Projects Summit crate 350 - nightmare

The video says it all. I’ve been trying to get some help for 2 1/2 months. Summit washed their hands of me right off the bat. Sent me to GM. GM said they can’t deal with anyone outside the US. I’m in Australia. They sent me to a 3rd party distributor, Scoggin Dickey, who were sympathetic but didn’t help despite being understanding. I’m now over $2k US out of pocket with a brand new motor that is unusable having never turned a rev.

Buyer beware, particularly outside the US, you’re on your own.



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sorry to say but that looks like shipping damage to me. how was it shipped and was it insured

 

Part 2 if you are interested in what my brand new motor looks like inside.

Thanks Summit. Thanks GM.


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so it is summit and gm's fault that it filled with water on its BOAT ride to you. Did you contact the shipper they would be the ones that mis handled your engine. did summit ship it directly to you or did you have to set up your own shipper.

 

Definitely a sad story, I bought mine from Jegs and when I had a problem with a dented valve cover, GM wouldn't help but Jegs did so I guess I was more fortunate than you were.

 

Who was the shipper? How was it sent?

 

As a GM parts guy, I have to say...bring it up with the shipper. There's no way GM will honor any warranty on that. Yes, it sucks. Hopefully the shipping company will put on their big boy pants and help you out.

 

Probably a fair comment to say it’s on the shipper. But which shipper? The one who shipped it from GM to Scoggin Dickey, or the one who shipped it from them to Summit, or the shipper that carried it from Summit to my friend in Northern Cal, or the one who picked it up from there and took it to Long Beach, or the one who put it in a container and brought it to Australia?

Yes, it could have happened on any of those trips. My point is though, it’s a crate motor. It’s in a crate so it can be safely shipped. It was still inside it’s plastic bag when I uncrated it. My main argument is, there should be no way a gallon of water can get in there.

Shipping issue? Maybe. I say it’s a packaging issue.

Anyhow, I’ve conceded defeat. I’m off to the rebuilder.


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Not much lube on anything in that engine. It will be rebuildable but I can definitely see rust in the bores.


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That's fucked up.

 

Sorry about your trouble, was it fresh water or salt water.

 

Fresh water. Yep, I did taste it!


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Summit should step up and do the right thing. I understand that shipping a complete new engine would be expensive but at the very least they could supply new pistons and a ring set if a re-bore is required along with any other hard parts that are unusable.
They would never feel the cost in their bottom line but the good will benefit to them would be immeasurable.

 

Ok.... Forgive me, I'm just an Arkansas country boy, but, that looks like sabotage. No way that much water entered the covered engine by rainfall or sea spray. I bet the crate didn't show any signs of water damage. I also suspect that the water isn't salt water either.

I think that it occurred as one of 2 things.

1. The engine sat for a while outside or in a building with a major water leak before crating occured.

2. This was done on purpose by a disgruntled employee.

Each of these yields to the thought that you can't be the only one. There should be others on the interwebs with similar damage.

Nick

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Ok. Not the shipping company.

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Yeah. I thought the same but no interest at all. I’ve been trying for over 2 months and not said anything negative but I’m done. I need to move on.

Buying from the other side of the world carries risk and we all get burned eventually


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Did the motor sit anywhere for an inordinate amount of time? It wont help your situation, but I am mildly curious. Im sure Summit shipped a good motor to your mate in NorCal. How long before he got it on the truck to Long Beach? And once in Long Beach, how long before it went in the container? I doubt the container experienced that much condensation on a trip.

Hopefully the rebuilder can hot tank it and put it back together fairly inexpensively.

 

Once the motor got to Northern Cal it was put in the bed of the pickup I purchased and was inside a shed.

I can’t say for sure what the movements and timeframes were but it comes back to my point. If it was well packaged no water could enter it.

When I first saw the heads I thought condensation. Obviously that thought disappeared when I dropped the sump plug.


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I know this much, I'll never buy one of those crate motors since they don't come with any warrantee.. I hear too many horror stories about them...

 

If I could get that info Jeff, I don’t know what I could do with it. In the end it comes down to Summit or GM being willing to help. That’s not happening.


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The motors are well packaged for normal domestic shipping. But you're asking a lot to get it half way around the world, through several different handlers/shippers. Without having evidence of where it got wet, there is no recourse.

It sucks. Perhaps now you know that when you get a friend to ship something to you, that is vulnerable to shipping damage, they need to take extra steps to ensure it gets to you safely. The military used to pack stuff in Cosmoline....

Sorry.

 

Sorry to hear your troubles, A Lot of money for a rusty core, I've had good luck with Jegs, I received a damaged product in shipping, their procedure was, take picture, email, they immediately sent a replacement and paperwork to send back with shipper (Fedex) when replacement arrived. So you and your friends buy from Jegs is my suggestion. I'm surprised that Summit blew you off and did not package engine properly for overseas shipment, but in their defense too many people/shippers handled it and I agree with the comment that it was sabatoge somewhere along the way. Better luck with rebuild.

 

Just terrible. I can see why GM and Summit are claiming to be innocent, but it wouldn't hurt them much to help. Assuming it got to your friend okay, I guess in hindsight he should have reboxed it in a solid crate. I am sort of wondering how so much water "accidentily" got into the bottom end of your motor? If there is a positive side at all, at least it was fresh water, not salt. Still sucks.

 

Striper, it is definitely sabotage in my book.
There are some sick bastards out there or possibly dissatisfied employees who would take delight in doing that kind of damage, especially if they had any idea it was headed overseas and out of reach.

I purchased a SBC 350 Good Wrench crate motor from a GM dealing in North Carolina and hence received a similar package. I was impressed with the amount of double plastic wrapping etc and it seems to me that your water was no accident my friend.
I enquired about the Good Wrench engine with respect to warranty if shipped overseas and was told there was none...
You pretty much have no come back and so my friend I think you are on your own with this disaster.
I feel for you, but I suspect any efforts now would just be wasted and make you feel all the more angry about it.

Years ago I purchased an off the shelf reconditioned engine.
Fortunately, my vehicle had a very specific oil pan and so before fitting my new engine, I had to do an oil pan swap.
When I got the shipped oil pan off, I discovered it had been literally filled with machining swarf.
And just like your engine now it was way too much to have gotten in there by accident.
I called the supplier and like you they did not want to know me and just threw it back on me as proving anything would be difficult.
Fortunately, once swarf was removed I got away with it but had I just added oil and tried to start it what a disaster it could have been.

I was told when I ordered my Good Wrench engine, going by reviews it really was the luck of the draw...

 

If anyone needs a GM crate engine...throw me a message. The dealer at which I work does repairs to any 'damaged' crate engines that ship out of the Michigan warehouse. We see a lot...I mean A LOT...of damaged engines. Anywyas, hit me up if I can help out on an engine.

 

Wow! That truly sucks given what you paid. Like many have said it wouldn't hurt the bottom line of any of these companies to step up and help someone out on something like this. I don't see how that much water could have gotten into that engine if it was still in the original plastic shipping bag. Someone had to have done it prior to it being shipped for whatever reason. If it had of been directly shipped to you then you might have a claim but with the amount of folks handing it proving anything is impossible. Shame really...

 

Holy Samoly!! Just another reason that I've never ever even thought about buying a crate engine. Not that I have built very many in my lifetime but at least I know exactly what's inside there when I crank it up and if something goes wrong I know whose fault it is.

It seems impossible even if the engine was sitting Outdoors uncovered to have that much water in the crankcase. Is there something I don't understand about this? The only thing that comes to mind as far as getting that much water into the crankcase (within a reasonable timeframes) is either through the distributor mounting hole or the dipstick. I am thinking a total Sabotage by somebody somewhere, especially if the packaging seemed anywhere near reasonable.

 

Sorry it happened, and hard to pinpoint where it actually got the water.
Good thing; you can take it all apart, clean up rust areas, inspect parts for re-use, replace what you feel necessary, and re-assemble. When all is said and done, you could always send a note to Summit/GM with receipts for extra work you did, and sometimes, their "goodwill" portion of Customer Service will help out.