pretty sure he follows the rules concerning multiple user iD and hostility towards other members, both of which get you the :seeya

I am amazed how all these new members just surfaced to support LME. :smash::smash::smash::smash::smash:

Hmmmm... I'm a Supporting Member, with 1,700 posts over the last 2 years, been to various Corvette get togethers with other forum members, had my car's pictures on Forum Vendor's websites, etc., etc.

You're right... I've made no valuable contributions whatsoever! But I've had fun, and I haven't tried to drag any other members down on the forum. You really should re-read the things I've posted.

Anyway... have fun with your opinions! :crazy:

If anyone told me to add more miles to see if something got better, they should add those miles to the warranty. end of discussion. LME should have taken care of this.

There isn't a huge selection out there for cast LSx pistons. When dealing with such a large variety of customers, it's good to build something a little more bulletproof anyways. A forged piston can withstand more abuse than a cast piston like what would be in a factory crate motor. Hence the "Ka-Boom" nickname for Keith Black cast pistons.

Uncoated, forged pistons have been run for decades without problems like this. Coatings have only recently become popular. Wiseco's custom pistons usually come uncoated. What happened to those pistons is a result of a mistake someone made.

Pretty cool, huh?

It's easy to argue with pictures. But having the thing in front of you to dissasemble yourself to determine the cause is what's difficult to argue. For whatever reason, the OP felt like LME wouldn't think it was their fault....

It's not this other machine shop that's gonna get him a warranty work with LME and it's not anyone on this board either. LME should have dissasembled this motor to verify for themselves the cause. Bryan and Pecos have taken very good care of their customers, but as the OP has addressed, he doesn't want to hear about anything good anyone has to say about them so I'll leave it at that.

that would be a normal human being's response to "drive it more miles" and "we have never seen THAT before"

:bs, would you send an engine back to a company which kept telling you just drive it some more, we have never had that happen. Great way for LME to make more money as the OP would not know what they found and he would also be paying for the shipping of the engine.

Like I said it is really interesting to see new members who never posted before or even own a Corvette coming here to save LME.

I will stay clear for sure!!! Reputation in this business is everything, customer got burned, would have been nothing for them to at least meet him halfway IMO, that is what customer service is about.. not to mention standing behind your product!

I don't know what constitutes as "normal", but returning it to it's origin to be fixed or to recieve reimbursement would be the logical response to me. It's well within their rights not to follow a policy in which the customer didn't bother to follow either.

Yes, I would. If that was the terms of the warranty, yes. Going the route he went almost guaranteed that he would be paying for the rebuild, because the decided those terms didn't apply to him. It doesn't work that way in the real world.

This thread was linked in another forum, that's why I'm here. One guy posted his sob story and it seemed like "monkey see, monkey do" and everyone jumped on a bashing bandwagon. I didn't come here to offend anyone or to "save LME", I just know these situations always have more than one side to them and they should be heard before anyone starts to throw stones. I find it odd Bryan didn't offer more of an explanation, but from a business standpoint he said all he needed to say.

When issues like these arise, the fingers always point to the guy who built it. It's NEVER the tuner's fault or operator error. According to the OP, that confrence call went way over his head and he probably doesn't even know who was right or wrong. How do we know that there was too much piston-wall clearance, and that the OP doesn't like to rev the piss out of it before it warms up? I'm not trying to place the blame on the OP, but we just saw some messed up pistons...what do the bores measure? How about the pistons? Slap a torque plate on, torque it to 60ft-lbs, and measure away!

I know of at least one instance LME was to blame for an oiling issue, and it turned out the installer put the the PCV system on backwards. I'm pretty sure LME ate the cost of that rebuild. Another time, an engine came back and it had a misfire and was down on power. Again, it was LME's fault! Well, as it turned out the installer didn't check to see if the rockers cleared the valvecovers or not. It was rebuilt anyways, at LME's expense. Both of those instances, the owner returned the engine to LME, and was taken care of.

To the OP, and everyone else, I am not here to start ****. I don't agree with the overall attitude this thread is headed towards, and just wanted to speak my mind. I hardly feel there is enough proof to blame LME, but with that said, it could be LME's fault completely. Either way, it's an ugly situation and I wish the best to both parties involved in reaching a solution.

-Kent

In which case, I believe that is wrong. Too bad, brother. :cheers:

Good to see that the engine builder has "lawyered up" as the saying goes! :rofl:

First of all, I would agree by looking at the photos posted that there was indeed a machining/tolerance issue with the engine. Just to get that out of the way.

But, several of you should be spanked for riding the negative bandwagon here. Most of you have zero experience with this vendor, yet you would base your opinions on one issue? Let me explain here, I personally have dealt with 100s of LS1 engine building shops in my online career as Admin/Founder at LS1TECH.com. LME has built some of the highest powered LS engines in the country, including two that power 7-second 1/4-mile cars pushing 1600+ hp via turbo. The experience under that roof has been building/machining LS engines since they first came out in 1997, although under different companies. Pecos was head machinist at MTI (Houston) for several years before starting LME. LME supplies the majority of engines to shops in the Houston area.

Any company has a warranty policy. I would follow a policy to the letter if I were concerned about using the warranty to make a claim. While some people might feel they are going above and beyond to keep things fair and honest, that simply isn't following the policy as agreed. I've heard of very few problems with LME or the individuals who work there, in my 10 years at the helm of the busiest LS1 performance site on the net. Several shops have come and go, several have become shady and twisted in the last decade. I can honestly say LME hasn't ever been an issue. I would still buy an engine from them, based on my observations.

Tony

Unbelivable has no one but the members here read the OP's post. The BS given by LME to keep driving the car that the oil consumption would go away to gee that never happened before took the car by the mileage driven out of warranty. Which puts him in a real bad spot as LME who has cited their policy would have cited their warranty that the engine was warrantied for 1000 miles and sorry you need to pay us for another engine.

When the OP first reported the HUGE oil consumption LME should have stood up and told him that. They would build another engine for him and pay for the shipping and R&R as it was their fault.

KCS, I think you are either hired by LME as their attorney or you sure are doing some kissing a--.

The OP came here to warn us of what had happened, leave it at that and enough of the :bs

No one said anything about the mileage being the issue. LME just asked that the engine be returned to them for analysis and the actions taken from there would result from the findings. That was a statement in the warranty, which was shipped with the engine. The OP didn't comply, but expects LME to reimburse him. I don't think buying him new pistons would've been that big of a deal, but it would take more than some pictures and a phone call to justify that, IMO.

I disagree. That's not fair for LME to just take it as their fault, without any proof. That's the point of returning the engine to LME, so that they can see for themselves that it was their fault!

Well, I'm flattered you think I may be an attorney! I take that as a compliment! :lol:

Are you implying that I am an attorney as well? :lol:

Actually, your profile says you are a "student". Now I'm kind of curious as to what your role is.

KCS, my bad you are not an attorney or you would have read the OP's post and understood his plight.

You are just flunky for LME, because if you read the OP's post you would have read that one of his big issues was because of LME's BS it took the engine out of warranty.

This is a copy and paste of the OP's post.

Well, at 600 miles the DIC advises me to check the oil level. So I top it off with 1.5+ quarts as needed. That didn’t seem abnormal, as I had anticipated some oil consumption during the break-in period. But at the 1,000 mile mark, which is just 400 miles down the road, I had to add another quart. This consumption rate continued to the tune of one quart of oil every 400 to 600 miles. I mentioned this to LME several times, and each time their response was “put on a few more miles.” By this time, the warranty period had already lapsed. During latter discussions, LME’s repeated responses were “I can’t think of anything that would cause this.” And “we’ve built many of these engine combinations without any problems.”

This puts the OP at the mercy of LME, like going to a doctor, he went and got a second opinion as he got NOTHING but the run around and a lot of s--t from LME.

All the OP had asked for was to make things right which LME did not do from the start when he identified that the engine had a problem. Did at anytime LME ask him to ship the engine back to examine it and make things right NO they dicked him around. END OF STORY:seeya