trailer my car down there though. Now though the shop in Inglewood found 4 problems that needed to be fixed so its back at the Strictly shop awaiting those fixes. Two have been fixed, all thats left now is some valve train adjustment, and resolving a vibration issue, thats it. It's been over two weeks know and I'm still waiting on the valve train adjustment and vibration fix, and fast losing patience.

Ok, so I'm very frustrated right now so I figured lemme check with people here and see whats normal in a 383 build process. Does this time frame all sound normal to you guys? I'm at roughly the 3 month mark, and it's become comical to the point that they've started a pool at my work with all of them gambling on when I'll actually get my car back ;(

Thanks guys.

 

I haven't had a 383 done in my Camaro but in any other vehicle I've had an engine rebuild and swap done it has never taken over a week. It sounds to me like you are getting the shaft.

 

Three months is horrible! Especially if the block was already built. All that was required was assembling the topend and accessories and dropping it in right? The shop in Inglewood is Haddad M'sports right? They have a good rep and too bad you didn't end up going there first. that is where I'm gonna take my work.

 

Ya, the Inglewood shop is Haddad Motorsports. He did the reprogram fairly quick, and it looks like I'll be heading to him again for more help. I got the car back yesterday from Strictly Motorsports and right now the vents don't work, and I get random lights on the dash (sometimes low oil and brake, sometimes abs inop, etc...) they seem to change each time I run the car. Worse yet, this morning I look under the car and theres puddles of oil everywhere. I've had enough. I gonna take the loss and bring the car to Haddad to fix it. More out of pocket money, but hopefully I'll have better luck there.

I knew I should have just traded the car in for a hemi Magnum

 

Building the motor took me less than two months doing it myself in free time. Once it was finished it only took 3 days to solo it back into the car and running.

 

Our standard lead time is 3-5 weeks for short blocks and 4-6 for long blocks provided we aren't waiting being sent parts and waiting on other suppliers.

Thats just a gauge. A more custom piece can take longer. I have a race project with a good customer of ours that has been in development for over six months, but we planned that from the get go. Exotic parts take a long time to deliver.

 

18 months for me to do it right. Ran into problems every step of the way... but took the necessary precautions to do everything the correct way.

 

Im looking at about 4-5 months. Should be running next week.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. At this point I need some advice. Forgive me for the long post but I'm mad as hell at the moment and need some advice on what to do next.

I currently have Haddad Motorsports fixing this 383 build that was botched by Strictly Motorsports, and Mike over there is so far doing an awesome job. Thing is, he keeps finding more and more problems with Strictly's work. Here's one example, one of the many problems I had after picking up my car from Strictly Performance was a horrible vibration. The guy over there claimed the flywheel wasnt balanced and they removed a weight off of it. I thought nothing of it. Weeks later, with Haddad now fixing this botched mod, I get a call from him saying "you've gotta see this". Long story short, this is a picture of the flywheel that Strictly Performance happily put into my 'high performance' engine build:

http://users.adelphia.net/~lydiamanc...s/flywheel.jpg

Haddad thankfully caught this and did not recommend putting that back into that car so he ordered and balanced a new one for me. You guys tell me, would you be comfortable putting this flywheel into your car?

Another example. When I first got the car back from Strictly, it was leaking tons of oil. They took it back, kept if for 3 weeks, then claimed the leak was fixed, they just changed the 'main seal'. I get the car home, sure enough its leaking like crazy again. I then have Haddad look at it and sure enough he finds this same seal leaking like crazy, and he properly fixes it so it now leaks no more. So what the heck was Strictly doing for 3 weeks with my car? They claimed they fixed this leak but obviously never even looked under the car as the puddles of oil would have clued them in that they didnt fix it.

What else can go wrong? Well, the car dyno'd at around 280rwhp over at Haddad's, obviously low for a 383. After some probing, Haddad found part of the problem. Strictly Motorsports had run one of the plug wires between the headers, and it got all frayed. Again, thankfully Haddad caught that and took care of it for me.

But, now the car still only makes around 320rwhp, which is rediculous for a 383 motor. So now it's yet again back to diagnosing whats wrong, in other words more money put of pocket for me for stuff that Structly Motorsports *should* have got right to begin with. After all, they started working on the damn motor back in Feburary and he was sure I was gonna get it around 400rwhp!

I can go on and on but you get the point. So what would you guys do if you were me? At this point I'm considering either suing Strictly Motorsports and/or disputing my last credit card payment, basically having Strictly pay for what its now costing me to have a competent shop fix my car. I'm not calling my lawyer yet, I figure its best to cool off for a day or two, but tell me, what would you guys do if you were me right now? This wasn't exactly a low budget build, I paid $7400 to get this job done professionally, and what I received was far from it. Let me know your thoughts guys, I appreciate it.

 

Id call the first shop and let them know whats up. Thats BS man. Hopefully they will help ya out with the $$. That flywheel is BS too. You need to get it running right and/or find out how much it will cost to get it running right before you can go further though.

Should have went with VRE

 

Thanks, but I'm done calling Strictly Performance. It's useless calling there anyways as I can never get any information from them. For example, I must have asked a dozen times to get flow specs on the ported heads, and everytime it was the same answer, he just has to 'call his guy'. He never does of course though so I have no clue how good they are. At this point I'm starting to doubt if he even ported them at all. It may explain why I have the only LT1 383 on the planet that makes 320rwhp.

I will first see what it takes to get it all working right and decide what action to take from there. I think if it takes less than $1000, I'll just absorb it and get the word out about that shop so that no one else makes the same mistake I did by going there. If it takes more than $1000, then I'll look into what I can legally do to get my money back.

 

I just did a engine swap. So I could keep my car while they put the engine together and tehn they would call me when the engine was ready to be installed

 

wow...go down there with a ****in bat...and say call the guy right now...then get your damn money back..or take it out on the shop. Thats what I would do.

 

Thats what I had done as well. I paid $3000 in advance so they could start work. The engine was built first and when it was ready I brought my car in to do the swap. So I was able to keep my car at least while the motor was being built. Even with that, I've been without a car for around 4.5 months.

 

Go in and talk to them in person. Be calm and rational. Lay out what happened and tell them what you want to make it right. If they don't agree or come up with a reasonable counteroffer, go to small claims court. Small claims has a dollar limit, which varies by jurisdiction. If the limit isn't high enough to cover your loss, you will need a lawyer for "regular" court.

Rich