keegan Engineering, head work
 

Hey Guys, need help! What does anyone know about Keegan Engineering's reputation? Sent my head in 2 months ago-was supposed to be a 2 week turn around!! Mike answers about every 3ed or 4th email and has promised it out the next week several times. Left phone message and no phone calls.

Deleted your other duplicate thread. Hope you get your issues resolved. We don't really have regional sections here, you might try clubroadster.net, they have decent regional sections where you might have better luck.

An in person visit goes a LONG way with these kind of issues.

According to their FB they build motors for 949?

Please keep us updated. They looked like a pretty reputable place, I was thinking about talking to them, myself. But this doesn't sound promising.

robert

Yes Crusher has a motor built by them.

I had a similar experience with the motor he built for me. It took almost 4 months to get it back and very slow communication. Part of what didn't help is that his wife just had a kid.

I'll keep trying. I know he just had a kid, been there and done that twice. I still had to take care of business. Maybe they had complications-I hope not. I also know that he does really good work and that is why I chose him over others. Just didnt expect it to take this long and spotty communication. At least I know he does take a while. I'll let you guys know how it comes out. Thanks for the delete on 2nd post Curly-couldnt figure it out. You are right, in person visit always helps, but....I'm in Louisiana and he is in California. Kinda puts me in a bad spot. Ya'll have a great day !

Isn't the Insideline project car motor being built by Keegan. Check out their long term Miata build, purdy pics inside.

My experience has been the same as/worse than the OP's.

"It should be done by _______" has been happening for almost FOUR months. Almost every time I send a follow up email after one of those dates comes and goes, 5-7 days would pass without a response. "Still waiting for a reply to my last email, see below" would usually be followed by a same day response. Today makes day 7 of me waiting for dimensions on the crate so I can provide him a shipping label.

With spending ~$4k, one would hope to have a little bit better communication.

^ I concur, if you're so loaded up with work that you can't communicate with your clients, it's time to start turning down work until you can catch up.

For one, no machine shop would turn down work. No matter how backed up. Keeping work coming in is what keeps the doors open. And its never wise to rush your machinist. Things take time and there is always another customer who is paying more than you or is a real race team with real needs. Pestering and rushing results in shitty work. However in your defense, they should have been better at communicating and scheduling work.

I worked for a machine shop for 5 years and i have seen builds get pushed back months like this when it gets busy. There is alot that goes into building engines. Some times machine parts are back ordered or a machine breaks, this leads to down time.

Yes but give me a real lead time. Dont tell me 6 to 8 weeks when you're backed up 4 months and then more crap happened in those 6-8 weeks and it wont be another 5 months till I could realistically get my shit back. Blowing your lead time is bad. Blowing your lead time and telling someone "oh it'll be done next week" for 4 months on end is even worse. You make more happy customers by saying 3 months for lead time and having it be done in 2.5 months, rather than saying 2 months and being 2 weeks late.

I absolutely hate the practice of putting other people's work in front of mine. I'm a paying customer. Sure, maybe there are a few more important customers that might have some emergency work that needs done, but that excuse gets old really quickly. I've seen that sort of BS literally drag on for more than a year. Nobody's work is worth that sort of delay. Also, asking for something to be done in the time frame that was originally quoted by the machinist isn't "pestering and rushing" them.

robert

I spent several years in the automotive field in various positions, including aftermarket parts sales, and was constantly reminded of the restaurant business.

That is, you have so many people who either are - or think they are - great craftsmen (chefs) but have no business sense or training. This is why you have great chefs drive restaurants in to the ground (or never get them off the ground in the first place).


If you regularly cannot stick to a promised delivery time, you should start overshooting it by a wide margin. I'm constantly boggled by how few people in the automotive aftermarket understand the notion of "underpromise, overdeliver."

If you realistically think it's going to take 4 months, set your delivery time at 6 months. Then, when it's done in 5 months the customer thinks he got his parts early and you generate positive goodwill - vs them thinking they got the parts late and generating negative goodwill.


That leads to a second comparison with the restaurant industry: if you are a great craftsman but shitty business person (or are overwhelmed trying to do everything), acknowledge that early and bring in some competent help to run the front of the house.


I hope everything gets resolved and Keegan gets back on more solid footing after what seems like some growing pains.

Keeps getting better...

6/14- I asked him about the flowsheet he said he was sending, as well as info on weight/dimensions so I can get a shipping label.
6/22 he replies to the email. Doesn't answer either of my inquiries. Simply asks if I had sent payment yet.

:crx:

You really should not air all of this out publicly. These kind of issues rarely end up with either party's reputation fully intact. It is not fair for the public to pass judgment without both party's side of the story.

GIMME A BREAK!!!

This is a classic example of an industry where the "builders" have gotten spoiled so bad that sending them work and a ton of money still results in a gambling game on whether you'll get what you're paying for in the timeline you were promised.

Can't deliver on promised timelines? YOU DESERVE TO GO OUT OF BUSINESS!!!!!!!

Yeah except years and years of people dropping their pants and taking it without lube from builders is what led to this in the 1st place. Maybe they'll actually start caring about the customer when it starts affecting their reputation?

They're more than welcome to come here and post their side of this of course. Who knows, maybe OP is mis-representing the situation a good bit.

+1 thank you
+1 thank you
+1 thank you

If a vendor is giving you terrible service, was not a single or isolated incident, and even had a chance over the phone to rectify things, but did not take it, what would you do at that point? I saw someone having the exact same problem as I was having, and decided to chime in. I don't feel one bit of wrong doing for sharing what I have.

In all honesty, I hope that when this engine arrives, it is fucking awesome, and I can feel slightly less shitty about how this transaction has gone.

:party:

I know that you are angry, and that sometimes we all do things without fully thinking about it when angry.

I hope it really works out for both of you. It is hard to say at this point without knowing more about what is going on with them.

What is going on with Keegan is that it is race season and he is backed up. This reeks of what went on the Stewart at SD with shocks.

Took the words right outa my fingertips haha, props.

Fucking Russian Liar. It still says 0 at the bottom right of my post, so I got no props.:giggle:

I mean when I took my block to get built at the start of spring in 2010 at a spec miata machine shop they told me it was the start of race season and that it would take a good while to get done. They could not give me a set time table for completion, as they said up front that taking care of their spec miata customers who are there year after year, are slightly more important then my single motor build. I am making assumptions that a lot of bigger well known shops that deal in the racing industry are probably the same way. It royally sucks for the small time individual, but I understand from a business sense that keeping the big customers happy is the way to stay open. I do think that Keegan should do a better job at communicating though.

^^^Same thing with AIM Tuning. He doesn't give 2 shits about advancing his business, he does what he likes. Us plebs will have to wait if we want something done, as he gets big money from the spec miata guys.

If you want the best, you have to pay for the best. And that payment isn't always money.

:laugh: sorry bro race season delayed your props:dealwithit:

+2

Because Miata, I wonder what that would be? :naughty:

Every time I send a part out to get worked on, I'm worried it'll cost me the entirety of my racing season. :crx:

I believe Mike made his way over to this thread. He sent me a good email going over everything and explaining some things. We are both on the same page, and at this point I am back to happy customer status. I am patiently awaiting my engine's arrival! :)

It's amazing what some communication will do, isn't it?

That is always the problem....lack of communication so many think ignoring a customer's inquiry will somehow make it go away.

This is the difference. If you know you'll be backed up, TELL THE CUSTOMER before you start the job. Better to lose one job because you're too busy than to lose several due to bad publicity from unsatisfied customers. Your shop did the right thing by putting it all out there to begin with.

Sounds like Keegan has started communicating a bit but it's a shame it takes threads like this to make it happen. :2cents:

Sounds like I need to start one of these for BogusSVO...

Rut roo i know nothing about dale....

Must say a a business owner,
There is no way I would do this to any of my customers.

I took my head down to have machine work on Monday (Shave, 7 angle grind and new solid lifters),phone call Wednesday lunch time come pick it up. All done BTW it's race season here as well.

Hope you get your motor soon.

Still no engine. I've lost count of how many times now I have been told "it will be boxed up for shipping on X date", with X date coming and going with no communication.

(the engine has been finished for a month now)

Sounds like it's time to go for a drive.

Not to be a downer, but if it was finished, they would ship it back to you.

That would have happened already if we were closer. Dallas tx to Corona CA is a bit of a drive...

You aren't the first the suggest that. Wouldn't be surprised.

It's probably being used right now in some race car and they will pull it/rebuild it/ship it to you when the season is over.

I wish I were in a position to laugh at this... :facepalm:



Called him on Tuesday, left a not-happy customer voicemail. Leave him my cell to call me back on. He calls back the number I called from instead, which doesn't come to my office phone. He emails me for my cell number. I give him the cell number again, says he will call me tomorrow. Tomorrow is now yesterday. Left him another voicemail earlier today. Still no call back. Seriously starting to doubt the existence of "my" engine. I really don't know what to do at this point.

Where is this builder located? Maybe a forum member can go knock on his door for you.

Well I got a call back. Being boxed up tonight... Said it will ship tomorrow. We shall see!

I used to work in a machine shop with similar bullshit management... The manager and the boss would continue to pile on work and tell the customers that it would be ready in 2 weeks when in reality we would be shipping stuff 2 months late because thats how backed up we were. Sadly they would say anything to get the job. In the shop i was with, the parts take 2 weeks to make and they are saying the customer will have that part in their hands in 2 weeks. And they are saying the same thing for 4-5 parts a day. Eventually the customers got used to the lies and started going elsewhere... Long story short that business is now down to 4 people out of 13-14 people it had when i was working with them.

Maybe that's why so many shops actually went out of business..?

Take in works

Take in Money

Do not delivery within promised timeline

Lose customers

Sell off the business

at the end, I think the owners still make $ out of em..

Thats the thing, shops with good reputation will still have work because they are good at what they do however once they start spreading lies they will lose customers out the ass.

That seems hit or miss.... he had my buddy's MS install on his 93LE done in like... a week and a half.

In the meantime, i couldn't get him to take my money at all for the 2-3 hours of work i wanted done over a year or so of pestering him.

I got the hint, moved on, and now my car runs beautifully on a Haltech.

so how much is Keegan charging for head work?

For port/polish, valve job, +1 SS Int/Inconel Exh, ST springs they wanted 1800+ -- Fantastic work but too much money for me.

Does that include springs/valves and labour? That's about what my builder quoted me for headwork alone.

Is that including the valves and springs? If so, that sounds pretty fair to me.

EDIT: Should have read Oscar's pos..

Guys i wanted to revive this thread again, has anyone dealt with keegan of late and were there any issues with timeline execution?

No machine shop ever meets deadlines. It is now into race season. I would be surprised if it got done quickly.

Ok guys here's how it ended up. First let me say that his work was excellent!! I was told a 2 wk turn around and it took 6 months. I was told some of the most bizarre excuses I've ever heard in my 40+ years in the automotive industry. I payed him over night with cashier's ck and it got shipped to someone else-got it a month later!! CNC porting, Supertech valle train, Viton valve seals, Integral camshafts, disassemble/assemble hd, wash/blast hd, performance valve job, heat cyl head and press guides back and in for porting, lash valves for new cams- $2741.00 07/17/13. I found a couple of valves tight-reset them and I am a happy with his work. I just lost a lot of sleep waiting on him. If I had known from the start it took 4-6 months it wouldn't have been so bad. My head is still performing Great !!!

Did they want the money all up front or just a deposit? Did you have to keep calling to get work done or was he providing status updates?

I had to call and ck on the progress. He answered about every 2nd-3ed email and I sometimes got him on the phone. The only time I heard from Mike was when he sent me a photo text of the finished head and then called me a few minutes later. I didn't pay until it was finished and he had the total. When things had taken too long, I called at the house about 7:30pst and left an angry message-he called me within 5 minutes. Then things got rolling. My local machinist said he must have used a new blade, as it was extremely clean for CNC cutting. Good luck-be prepared to wait. As best I can figure-typical time is about 4 months. You might try and tie him down to a date it will be done.

We have been getting work done by Keegan for about 6 years now. One man operation most of the time. Like most small shops, they'll take forever if you don't bug them. He is no different. We use his services for what he does exceptionally well (build engines), not what he does so-so (manage his schedule).

We have a wall full of trophies and something like 14 track records around the country. Keegan built just about every one of those engines.

My shop likes to take whatever garbage i bring to them, tell me "Yeah we're kinda busy, this'll be 2-3 weeks."

Then leave me a message 2 days later. "Hey man, come get your shit, it's done."

Then start blowing my phone up 3 days after i dropped off the parts. "Why haven't you come and picked up your shit yet?!?!??!"

I love these guys.

That said, i don't have any trophies. :(