What would cause this major catastrophe

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by rhipsher

It took him 3 years to build that motor? Is that a normal build time for a 368. Or did he have to many other projects going on?

that would be a long time for a 415 or larger build.

[Pete]

Originally Posted by cvette

Do you know of another such person Pete?

C

I will have to go in witness protection if i say.

Pete

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by xlr8nflorida

Who is the builder of this engine?

kirchoeffer
http://zr1netregistry.com/forum/show...11&postcount=9

[xlr8nflorida]

Originally Posted by Kevin

kirchoeffer
http://zr1netregistry.com/forum/show...11&postcount=9

Yes, I read that but I mean, I never heard of the guy and I consider myself fairly educated on tuners. Maybe I've just been under a rock............

[Kevin]

I've heard his name come up a few times in conversation. can't say i know much more about him

[rhipsher]

Hey Limey! I would not part out that motor. So you need a new crank and bearings or at least have the crank reground and polished with bearings to fit the regrind. And make this guy pay for it. On top of refunding your money. I would not part out the motor over those two items. Don't let it get you down to bad. It can be fixed.

[cvette]

Originally Posted by xlr8nflorida

Yes, I read that but I mean, I never heard of the guy and I consider myself fairly educated on tuners. Maybe I've just been under a rock............

As I recall, Kirchoffer was a "branch" of the Jeal franchise here in the states. Also as I recall in the old LT5 registry magazines he was known as Jeal 3.
Kurt, didn't you have another 368 in Bowling Green about 6 or 7 years ago that he built. I thought at that time you were returning that one because of issues. Is this the same one?

Originally Posted by rhipsher

Hey Limey! I would not part out that motor. So you need a new crank and bearings or at least have the crank reground and polished with bearings to fit the regrind. And make this guy pay for it. On top of refunding your money. I would not part out the motor over those two items. Don't let it get you down to bad. It can be fixed.

I would not expect a refund from Billy K. I would even venture to guess it has already been discussed and denied.

[limey]

I guess I should elaborate as to this 368 build, although I would much rather sit down with a V&T and chill and tell the story, I'll try to paraphrase as best I can.

In 2005 I owned a 415 motor built by BK (Bill Kirchoeffer) it was a monster putting down 602 RWHP, I also had nitrous on top of that, I was well into the street scene at that time, always racing for top dog status, so every weekend I would take the car out and beat on it, well needless to say I blew the motor running the juice. I sent it back to him for a rebuild, drove to KY to pick up in person, paid my money for the overhaul and got the motor back about 4 months later, installed in the car, removed all the nitrous system as I swore I would not ever run the juice on a 415 motor again, drove the car for roughly 2-300 miles before it locked up. I delivered it to him @ BG in May 2005 during the gathering.

It stayed with him for roughly 1 year, where during this we came to find that when I blew the motor the previous time, he failed to check that the crank was straight, he built the motor back in early 2005 with a bent crank, after driving about 300 miles, the bearings gave way and screwed up the engine. The crank was then sent to Moldex to be repaired, they had it for roughly 6 months, when they then sent it back to BK and he advised me that they (Moldex) had ground the main journals all 10 thou & that the crank was now no use. Roll forward to 2007 & i got fed up and told BK to send me the crank and i had someone to fix it, that someone was Moldex. Well, Moldex were duelly sent the crank again and that is where it still is to this day, if they can ever find it!

Now, where does the 368 come to play, well in 2005 I also sent BK a complete short block and told him to build the stock short block with 368 pistons and make it bullet proof, I told him to use the entire top end off of the 415 that he already had and that I would send stock heads to be pre worked for the 415 when it was ready. So at this point he now has two of my motors. He built the 368, I drove up there, paid him $16,000.00 and left on my travels back to FL. The $16k was though paid over a period of time, but the balance was paid in full at time of collection.

After I got the motor back, I installed it in the car and it would not run, for 4 months off and on I tried everything to get it to run. In fact, picture this, I pulled a perfect good 1990 motor out of one car, took every single external part off of that motor and put in on the 368, and when I say everything , I mean just that, the only parts left where the hard parts. I then put it back in the car, and it done the same thing,wouldn't start.

I took the 368 motor back out and sent it back to BK, then I sent the car to BK for him to install the 368 and get it running once and for all.

This took him just over another year to get finished, he got it running, said he put on 100 miles and then told me to come get the car. During this time though, we had more than parted ways & i decided i was going to pay a shipper to pick up the car as i really didn;t want to visit him in KY, in November 2008 the car was delivered to me in Tampa, the truck driver called me 30 minutes before getting to my house, I told him I would leave shortly and meet him at the gate. I knew things were bad when I got to the main road where I was to meet the driver when I see fire engines and an ambulance, as the truck driver was unloading the chains holding the car down, the e-brake wasn't on and it rolled back, pinned him under the wheels and broke his arm and wrist! I still had to take the car that day, I started it up and knew instantly that it was running like crap, SGC Stage 3 cams in a 368 are way too big, yet he assured me the idle was just perfect. More BS, that car ran like crap, there was no gas in it, so I popped to the gas station and filled it up, I drove 7-8 miles before it just cut out and that was it.

Now you know why I will not send it back to BK, what's the point. I'll be up for social security by the time he gets it finished.

The 415 is now @ Haibecks, waiting on me this time to decide what I want to do.

Oh and on a completely different issue with BK, you may remember I had the main bearings made? Well, I paid BK $57,000.00 for them, every single set was made wrong, if you purchased a set from me back in 2007 you would have received a set that was wrong and then after I had them fixed, at my expense which was another $11,000.00 I sent out replacements. You want to know what his solution to the fix was? Well, have your customers grind down the block to make the bearings fit.

So, there we are, BK has had almost $110k of my money over the past 8 years and not a dime more, now you also know why I feel like parting out the 368, it's a bloody nightmare.

[-=Jeff=-]

Damn Kurt that really sucks...

At least you know it will be right when Marc is done with it