Project 930 The Resurrection

[JBL930]

**** me sideways!!!! I've been ripped off badly in the past too, but this is in a different league!!
At least it'll be right this time Lincoln, hope it's just done quickly for you so you can get out and enjoy it

[TurboKraft]

Originally Posted by Ken911

No offense to any of the professionals on the board here a lot of shops do very good work then get big and hire unskilled people due to the small talent pool.

...And that pretty much sums up why we've kept TurboKraft a very small, boutique parts company & workshop: the labor. We have 2 people in the shop right now: me, and Mike B. And I thank God for Mike, because he's the employee that you soon wonder how you'd did without. Sure, he cusses like a sailor and has lousy taste in music he plays really loud in the workshop, but his integrity, honesty, and work ethic are above reproach. He'll call anyone out if he thinks the workmanship isn't what it should be, me included.

If I could find one or two more people like him, we'd grow the business some more. But we also know several shops that have outgrown the quality that made their name in the first place, and I have no interest in falling into that group.
I'd rather we only do a handful of very high quality cars a year than a bunch of mediocre ones; sell a fraction of the parts and have them be the right solutions for our clients, not just promote whatever is in inventory that day.

[TurboKraft]

Originally Posted by tj930

I looked at this picture for a moment and thought, "Wow! That's such a cool idea to have the turbo's air intake minimalised to just an air filter.."
Then I remembered that I live in damper climes than you guys and that if I went through a watersplash (fording a stream), the engine would be given to unintentional 'water injection'..
Surely stones could fly up and hit the filter, too?

I don't subscribe to this method. The car is from Michigan, where it rains. Not that you'd drive through standing water that deep, but it'll get a lot of moisture off the road. Probably okay for out here in AZ, except it would get caked with dust and sand fairly quickly.
And it's a small filter.

The car has the fender-mounted A/C condensers, and Lincoln says the story he was told is it wasn't possible to route and air intake through the fender or original location. I don't buy that. There's always a way, even if it means ovalized tubing.

[Richard930]

Reading this made me feel sick. I'm sure we've all had our share of less than satisfactory experiences and dissappointments with various shops / mechanics, but this is really well beyond anything I could imagine having to face.

Good luck with this - I look forward to following the rebuild, and reading about a successfull resurrection!

[Ken911]

[The car has the fender-mounted A/C condensers, and Lincoln says the story he was told is it wasn't possible to route and air intake through the fender or original location. I don't buy that. There's always a way, even if it means ovalized tubing.[/QUOTE]

i'm interested in seing the solution to that i might be in the same boat by the time i'm done building my intercooler

[Jeff Alton]

The good news is now you are in good hands. Chris I am sure will make it right.

Cheers

[tom84930]

Whew! All of us on Pelican owe Lincoln thanks for his selfless willingness to share some trully regrettable experiences. This sort of honest, open information sharing provides everyone here a warning glimpse into the dicey world of engine builders without having to spend a dime of our own money. And the fact that Lincoln is now working with a man of integrity like Chris Carrroll, who is able to step-by-step document the shabby, inexcusable workmanship Lincoln has endured, will make this thread invaluable.

[DDDD]

Originally Posted by krasuskyp

Oh Linc! My heart goes out to you brutha!

I knew you'd had issues and seemed to be continuing to have issues but had noooo idea how bad 'BAD' was. Heck I didn't even frickin KNOW folks could build something *that bad* at these levels of play... I'm speechless, and cannot begin to fathom how gutted you must be.

The carnage is just endless and goes on and on and on... OUCH.

Not that anyone deserves 'that', but worst part is Linc's the damn nicest dude you'll ever meet. Really really really sucks that there's folks in the world that would do that, and esp to someone as cool as you my friend.

I guess solstice is found in that you've hit rock bottom and the only way is up - and UP in GOOD HANDS. With Tom's project birthed to near infinite awesomeness just ahead of you, you've got solid inspiration for your soon to be found _destiny_.

To end on a positive note, let's look @ happier times (amazing times) with you and your car before all this reared its FUGLY HEAD:






Linc... note I spared you from what you knooooow is my *fave* pic of you... fear not tho, I'll deploy that somewhere throughout this tread @ a fitting time 8-) (!!!).

YouTube - pkrasusky's Channel (crappy vid, you were too fast for mere mortals to capture on camera apparently)

When you're done Linc, you're going to have quite the fantabulous creation - I always enjoyed the direction you went w/ it overall... factory looking but better. Also really dig that about Tom's uber930, haven't chimed in on that yet but well played sir, and to all involved for that matter.

Take good care of Linc, Chris... tho that's sorta a foregone conclusion...

Such a beautiful 930...It deserves to live again!

[sjf911]

Holy *****, and here I was feeling sorry for myself for getting ripped off on a crank I thankfully never installed! You are definitely in good hands.

[zcoker]

This reminds me of a few weekends ago, I was hanging out with some guys who owned some real expensive and very pristine go-fast 10 second street cars. These cars were choice, full builds with all the goodies built up by pro shops - a flock of turbo Buick Grand Nationals. We were all just talking and one of the guys suddenly says, “Don’t you ever wish that you just kept your car stock…?” Everyone became silent. Someone asked, “What do you mean?” The guy kind of looked over at his beautiful and expensive car and said: “when she was stock, I had so much fun in her, it had great power, I could go for miles from state to state on vacations nonstop, I could flog her all day and all night without the least worry, I drove to and from work for years, to the shopping center, to the movies without any worry of the paint, to the beach with the girls…..I always had money in my pocket to do so many things….” Kind of took us all for a jolt. It was one of those moments when you look at your own power/mod quest.

[jimtweet]

Originally Posted by zcoker

This reminds me of a few weekends ago, I was hanging out with some guys who owned some real expensive and very pristine go-fast 10 second street cars. These cars were choice, full builds with all the goodies built up by pro shops - a flock of turbo Buick Grand Nationals. We were all just talking and one of the guys suddenly says, “Don’t you ever wish that you just kept your car stock…?” Everyone became silent. Someone asked, “What do you mean?” The guy kind of looked over at his beautiful and expensive car and said: “when she was stock, I had so much fun in her, it had great power, I could go for miles from state to state on vacations nonstop, I could flog her all day and all night without the least worry, I drove to and from work for years, to the shopping center, to the movies without any worry of the paint, to the beach with the girls…..I always had money in my pocket to do so many things….” Kind of took us all for a jolt. It was one of those moments when you look at your own power/mod quest.

i looked through this whole thread, but this quote really got me, and i could attest to this 100%, i owned a 2004 STi, have over 45$K in paper work, that is no labor, since i did most of the work myself,...its a 2004 and has 9k miles on it, it NEVER leaves the garage cause i am to scared to enjoy it! the front end has been repainted 4 times due to rock chips and such...its just no fun anymore....

[TurboKraft]

A few thoughts on this:

This is supposed to be fun. These cars are supposed to be fun. If it isn't fun -- don't do it.

For some, the project is fun. We have a few clients that just don't keep the cars after building them. They move on to a new project -- weird, but that's what they really enjoy.

For most, it's the drive afterwards. Some people are horsepower junkies, some are speed freaks, others want go-kart handling. But ideally, we get it all -- a supercar where all systems work together to deliver a *better* driving experience.
Making power? Easy.
Making it stop faster? Simple.
Making it handle? No problem.
Getting it to all work together to be genuinely *better* than it was? In my opinion, that is the real challenge. That is real tuning. Producing a car that is better than it was before, that delivers a more enjoyable experience.

Similarly, breaking down isn't fun. Who wants to have a tow truck driver on speed dial?
So be realistic with your expectations and build for that. Yeah, it's probably going to cost more than you initially estimated, but a lot cheaper to do it once and right than doing the job twice, or more.


The tragedy here is that Lincoln paid for the good stuff, going for the total package: engine, transmission, brakes, suspension, wheels & tires, interior... He paid for that "better" driving experience and got a grenade in return. As I said initially, it's got mostly all the right parts, but the execution is where it fell apart.

Looking at the quality of the engine assembly up the the cam towers, it isn't that bad -- a little heavy on the 574, and we don't go for stacked cylinder base gaskets, but otherwise generally good. After that, it's like a different mechanic got his paws on it: cam timing off, stacked gaskets on the chain boxes, more fasteners over-torqued than not, rigged wiring, and a cluster-f for intercooler piping.

We're still evaluating the condition of the other internals to determine what is salvageable. From there, we can price out the options for Lincoln to consider.

[slow&rusty]

This thread is going to be epic, full of win!

The rise of the Phoenix

The glass is half full!

Subscribed!

Yasin

[gsmith660]

All I can say is WOW! Whoever did this needs to be publicly exposed so others don't make the same mistake because I am sure you paid for a quality job and didn't get it. Chris make it right please those pictures were just painful to look at. But I do take exception to the shadetree remark as I guess I would fall into that category but I do try to do it right within my tools and expertise but I don't do any work like this intentionally.

[Shadetree930]

Originally Posted by gsmith660

But I do take exception to the shadetree remark .................

I also take exception to that remark ...

[SCHNELE]

While you can excoriate the offenders ad nauseaum, they don't change their ways in fact they just move on and open new shops.

[krasuskyp]

I'll never (ever) get those that sell soon after completion. Hear it happen all the time, too. Folks sure are strange. To each their own certainly, but that's pretty wacked if you ask me (which ya didn't).

The thrill of the chase / the thrill of spending money vs. the thrill of owning / driving / enjoying your (and others') blood / sweat / tears / dollahs.

anywho

Agreed Yasin - tough as it is for Linc to see it this way and as easy it is for us to say it... onward / UPWARD, muuffuukkaahh!



Sad part is how non-isolated experiences like this are - you'd puke twice if you heard all the ineptitude that occured on Gabe's Blackbird build. Same thing, too... from not one but TWO different builders / attempts.

eff'd up, to say the least

Me, I simply *cringe* to picture Linc in this finished product... he somehow finagles driving with his hair on flippin FIRE... and he's Kojak bald! Linc no know slow, that's fersure 8-).

We should start a pool how long he stays licensed after Chris dots the I's on the Masterpiece heh heh...

[9dreizig]

Linc, my sympathies buddy.. No doubt this time will be the charm.. Chris will take good care of you!

[CaptainCalf]

It's sad that some of us are very trust folks and we therefore allow others who do not do what they say they will and who have little to no integrity take advantage of us. I'm glad to see TurboKraft on the job now. You'll have a sweet setup when they are through and even though I haven't dealt with them personally yet, I get the feeling that they will stand behind their work 100%...RC

[RarlyL8]

We were all just talking and one of the guys suddenly says, “Don’t you ever wish that you just kept your car stock…?” Everyone became silent. Someone asked, “What do you mean?” The guy kind of looked over at his beautiful and expensive car and said: “when she was stock, I had so much fun in her, it had great power, I could go for miles from state to state on vacations nonstop, I could flog her all day and all night without the least worry, I drove to and from work for years, to the shopping center, to the movies without any worry of the paint, to the beach with the girls…..I always had money in my pocket to do so many things….” Kind of took us all for a jolt. It was one of those moments when you look at your own power/mod quest.

No reason for that to ever happen, especially with a 930. I've never seen a car so responsive to any modification. All pluses and very few minus unless something is done incorrectly. From the base platform you can have a 400WHP beast that drives better, smoother, and gets better fuel mileage than stock. You can drive it anywhere and expect little to no reduction in longevity.