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Also, note that the tuner and his team continuously blame my wiseco recommended ring gap is too tight at 0.017". Yet that is what Wiseco recommended for turbo application, I told him I would trust Wiseco recommended ring gaps than whatever gap they think it should be, just to escape responsibility.
I told him I would rebuild this motor again with whatever ring gap they want and if the motor blow up the same way again, does that means they finally will admit they are wrong and reimburse $5000 in damages? He said he would rather I built the motor to the specs I want because none of them are professional engine builder and the ring gap is their best guess and he will offer to detune it once I get it running again. It was just a constant contradicting logic from his end.
No, I did not sign any agreements. This was tuned in person where I show up to his house. This was a "Street Tune" not tune on a dyno.
Cash deal? No receipt? No emails or texts?
As a technician I have the responsibility to fix a customers car properly. If something goes wrong, an improper or incorrect repair is made then my shop and/or myself is open to being taken to court. It varies by state but usually it goes through small claims courts.
In my 15 years of automotive repair I've only gone to court once. I showed the woman the fault with her car before repairs were made and she acknowledged them. The repair for that component was declined but she still proceeded with other repairs that she came in for. She even said in court that she was told about the issue before repairs to her car were made. The judge ruled in their favor because my shop manager did not notate on the repair order that the issue was present and had no customer signature to back up the claim she was notified even though the woman directly said she was told about it.
All this leads me to suggest to you to consider the same path. The only problem is that you've modified the car beyond it's normal operating conditions and the fact you bypassed and modified the engines operating computer. It's generally known that modifying and tuning a car increases the risk of failure. But if someone is doing tuning or modifications recklessly and not advising customers then maybe you have a leg to stand on.
My recommendation is to reach out to other tuners. Especially with experience and solid known backgrounds. Have them review the tune, look at image's of engine damage. Maybe one or two will write a good affidavit to help your case.
Yes cash deal, no receipt but do have full conversation record on messenger with their pricing sheet and details on the meet location and time.
Yes, I thought about taking this to court but the trouble and uncertainty might not be worth it. Having it review by professional tuner is definitely the way to go for credibility in court.
Better save all those messages before they delete them. If you have ATM records taking out the cash that would probably help as well (not your lawyer).
Small claims is a lot less trouble than most avenues. I would imagine less than $3000 worth of trouble.
I'd be truly shocked if you got anything out of a trip to court. You paid a random amateur to tune your car. This wasn't some legit speed shop. IMO you're S.O.L and all you can do is learn from the experience. Either learn to do things yourself or pay an actual business to do it for you.
Yes, Tadd do know about this because all the conversation is in their company group chat, all three of them suggested my piston ring gaps are too tight when it was gap to Mazda spec (first engine) and Wiseco turbo application (second engine). I bought my MS3X from Tadd. Charles/Charlie is one of them who is up at Detriot Michigan area.
I believe Tadd only sell ECU and Adam take care the tuning side of things.
Last edited by William Yeng; 05-13-2022 at 09:41 PM.
I went back over your original post, you said the same cylinder cracked two pistons in the same spot? Has the block and head been checked and verified to have no issue? Any other signs of damage to any other pistons or valves?
I went back over your original post, you said the same cylinder cracked two pistons in the same spot? Has the block and head been checked and verified to have no issue? Any other signs of damage to any other pistons or valves?
Block have been bore and hone out .5mm for the slightly bigger Wiseco piston and head have a complete valve job on the second rebuild by professional machine shop. Engine had 10k miles on the first time when it was rebuild with stock piston and rings, boosted on 8psi on MS1 for few thousand miles never had a problem then it blew up 30 miles later after it was tuned with the MS3X at 20PSI.
No sign of damage on the other cylinders on the first time it blew up (stock pistons), still taking the engine apart for the this rebuild so can't tell what I'm going to find yet. Boroscrope seems to show some detonation mark on second piston skirt but will need to confirm with my naked eyes when the engine is apart, hopefully tomorrow.
Last edited by William Yeng; 05-13-2022 at 09:49 PM.
This is my theory, on gas, 10-12psi is your friend, 13-15psi will dip into your wallet and 16psi+ will require a new engine and trans. E85 is totally different. Billy was off his rocker thinking he could run 20psi with cast pistons. Was destine to blow up from the beginning. The ace tuner just sped up the process.
Originally Posted by natewin
20psi…
Here I am running 16psi, EFR, 5spd and on a street tuned rods only build. I fear 20psi
This is my theory, on gas, 10-12psi is your friend, 13-15psi will dip into your wallet and 16psi+ will require a new engine and trans. E85 is totally different. Billy was off his rocker thinking he could run 20psi with cast pistons. Was destine to blow up from the beginning. The ace tuner just sped up the process.
LOL sounds like somebody act like he know what he is talking about here. Cast pistons can run 20 PSI all day with proper tune, it is well known that stock miata piston can handle 300HP. My Mazdaspeed 3 with stock engine and stock cast Aluminum piston run 22PSI all day any day with over 200k miles LOL
Not to mention, this blew up on Supertech forged billet piston at 20 PSI as well. So cast piston and 20PSI is not the problem with proper tune and setup. Furthermore, I did not tell my tuner what PSI i want to run, I just told him to utilize the turbo I have but still reliable based on his experience and he decided 20 PSI is good.
I guess you know better then me. Your on your way to blown up engine #3.
Originally Posted by William Yeng
LOL sounds like somebody act like he know what he is talking about here. Cast pistons can run 20 PSI all day with proper tune, it is well known that stock miata piston can handle 300HP. My Mazdaspeed 3 with stock engine and stock cast Aluminum piston run 22PSI all day any day with over 200k miles LOL
Not to mention, this blew up on Supertech forged billet piston at 20 PSI as well. So cast piston and 20PSI is not the problem with proper tune and setup. Furthermore, I did not tell my tuner what PSI i want to run, I just told him to utilize the turbo I have but still reliable based on his experience and he decided 20 PSI is good.
We're jut having some fun since this was stupid from the beginning. Boost pressure is not a great metric but when the hardware is similar and the fuel is a constant you would be surprised how close these rules of thumb actually can be.
I want this to stay on topic as well. It's important we know who tuned it, what the failure was/why it failed, and what will be done to get his car back on the road running right.
So far we know one and a half of these things. We still don't know for sure why it failed. Especially on the same cylinder twice. That's either extremely coincidental or there was a specific reason. This information could be helpful to others in the future. We can blame tuning as part of it, we all agree on that. But the pistons failed in the same spot, on the same cylinder very quickly. That to me is odd which is why I suspect it's a combination of things
Too much timing, not enough fuel, too hot of a spark plug and too much boost. The one cylinder vs others could be the leanest injector if the position was same on both builds, or more likely the cylinder with the least cooling.
05-12-2022, 10:03 PM
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