Harald Julicher -- WHAT TO DO???

[78-911SC]

Sorry I'm going to be so long winded but I need to be fair and try to state all the facts. In Oct 05 I purchased a 3.2 engine from Harald Julicher (speedster94) that was advertised as a euro engine with 65,000 miles and one that he had rebuilt the top end. At that time I had checked his reputation out with some well known Pelicans and with only a couple exceptions found him to be upstanding. I did question him about Kevin's problems who was very outspoken about Harald and his comments were Kevin had it a year before he installed it and he thought it was in good order when he sent it. (I'm now understanding the frustration Kevin went through.)

The first of the problems came to light when I was talking with Steve Wong about a chip for the engine when I install it. I came to find out that the engine was not a euro engine like Harald had advertised and told me. On Jan 16 I informed Harald that there was a problem and he emailed me back stating ''930/20 engine is only the early version to 1986, cars here did not have Cat than, in 1987 the engines were changed to 930/25 and you have a high compression euro version. The engine was rated a 217 with Cat and 231 without Cat. So you have a newer euro version, it is called 930/25 and is a high compression version�. On Jan 19 I told him that I had talk to various people and posted the question to this site and those are not the correct facts. He wrote back "I looked it up in the PET and now I am not sure, let me check tomorrow in my books in the shop. It's to long ago that I was involved with 3.2 to have it in my head. I get back to you tomorrow. It seems that there was 2 engines available one with cat and the other one without. Rated at 217 and 231. One has 9.5 and the other 10.3 compression. But really to be sure I have to check this." After a few tomorrows of asking him to respond he wrote on Jan 23 "After some research I found that there is 2 versions of the euro engines, the 930/20, no cat 231HP, 10.3:1 compression and the 930/25, cat 217HP, and 9.5:1 compression. This is the same like the late 87-89 USA engines (not California). I was not aware that we had 2 different engines in the C1 as that is to long ago for me and I am only doing 3.6 motors and cars since years. I am very sorry for the misunderstanding and it is clearly my mistake, and of course I am standing up for it. Please let me know how we are going to proceed."

On Jan 25 I offered Harald two options. 1. being if he had a set of webers or pmo's to pump up HP and 2. $1500 refund because I surely didn't need to go to Germany for a USA engine. Sending it back was not an option I had invested to much time and money. After repeated attempts to get him to respond he answered on Feb 9 saying "Sorry for the delay, I catched the flu very bad. I am thinking about the for a while now and weighing the options. It is very hard for me to do any business in US-Dollar area since the value of transport too. I made about 1000 dollars on your engine and basically I bought it because I thought it would be a very good engine for somebody who wants a 3.2 for a good price. I know now that it is not a high compression engine and I don't want to tell you any BS, it is my mistake. I would like to clear this but I cannot pay you $1500 back. If you still want it I will reimburse you $750, and if you need something else I will give it to you at my cost. Is that an option for you?" On Feb 13 I told Harald that I thought about his offer and I believed it was a fair one. Hopefully when I find parts I need you can help me with your cost. Let me know how we go about this. Again after numerous attempts to get him to respond he finally responded on Mar 6. He wrote "ok I will reimburse you $750 than, I have to wait for 2 weeks because I sold another engine to somebody in the US and I can pay you from the money I receive from him in the USA. Is that OK with you?" I responded the same day that that would be fine. Again after a month of repeated attempts to get the money on Apr 6 he asked for my paypal address. Again more attempts and on Apr 24 I received $450. In May many attempts were made as to when I would receive the rest of my money. NO ANSWER. He finally answered that he was having problems with his internet service but as soon as it was up he would send my money via paypal. As of today I have not received the balance due.

But wait this was not the end. On July 8 the engine was put in and ready to be connected and started. But we ran into major problems with the engine. The following is what I sent to Harald on July 22 and I received notice of his receipt on July 23. "I'm having major problems with your poorly rebuilt engine. It started with the installation. We tried to connect the starter and alternator and found that there was a major spark. We thought the alternator was bad and removed the alternator only to find that the ground was connected to the positive. Made the correct connections to alternator and reinstalled it. (how does that happen you're the professional?) Then with everything connected it wouldn't start. After hours of troubleshooting found that the distributor was 180 off. (how does that happen you're the professional?) Made the adjustment and the engine started poorly. We then noticed a major oil leak by the engine oil cooler. We could not find the leak so we had to pull the engine only to find that you mounted the cooler with the two washers that are on the top between the engine and cooler. Just for future reference it goes engine, oil cooler, washers, and nuts not engine, washers, oil cooler, and nuts. The bottom two washer and nuts were correct. (how does that happen you're the professional?) Put the engine back in and the oil leak was fixed but it still ran poorly. After more hours of wasted time we found a vacuum leak on the #6. Took off the intakes to take a look only to find a bad insulator. While we were in there we also found that during your assembly you had reversed the jugs putting #2 on #5 and #5 on #2. (how does that happen you're the professional?) replaced the insulator and it runs a little better but it still has problems idling and accelerating. We next found that the #2 injector was bad so we replaced and now it runs much better but still has problems. We thought that the CHT was a bad because it was the old 1 wire style so we replaced it but no effect. Now they are saying the speed sensor could be bad. I'm tired of spending time and money on this engine. I want to send it to Dave White's in Tampa and have them sort it out at your expense.

I think I have done enough. This engine was suppose to be a plug and play. I got good recommendation about you from a number of people. You still owe me money and you said you'd do whatever necessary to take care of any problems. Now is the time. Well today is Sept 6 and I haven't heard anything from him and never received the rest of the monies due me. I have sent him numerous messages with no response just as he has done through out this project. He hasn't posted anything from June 3 to Sept 4. Then he posted Sept 5. I sent him a new email, PM and a post where he last posted and asked him to contact me. In the email and PM I informed him if I didn't hear from him I was going to post my problem here. I clearly told him I didn't want to ruin his reputation. I'm not sure how to get him to send me the rest of my money and get the repairs done to the engine. Any ideas??? How would you handle it??? Thanks for taking the time to read and letting me get this off my chest..

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

Jeez, it cost me $750 in time just to read your post.

Ah, the Internet age. I won't even deal with eBay for a deck of playing cards much less buy an engine mail-order. Sort of like hiring a hooker based on her description of herself. Caveat emptor.

Stephan

[PorscheGuy79]

Originally posted by Formerly Steve Wilkinson
Jeez, it cost me $750 in time just to read your post.

Ah, the Internet age. I won't even deal with eBay for a deck of playing cards much less buy an engine mail-order. Sort of like hiring a hooker based on her description of herself. Caveat emptor.

Stephan

Stephan, its good to have your wit back.

[78-911SC]

Stephen I'm sorry to say it happen here on pelican, that's why I thought I was somewhat safe. Had good rep so I took a chance. But with him in Germany I can't do a face to face.

[coloradoporsche]

[Neilk]

too hard to read... might want to add some paragraphs.

[rattlsnak]

the ironic thing is, I just bought a motor from him in @March. (maybe he was talking about me?) I have had no problems with it though. I have gone through spats of no communications with him though.

[450knotOffice]

Yea. Sorry. I wanted to read what you had to say but your million word run-on paragraph looked too daunting to even bother with.

I'd suggest you break it up into paragraphs so more people will want to read it.

[jester911]

Put some spaces in there to break it up. I stopped reading after the second sentence. Putting � in there makes it worse.

[78-911SC]

Sorry guys made some changes hope that helps.

[450knotOffice]

Yes. Much better.

[schleg79]

Reads well. Sorry for your troubles..

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

I'm of course sorry for your troubles too, but you bought something not even over the phone, you bought it over the computer, forgodsakes. I deal for all my big-ticket purchases with a highly regarded Porsche high-performance guy who lives 2,500 miles away from me. All the way across the country. Have I been to his shop? Hell yes. I've been to his house, even. I know him, I trust him, I like him. Somebody could offer me a rebuilt 930 engine for $500, and if it didn't come through Steve Weiner, I ain't touching it.

And why on earth would you imagine that the person's presence on Pelican gives him any repute? There are 14-year-olds on this forum, I suspect, whose signatures are bigswinginturbo and rsrman, or whatever. Their only connection with a Porsche is through their Gameboy. There are people here who have owned their first 911 for two weeks and are dispensing authoritative maintenance advice. There are peoiple who think I'm some kind of Porsche authority, and little do they actually know who I am or what I know. (I try to be careful with whatever I post, but you never know...)

I've never heard of this guy, which means nothing. He's some poor schlub in Germany who meant well and took your money, sent you a motor some guy _he_ trusted had rebuilt, and paid his mortgage and bought some groceries with his $1,000 profit. Maybe he bought it from Motormesiter. It's not like he has a warehouse full of engines and is riffling through his wad of deutschmarks. He's stuck too.

And I think so are you. Fix it. Shouldn't be that hard, it's just an engine.

Stephan

[Zeke]

Originally posted by PorscheGuy79
Stephan, its good to have your wit back.

You're sure about that? After reading his above post, it strikes me that FSW hasn't paid enough attention to the Pelican BBS to know that Harald has sold many engines and indeed, has enjoyed a good, if not excellent reputation here. One part I can agree with is that we are dealing in used engines here. I'm not aware of the rebuilding aspect, it was my understanding that Harald procured these from wrecked cars.

But, that is some strong opinion from someone, no matter who, about someone else who followed the foot steps of many others here to try and select a reliable source for a used motor. FSW shows no compunction and then suggests that it's possible for Harald to have purchased a MM engine in order to fill an order.

I'm thinking that shows some lack of class. Now, it should be no secret that the same FSW has emailed me in the past and indicated in a rather terse message that I don't know what I'm talking about. How's that shoe fit, Steve?

As far as the deal that this thread is all about, I'm sorry to see a rant like this. I'm hoping that Harald can make good on his promise. Oh, and the one other thing I can agree with is that " He's stuck too."

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

As I said, Formerly Zeke, I have no idea who this engine-seller is and I don't care. (Interesting, though, that he has "enjoyed a good if not excellent reputation here...) My sole and rather basic point was that if you buy something electronically, you get paid for it electronically and you fight your battles if there's a problem electronically. All of which I happen to think is pretty hilarious, though lots of people seem to have bought into it. I neither know nor care from whence the guy gets his engines and am making no judgments about "Harald"--my Motormeister comment was meant as a joke, though I refuse to use those inane smiley-faces or whatever they're called to make that clear.

My opinion has absolutely nothing to do with sources of used engines other than that the person you're buying them from should be something other than...what is it called? An "avatar?"

I have no idea what shoe I ever sent you or whether or not it fits. Send it back and I'll give you your money back.

Stephan

[78-911SC]

Stephan I understand what you're saying. He's been around with a good rep with one exception..Kevin. Even responded to one of your posts long long ago. One of our moderators recomended him and even bought a engine from him. I guess that gave me a false sense of security. But you learn by your mistakes. This one just happens to be a big one.

[k9handler]

this sucks for you, do what you think is right. Not sure if I recommended Harald to you are not, but I know I have recommended him in the past and your post combined with Kevin's would make others reconsider working with him. I myself have not had any major issues with my engine after 3 years...and yes communication is not always fluid with Harald but he always seems to answer eventually.

[niner11]

Milt, you seem a little cranky.

[dickster]

Stephan,

Take a chill pill, your posts are not adding much value

I don't know what century you are from but in case you hadn't noticed there is a little business being done on the internet these days - that's progress, eh?

This engine supplier has been recommended on here a lot in the past - didn't JO use him? - so there seems no reason to doubt him. I hope he offers a fix for you.

[Wayne 962]

No, despite Stephan's "bull in a china shop" approach to the topic, he's basically correct. Whether you're buying from a guy in Germany, or a guy on eBay, it is caveat emptor. You're buying a used engine, and all of the potential problems that go along with it.

That said, the problems with this engine seem like rookie mistakes - maybe he had someone else do the work for him?

Unless the engine specifically came with a warranty, I don't see that there's much recourse. Harald has sold a bunch of engines to people on this board with no problems (mostly 3.6 engines), but the reason why people have been buying them is mainly since he can supply them at a good price. So, with the lower price, you get some added risk. It's like buying on eBay - you could probably buy the same engine from a used Porsche parts retailer with a guarantee and a warranty, but then you'd be paying top dollar.

What did you pay for the 3.2 in total (including shipping?)

-Wayne