my engine
 

after all the problems i have had with the engine that i had built at pennine subaru i thought that this time around atleast it would last the summer out.how wrong i was,as some people already know it is the 3rd time that chy has attempted to build the engine and still it was using massive amounts of oil (1 litre to 100miles).but after a year of basically having the car taken apart then put back together and hardly driving it,all i wanted to do was just enjoy it for a bit.well after only doing around 2000 miles its packed up again.i dont know the full extent of the damage yet untill it comes out again but one thing is for sure it will not be going back to chys any more.i have spent thousands on having this engine built and it has been more trouble than what it has been worth,now i am going to have to start all over again an pay someone else for another rebuild, when if i had gone to a proper engine builder in the first place i wouldn't have gone through all i have.

give howard a call at HDC subaru (hebden bridge),hes a top bloke and **** hot with subarus , i got mine done off him and was no trouble at all

stu

i have heard that hdc are good but to be honest as he is so close to pennine subaru i would rather not go back down there as i might just take a detour and do something that i will regret,if you no what i mean.

Sorry to hear about all your problems with the car mate

that's **it arf,what did pennine have to say about it ???

yeah me too matey,pissed off is not the word really.hope the turbo's still holding out ok for ya.

i arn't even going to bother telling him this time after all the hassle and time wasting he has done with the last 3 attempts he has had at building me an engine.he did say from the start that he was going to build me a fresh engine but everytime it went in all i got was the same one bodged up and my car was off the road another 3 months every time.hopefully if i take it somewere who knows what they are doing then it will hold out this time.

Hi I would recommend you take it to Richard Hendry's Motorsport (01274 732508) in Bradford, really good guys down there did all my work on my RA and my blob, ask for Andy and tell him Kev sent ya :thumb:

Ba***rd!!! Thats just sh*t matey! Can't believe ya gota go through all this again. :(

at least when you've had it done somewhere else mate you should have alot more confidence in the car and it won't be praying on your mind when your driving it,as i'm sure it has been with all the past attempts.
good luck with finding a engine builder mate and i hope you have some better luck this time :)

Tim

i had a trip over to re motorsport last week with it and he said he could sort it but as he is busy at the moment wouldn't be able to start it till mid aug,i told him to book me in but then got to thinking that by the time he gets started and parts need ordering and things its going to be oct by the time i get back on the road again.as i dont want to miss another summer i got ringing around and have dicided on scoobymania as its not that far away and he can get on with things next week.i dropped the car off today so should atleast know whats gone wrong with it by next weekend as he is hoping to have the engine apart by then.

Soz to here about your lump bud, s**t news,
The fact that RE can not start till mid Aug tell me he is busy and if he is busy he must be good, In my opinions you will not get a better guy than Ric, + the back up you get with other things on your car is 1000%, on minr working till midnight the Saturday before round 1 of the sprint, And then all the other things and ways he as looked after me and my car, don't know any thing about scoobymania, but if you go there I'm sure they will do a better job than Chys apprentice did.
I'm glad I don't have a calculator that will do numbers big enough to work out how much your engine has cost you.


good look which ever way you go bud.

Bez

Tragic !

What a miserable chain of events. I'd rather wait than use that guy !

dunx

Hi Arf, sorry to hear about this sequence of events. I have a poorly engine too, so i heard that Chy was the man, so i loaded the car onto a low loader and nipped round, within minutes he informs me that the crank is goosed along with a ring land. The car looks like its been running lean and blitz the bottom end, but it been caught early so no block damage he thinks, he quoted me £2250 for a full rebuild and installation, this is back to the OEM spec with Cast pistons etc. I was considering it, but as you may have seen i have neen posting for a cheaper alternative. I think the 'alternative' to Chy is a must now, heard to many bad comments about this guy. Good luck, and if you have any ideas on my option im keen to learn. I may give Rick in Bradford a bell and get some idea on my options from him too. Thanks Rob

arf
your not on your own mate, i have been through far worse than that with chy.
i will start from the beginning, after shattering my gearbox at the scoobyshootout 2008 i decided to completely rebuild my ra, so rang round for prices and specs of engines i could have built.
i finally decided on pennine subaru (chy) after he did his sales pitch on me, saying he has a 4 week turnaround, so i payed him on the 4th sept 2008, expecting my engine done for around the 4th oct 2008, how wrong was i.
after countless phone calls and even going down to pennine subaru to attempt to pick the part built engine up and attemp to take it elseware, with no result.
i kept telling chy to hurry up as it is taking too long now and i am doing timeattack 2009 and need some time in the car. again got no result
then on november 11th 2008 he rang me and my wife answerd and he said can you tell andy to not worry he will have his engine within a week,
lie again.
i eventually got my engine back on 21st dec 2008, i was f--ked off with the service i had got but i had my engine and a smile on my face.
after putting engine in i got it all ready for mapping and running in, as i had only had a base map on it and i had never taken it past 2000 rpm.
anyway took it to rollers and instantly filled the unit with smoke, it apeared that the valve guides that i supplied chy hadnt been fitted, it was also realy low oil pressure all the time, never going over 45psi on load,
so as you can imagine i was realy f--ked off, so took the engine out and took it bak to chy, he didnt even appologise for this.
anyway chy blamed the low oil pressure on the hyperflow wrc high capacity sump, so i listened to him an when i got it back 2 weeks later i had to get it on the dyno asap, as i only had a week before the 1st round of timeattack at oulton park, so i got it on the dyno and the engine was exactely the same as before, filled the unit with smoke and very low oil pressure. at that point i was angry rather than f--ked off, so took it back to him again and told him that i payed for a rcm oil pump and i want one, i also want a different short motor as there was obviously a fundimental problem with this short motor. at this point a lot of you will be wondering why i didnt just get my money back, believe me i tried and he refused me point blank(lesson to be learnt never pay cash)so anyway i got another engine back on 26th may 2008 after missing another round of timeattack at knockhill, so once again it was a big rush to get it on the dyno, so after putting engine in i finally got it on the dyno on 30th may 2008 and the engine seemed fine, lost a bit of water through over flow at first then changed the cap to a higher pressure cap and it seemed to sort it for now, i wasnt worrying about it because my mind was on the immense power it was achieving however we ran out of time to have it 100% ready for round 3 timattack at silverstone as it was running out of fuel and the 1100cc injectors were at 97% duty , after achieing 606hp an v power only , the fuel system had to be changed so i got 2 bosch 044 pumps and filters and a fuelab 125psi reg then took it back to the dyno and instantly it was way too rich, we got it to 638hp on v power only and the injectors were at 72% duty which is exactely what i wanted to give me the scope to run pure e85 on another map, however i was smiling too soon, the small issue with the loosing water was getting considerably worse loosing 200ml per run on dyno so 1 lap around brands hatch and i would have no coolant left, so again round 4 of timattack was missed, i rang chy and he said bring the car to me, so i did.
he took the engine out and told me 1 week later that the head gasket had gone. then he told me that the heads were 5 thow out, now this came as a bit of a concern to me as this engine had never gone above 92 degrees so he obviously hadnt skimed the heads from day 1. anyway i got a phone call last friday and chy said my car was ready, so i instantly went down to pick it up.
when i got there he demanded £600 off me, at that point i laughed and said i cant believe that you are charging me after all you have put me threw, i gave him some cheques and left with my car. when i got it home i spent a bit of time on it just checking it over, i found that the bumper was held on with 6 bolts and they were all finger tight, there was 8 jubilee clips completely missing, the rotated turbo kit was loose and the fuel pump switch was broken. so i corrected all those issues.
then on thursday i started the car up and put my foot on the clutch and put it in 1st gear and the car jumped forward and stalled, the clutch pedal stayed on the floor, the arm on the gearbox just wobbles about with no risistance at all, so i rang chy and told him about this other issue and he put me straight on to his apprentice, after speaking to him for a few mins i got rather angry after he laughed at me and my situation, then i took it to my sponsers garage and he is taking the box out for me tommorow and sorting it.
i spoke to chy again today and he told me to bring the car back to him, at that point i said i keep coming back to you like i am on elastic. i feel that you are doing this on purpose to me, and i told him that my car will never be back at his garage as long as i have gota hole in my arse, and then he put the phone down on me.

a note to chy; if my engine fails this time on the dyno, i will be straight down to see you with my engine and you will get 28 days to give me my full money back.

note to all pennine customers, i thought my situation was a one off, how wrong was i, i no now of 6 other customers that have had issues very similar to mine

thanks for taking the time to read this

andy h

thanks for the comments guys and yes i would have prefered to have used rick,but looking back at the **** i went through all last year with chy and the time the car was off the road i just dont want to miss another summer again,so i had to make a decision to trust someone else and get it back up and running.its funny that chy used to tell me that my engine was a one off problem and he didnt normaly have things go wrong with his builds.but as i have been ringing around different companys for advice and prices it seems like mine isn't the only one and there has been a few more of chys builds with very similar problems.

OMG HE HAS MY 2.0 CDB AND MY AVCS HEADS. pLUS £2000 cash

Thanks very much guys for taking the time to write this up, at least i know that Chy's place should be avoided at all costs. Ive also heard that he damages cars on test runs too with the pot holed street. Jesus i bottomed a low loading trailer that must have been 7inches higher of the ground than my car, so what does that tell you!! His work shop is very clinical, but first impressions say it all, one dizzy lass jet blasting blocks right at the side of customers cars on a dirt and grit filled road (nice sand blasting to the doors!!) and his junior who look looked like he was at secondary school doing all the labouring about. Im not being funny but that fact that he had WR1 in at the time he showed me round his work shop explaing my options, and he commented on the £20+k engine he was clinicaly installing at the time, yet the guy take no other payment bar Cash!!! Really......?!?! Sounds like a plan for a no come back deal to me as previusly metioned above. Anyhow Good luck all with your engines and hope to see you at TOTB next week. Regards Rob

I think I am one of the lucky ones, I was going to use Chy But was out on a sunday run with Arf when is engine went bang for the 1st time, we popped the bonet, it looked like my 10 year old lad had droped kicked the engine in to the bonnet area from 10 yards away ( no dis Arf ) I looked for another guy, got Ric from RE motorsport at York / Elvington, recomender By Dunx,
At this point Ric advised me instead of engine 1st to put the same into Gear box / Diffs / Coilovers and other suspension mods, Now at this point in time I'v got a car that is only running 300BHP and in the scooby sprint championship its beeting 450 / 500 BHPcars.
I'vnot herd any one at the sprint with a happy engine from Chy.
He sounds like a proper door handle.

Andyscoobym3
it sound like you know just what you want and where you want to go and be, its a big shame you / arf and by the sounds of it went to Chy.

If I was one of you I think I would be having a meeting with you all to work out what to do with some big sticks.

Bez

Arf, really sorry to hear all this again. Hope you get it sorted quickly.
Best of luck with the repair:thumb:

andy h,i'm sorry to hear that the same has happened to you as i know how stressfull it can be.but i am really glad you have posted that up about your engine and the problems you have had with chy,as there is some people who are dealing with chy and basically getting sucked in by the sales talk he is giving them.beleive me mate it wasn't just the engine i had problems with after it had been in there.he smashed the corner off my bumper twice,****ed my turbo up,had 2 goes at fixing an oil leak,2 goes at mapping and the list just goes on and on.the problems that we both have had are too much alike to be a coincidence,its more down to chy not knowing the first thing about how to build a good engine in the first place.my experiance with chy ,and i'm sure you feel the same is that he is a good salesman and knows how to get your buisness but then when he has got you the quality of his work is very poor and customer service is crap.

Chy has been looking after our Scooby for just over two years and we've never had an issue. 'works always done as agreed and the car is always as clean & tidy coming home as it was going in.

It is a standard wrx waggon so may be that's why? :wonder:

Mrs Big Pete & our 8 year old daughter use the car each & every day.

What do you all recon? :wonder:

Hi guys, what would you do in my position, considering funds are very tight at the moment? “Crank and ring land goosed”

I have absolutely no chance of driving the car to TOTB this year, but I could ask around there for advice right?

Check this: I asked Chi prior to reading these threads if he was going TOTB this year and he said he was overloaded with work, yeh RE-Work cos he didn’t do the job right in the first place…. Plus if he turned up its likely he’d be lynched by his past customers!!!!!

So back to my question then, what are my options, do you think I should wait and ask around at the TOTB stalls?
I’m basically annoyed that the car is off the road and would sooner have it back on the road even if its running basic mod or even OEM spec as a temporarily measure until next year.

I think its going to be early 2010 before I have the funds to go for a spec of engine that I can compete in, so a cheaper above option is my first goal.

Rob

outer side of the story
 

i feel we need to set a few things straight some of what has been posted is true some speculation and some simply untrue

if anyone is genuinely interested in the facts i would advise them to speak the the parties involved IE Andy arthur and chy personally then make up your own mind

having read the previous posts, some of which are clearly misleading i would recommend getting both sides of the story before making any kind of judgment ..that only seems fair

i hope that Aurthur and Andy take this opportunity to make available their phone numbers for this reason

ours is 01422 845007

there is always to sides to every story

chy

yes chy,there is always 2 sides to every story,a true one and a false one.i have no need to lie about anything as there is a lot of people who know first hand what i went through with you.if i had wanted to start up an internet war i could have done it from the start when everything was happening,but i didnt i just kept quiet and took it all.yes i did have the odd little dig here and there buts thats nothing to what i could have said about the service i received from you.i am more than willing to talk to anyone over the phone if they wish to do so as i have nothing to hide,but why do things over the phone behind peoples backs when you can tell it how it is publically like this so everone can see and make there own judgment.you also did keep telling me that my engine was a one off problem and you hadnt had any problems like this with any of your other builds,seems that was untrue aswell was'nt it.

[QUOTE=UK300 PRODRIVE;8828602]Hi guys, what would you do in my position, considering funds are very tight at the moment? “Crank and ring land goosed”
rob,i think what i would do if i were in your posision is try to drop on a cheap running bottom end to get you back on the road for now then strip and rebuild your old engine as funds allow.

i only mentioned hdc as iv been using him for years now , hes a top bloke and you wont get any probs with him
give him a call and just have a chat to see what he says !!!!!

stu

[quote=bigarf;8828872]Cheers Arf, do you have any ideas of laboour costs to fit a bottom end? Like i said in either this thread or one of my own i have been offered a running standard bottom end for £150 and a Forged for £900. But if labour costs are souring i may aswell get a new engine built and installed.

If anyone has any ideas of likely labour costs or labour hours it takes to perform such as job in fitting a bottom end then i would be very much greatful.

I had an overall figure/budget in mind, but then JAp Auto in Birmingham offered me a transplant for £1200 all inc, but heard bad news about these guys on SN so thats also put a spanner in the works. Rob

CONFUSED
 

Sorry but im a little confused. You sign off the comments as if you are actually Chy, but in the post you talk like your representing Pennine and that you are not actually Chy himself....

Chy has my 100% backing in terms of what Banny says above.

I too am undergoing a build with Pennine Subaru (Chy & team), and anyone who has seen the WR1 at Pennine belongs to me, and I am happy it is in good hands.

I very much doubt that Mark at Lateral Performance would have recommended me to Chy (who has built his own car) had he not had any confidence in him. I have also heard very good things from top mappers about Chy's abilities. To date, Chy has kept me informed of where my build is in terms of progress and has always made time to call me despite how busy he is.

I have spoken to both Fai17 (Peter) and Damien Bradley who are also going to be running Pennine built engines, and they like me are 100% behind Chy/Pennine Subaru.