APE: Anyone competitent work there?

[TurbochargedBerserker]

Here's a brief recap of my experiences with APE. I will allow you to draw your own conclusions...

 

I ordered a "balanced" rotating assembly and main studs in August. I ordered "race" heads, injectors, twin Walbro fuel pumps, head studs, pushrods, gaskets, and cam in September.

 

1) to get 90% of the parts took until the beginning of december

2) "race" heads are not polished... Not the runners, not the chambers, nada

3) wrong cam sent

4) replacement cam took 7 weeks

5) no bearings were included -- Chris promised to overnight them to me so I could get my build done in beginning of Decemeber, they arrived 10 days and 5 phone calls later

6) Fuel pumps NEVER arrived

7) wrong pistons -- despite ordering heads from them, they ordered the pistons for a different chamber size

8) "balanced" assembly is 80 grams off in the front and 63 grams off in the back

9) the pistons again <sigh> ONE piston has been machined so that it is 20% lighter than the other seven... (we assume this is to clear the crank sensor ring, but COME ON... ONE PISTON LIGHTER????!!??)

10) the replacement cam is also slightly wrong but close enough

11) It took from August until December to get all the parts of the rotating assembly (and not just the bearins...)

12) It took from September to the end of December to get all the head / injector / etc parts and I had to cancel the fuel pumps after being promised they had shipped once a week for 7 weeks.

13) I have to pay to get my "balanced" rotating assembly rebalanced because no one at APE (read Chris) will return my calls since the "credit" for the heads and the fuel pumps they claim to have issueed oon 12/23 has never shown up as a credit to my cc company...

 

Now, I could understand some of this had I ever once been an **** about any of this. On the contrary I was VERY understanding about it all and gave them chance after chance after chance to make it right. At this point, I'm done with 'em.

 

Good thing credit card companies dispute charges.

 

I forgot to mention: I've been without my daily driver since 11/15 largely because of parts missing / wrong from APE. Everything was absolutely promised to me by the first week of November

[Xero]

what are you driving instead? and if you dont mind me asking what was the total that you bought from ape, and how much more did you have to pay because of their mistakes/ shotty work

 

nick

[GEAR M UP]

Erik,

 

Your doing the right thing!

 

Let everyone know how your experience was with APE.

 

I can understand guys running into so trouble or roadblocks, but come on...

 

They need to return phone calls and let you know status!

 

Bad Customer Service=No Business in my eyes!

 

Good luck.....

[TurbochargedBerserker]

Thanks, Jeff, for your support here and on LS1Tech.

 

And thanks to all the SSS.com guys supporting me over there as well!!

 

nice_n_lo: I'm driving my wife's explorer to work (ewwwwwww!!! its even a 6cyl)

I paid APE roughly 8k. I ended up buying new heads and paying to ship them, paying return shipping on the heads (~100), paying to 2-day the fuel pumps (~35), countless long distance calls to APE (sometimes being on hold for 10 minutes while they "looked" for Chris), whatever the balancing and extra machining to balance the piston weights.. I dunno.

 

It's not really the $$. I expected unaccounted expenses doing a build like this. The thing is -- they told me I could just install this stuff into a machined block and go... Had I done that, 3 days would've == BANG!! $8k pissed away...

 

I'm also not really complaining that there were problems -- there were too many problems, and not enough service. Also, these guys are out representing themselves as experts in the engine building field, but everything they tell me is bullshit. I've expressed this opinion directly to Chris and recommended that he update his website so that the part descriptions match his personal beliefs, and that he train his sales staff not to say things like "balanced rotating assembly" and "fully polished, race-ready" heads.

[SSminneapolis]

time for a road trip...anyone want to head out to APE and have a "talk"...i'm in!

[xxjiggaxx]

Where are they at? That would be fun.

[jboyd2004]

I'm driving my wife's explorer to work (ewwwwwww!!! its even a 6cyl)

I paid APE roughly 8k.  I ended up buying new heads and paying to ship them, paying return shipping on the heads (~100), paying to 2-day the fuel pumps (~35), countless long distance calls to APE (sometimes being on hold for 10 minutes while they "looked" for Chris), whatever the balancing and extra machining to balance the piston weights..  I dunno. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

For $8k, the stuff should've been right. On top of that, you should've received better customer service. I would be to the point of paying them a nice, long visit or talking to whoever owns the place.

[TurbochargedBerserker]

It was actually more like $9-10k come to think of it.

 

Here's the update.

 

The issue was finally resolved -- by sparking a firestorm over on LS1Tech.com and by having a lot of people following that thread. I was asked if there was resolution yet, and a I posted there wasn't and within 2 minutes had a call from Chris...

 

This is now a resolved issue. Chris credited me for the extra machining to the crank. My CC company had disputed one of my payments (in the amount of the heads and the fuel pumps) and Chris agreed not to fight the dispute.

 

I'll post up if anything changes, but as of now, I'm satisfied (well, maybe not satisfied, but at least everything that can be made right finally has).

 

Special thanks to all you guys who came out swinging and posted support. You know who you are (Unfortunately a day late and a dollar short for one of you, rest in peace, Jeff)