Toyota MR2 Message Board - View Single Post

sab0276 · 01-14-2007, 05:14 PM

Short Version:
I had a very bad experience with ChrisK and Enginelogics. A lot of other people have had problems with him recently too. I would definitely suggest that you look elsewhere if you can. If not get every single promise in writing from ChrisK. He will point fingers and blame anyone else if he possibly can if anything goes wrong.

Long Version:
When I first started looking for a built engine, Chrisk's name was brought up and recommended as a good machinist and engine builder. At that time, I think he was still working in his own garage and had very little overhead. I spent a lot of time talking to him on the phone and seemed very knowledgeable and willing to share information. He promised me that it would be done right and that he takes pride in his work and that if anything should happen he will not leave me out to dry. He basically promised me the world and I believed it.

I purchased the engine in the fall of 2004 and it was installed in the spring of 2005. When NoShoes went to tune it we noticed some problems. The first thing was that it was very difficult to set the initial timing because there was enough room to rotate the distributor housing. Dave from MR2 Warehouse had to slot the distributor housing to just to be able to set the correct initial timing. I also noticed that the EGT's where sky high and the turbo would overboost if you were not careful. Also it would lose some coolant and I had to keep an eye on it.

We put it on the dyno and had to retard the exhaust cam timing to get the EGT's down and it made a little more power. NoShoes and I both thought that the cam gears where not adjusted properly because of the issues we were having as well as the cam gears were both set at exactly at 0* and did not look like they were adjusted. At first I thought there was no way that ChrisK could have made a mistake given his reputation on the boards. But when I contacted ChrisK he immediately got defensive and said that NoShoes must have messed them up. When I mentioned that NoShoes only touched the exhaust cam gear and only did so on the dyno after we were experiencing problems ChrisK then started blaming Dave from MR2 Warehouse for not knowing how to install the clutch correctly. Dave does swaps for a living and does this day in and day out. I just gave up on asking ChrisK for help and resided to the fact that I would have to pay NoShoes to fix it.

So I scheduled NoShoes to fix the cam timing a month later. In the meantime I took it to the track to see what it would do. My best time was a 13.3 in the 1/4 mile.
When NoShoes re-did the timing he noticed that both exhaust and intake were off by a lot. After he fixed the cam timing we noticed a significant improvement in power and a drop in the EGT's. When I went to the track I ran a 12.5@110mph. That is a huge improvement over what it was like originally.

A few months later it was losing more and more coolant and I had to add coolant, but it never really overheated. In the fall of 2005, I went to the track and it overheated. After that it would overheat all the time. I thought it might be a blown headgasket so I took it to a shop to check for hydrocarbons in the coolant. It came up positive for hydrocarbons. When I contacted ChrisK and told him about it, he immediately said that it was impossible and that someone must have done something to it.
I remembered that a lot of people recommend re-torquing the head studs after breaking in the engine, but ChrisK had advised against it. I thought maybe the head studs needed to be re-torqued and thats why it had been leaking coolant all along. I asked him if the head studs should be re-torqued after the engine was broken in and he stated that the head studs should never be re-torqued after they are initially done by him.

So with the head gasket obviously blown I asked him what he was going to do about it. After giving me quite a hard time and trying to blame the cause on everyone else, he told me that he would take care of me and told me a story of how one of his customers forgot to put oil in his engine and blew it up and how ChrisK rebuilt it for free. I thought great, that's just what I wanted to hear. Because ChrisK had blamed the problems on the person who installed the engine (Dave from MR2 Warehouse) and my tuner (Bryan "NoShoes" Moore), I sent the entire car to him instead of just the engine. That way if there was a problem there would be no question as to who’s fault it was (or so I thought).

When ChrisK took the engine apart, at first he said that there were signs of obvious detonation and that NoShoes's tuning was the fault. He later said that there wasn't signs of detonation and he just said that because NoShoes was attacking him. He later said that the cause was it overheated due to lack of coolant and that someone had put in the wrong length bolt into the coolant neck and that is why it was leaking, not the head gasket. I told him that I had just replaced the coolant bolt with a brand new one from the dealership. He then said that the block must have been stripped therefore did not allow the bolt to bottom out thereby allowing coolant to escape. I reminded him that he is the one who sent me that block. He told me that it was not his fault that the block he sent me was stripped and if I had a problem with the block that I should take it up with Toyota. He said it was akin to if you buy a VCR from Best Buy and it has a problem, you don't take it back to Best Buy to fix it, but you would have to send it to the manufacturer.

Essentially he was just trying to find someway to blame the headgasket failure on someone else. Instead of doing the rebuild for free like he alluded to, he charged me $4000. This is after I had just purchased the brand new fully built motor from him for $6500 less than a year ago!
At this time ChrisK had sold someone’s cams and head that they sent to Chris, because that person hadn't paid them for any work. ChrisK sold someone else’s property instead of returning it. At this point I figured I had no choice but to pay him right away as he probably would have sold my car if I did not pay him the full amount.

01-14-2007, 05:14 PM	#7 (permalink)
sab0276 No Skills Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Central, NJ Posts: 23 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts iTrader Rating: (0/0% )	Short Version: I had a very bad experience with ChrisK and Enginelogics. A lot of other people have had problems with him recently too. I would definitely suggest that you look elsewhere if you can. If not get every single promise in writing from ChrisK. He will point fingers and blame anyone else if he possibly can if anything goes wrong. Long Version: When I first started looking for a built engine, Chrisk's name was brought up and recommended as a good machinist and engine builder. At that time, I think he was still working in his own garage and had very little overhead. I spent a lot of time talking to him on the phone and seemed very knowledgeable and willing to share information. He promised me that it would be done right and that he takes pride in his work and that if anything should happen he will not leave me out to dry. He basically promised me the world and I believed it. I purchased the engine in the fall of 2004 and it was installed in the spring of 2005. When NoShoes went to tune it we noticed some problems. The first thing was that it was very difficult to set the initial timing because there was enough room to rotate the distributor housing. Dave from MR2 Warehouse had to slot the distributor housing to just to be able to set the correct initial timing. I also noticed that the EGT's where sky high and the turbo would overboost if you were not careful. Also it would lose some coolant and I had to keep an eye on it. We put it on the dyno and had to retard the exhaust cam timing to get the EGT's down and it made a little more power. NoShoes and I both thought that the cam gears where not adjusted properly because of the issues we were having as well as the cam gears were both set at exactly at 0* and did not look like they were adjusted. At first I thought there was no way that ChrisK could have made a mistake given his reputation on the boards. But when I contacted ChrisK he immediately got defensive and said that NoShoes must have messed them up. When I mentioned that NoShoes only touched the exhaust cam gear and only did so on the dyno after we were experiencing problems ChrisK then started blaming Dave from MR2 Warehouse for not knowing how to install the clutch correctly. Dave does swaps for a living and does this day in and day out. I just gave up on asking ChrisK for help and resided to the fact that I would have to pay NoShoes to fix it. So I scheduled NoShoes to fix the cam timing a month later. In the meantime I took it to the track to see what it would do. My best time was a 13.3 in the 1/4 mile. When NoShoes re-did the timing he noticed that both exhaust and intake were off by a lot. After he fixed the cam timing we noticed a significant improvement in power and a drop in the EGT's. When I went to the track I ran a 12.5@110mph. That is a huge improvement over what it was like originally. A few months later it was losing more and more coolant and I had to add coolant, but it never really overheated. In the fall of 2005, I went to the track and it overheated. After that it would overheat all the time. I thought it might be a blown headgasket so I took it to a shop to check for hydrocarbons in the coolant. It came up positive for hydrocarbons. When I contacted ChrisK and told him about it, he immediately said that it was impossible and that someone must have done something to it. I remembered that a lot of people recommend re-torquing the head studs after breaking in the engine, but ChrisK had advised against it. I thought maybe the head studs needed to be re-torqued and thats why it had been leaking coolant all along. I asked him if the head studs should be re-torqued after the engine was broken in and he stated that the head studs should never be re-torqued after they are initially done by him. So with the head gasket obviously blown I asked him what he was going to do about it. After giving me quite a hard time and trying to blame the cause on everyone else, he told me that he would take care of me and told me a story of how one of his customers forgot to put oil in his engine and blew it up and how ChrisK rebuilt it for free. I thought great, that's just what I wanted to hear. Because ChrisK had blamed the problems on the person who installed the engine (Dave from MR2 Warehouse) and my tuner (Bryan "NoShoes" Moore), I sent the entire car to him instead of just the engine. That way if there was a problem there would be no question as to who’s fault it was (or so I thought). When ChrisK took the engine apart, at first he said that there were signs of obvious detonation and that NoShoes's tuning was the fault. He later said that there wasn't signs of detonation and he just said that because NoShoes was attacking him. He later said that the cause was it overheated due to lack of coolant and that someone had put in the wrong length bolt into the coolant neck and that is why it was leaking, not the head gasket. I told him that I had just replaced the coolant bolt with a brand new one from the dealership. He then said that the block must have been stripped therefore did not allow the bolt to bottom out thereby allowing coolant to escape. I reminded him that he is the one who sent me that block. He told me that it was not his fault that the block he sent me was stripped and if I had a problem with the block that I should take it up with Toyota. He said it was akin to if you buy a VCR from Best Buy and it has a problem, you don't take it back to Best Buy to fix it, but you would have to send it to the manufacturer. Essentially he was just trying to find someway to blame the headgasket failure on someone else. Instead of doing the rebuild for free like he alluded to, he charged me $4000. This is after I had just purchased the brand new fully built motor from him for $6500 less than a year ago! At this time ChrisK had sold someone’s cams and head that they sent to Chris, because that person hadn't paid them for any work. ChrisK sold someone else’s property instead of returning it. At this point I figured I had no choice but to pay him right away as he probably would have sold my car if I did not pay him the full amount.