Ryan
New member
So I know I've been pretty inactive on the forums as of late. As some of you already know, the car went down again a couple weeks ago. Catastrophic engine failure. Snapped an exhaust valve clean off on the highway. Let me start from the beginning and tell exactly what has happened and what is happening at this point.
I had a short block and a set of heads fully assembled by Butler & Mac Master over the winter. They did all my machine work - new pistons, bearings, valve job, guides, the whole 9 yards. The only thing they didn't do was bolt the heads onto the block, which they assured me wasn't an issue as I asked them at the time if it was a good idea for them to at least bolt the heads on. They said not a big deal for me to bolt the heads on myself. Anyway, Gabe and I assembled the block, installed the engine in the car, etc. etc. No issues, all is well at this point.
Car ran absolutely great. Started up no problems. I was sending logs to Bren over the break in period and he never found any issues. The engine was running like a champ.
Let's fast forward to about when the engine had 2k miles on it. Keep in mind, no issues whatsoever during this time. Around 2k miles, I started noticing that the driver's side head was rather ticky compared to the passenger side. I know built blocks are usually louder than stock, and it wasn't crazy loud tick, but enough to get my attention. I took it over to Mike's to see what he thought. My initial thought was an exhaust leak, as it sounded just like one. Mike listened to it and said yeah the driver's side head is making a bit more valve train noise than usual.
That same day I called Butler to address the issue and report it to them. When I called them, I asked them to double check what they set my valve clearances to. When I brought them my heads I told them I wanted everything factory specs (WRX). He tells me they set the exhaust valve clearances to .014, when factory WRX exhaust valve clearances are supposed to be .009. If this has anything to do with the noise I was hearing and/or why the engine went down, I don't know. All I know is that I told them to set to factory specs and they clearly were not. The guy (who I've been dealing with since day 1) tells me to continue to drive the car as "the valves need more time to seat in". He didn't ask to bring the car in to them to have it checked, just continue driving it. So, trusting the shops advice, I continued to drive it.
Fast forward to about 8k miles, keeping in mind I have had NOT ONE issue with the car other then the noisey-er than usual driver's side head. Bren assured me my logs looked good, wasn't burning any oil, all is well. Literally NO issues. The car ran awesome!
So two weeks ago, around 8k miles on the engine, I'm driving to work on the highway. I hear an awful noise coming from the front end of the car. My initial thought was I lost my mudflap or I ran over something and it was dragging on the pavement. I looked down at my dash, noticed all my dash lights on, immediately killed the engine and pulled over. She's dead. Snapped valve. Complete engine failure.
So I had the car towed to Mike's and he pulled off the timing belt to check and see if I skipped timing, or seized a pulley. All my pulleys were fine and it didn't skip any teeth. He pulled the exhaust manifold off to reveal cylinder two and as you can see, clean snapped exhaust valve. Crazy.
Fast forward a bit. Engine was pulled out and I bring it to the machine shop complete. They want to see the engine, which is understandable. Keep in mind this entire time they keep trying to pawn it off as a timing issue, when clearly it's not, and you don't SNAP valves with a timing issue, you BEND valves. Plus, if it was a timing issue, Bren would have picked it up a LONG time ago, and the car would have run like crap.
I drop the engine off to them, and not even a half hour goes by, not taking anything apart, I get a call back saying "a couple of your pulleys are loose. Definitely the cause of your snapped valve". You've got to be kidding me I say, as you have to loosen those two pulleys to get the timing belt off. At this point I'm raging. If they are gonna be so quick to make a decision not even taking the block apart yet left me totally uneasy with them having the block and me not being there with them taking it apart. I call them back and tell them I don't want them taking the heads off without me being there so I can witness it and know they aren't going to tamper with any evidence.
Couple days go by. At this point they are tearing it down getting ready to pull the heads off. They tell me they are totally fine with me being there when they take the heads off.
I get a phone call yesterday from them, this time from part owner of the shop. First thing he says is "so we've got the heads off" Hold on. What did you say? Yeah exactly, they went ahead and pulled the heads off after they clearly told me they would wait until I was there to do it. He goes on to tell me that they found that valves were hitting the pistons. First thing that comes to mind is, oh yeah, so you still think it's timing issue? Think again. He tells me they are investigating and still "looking at things".
Clearly they screwed up. I have so many things I can use against them, it's not even funny. Everything from the initial phone call when the car had 2k miles and instructed to "continue to drive it", to them setting my valve lashes WRONG, to them going against their word and pulling the heads off without me being there. And now that they've torn it all down, who knows what they could be doing to it. I can't believe this crap with this shop at this point. I went to this shop because it had GREAT reviews. They do Subaru crap all the time. If they guarantee their work like they said, they better take care of me.
Comments welcome.
I had a short block and a set of heads fully assembled by Butler & Mac Master over the winter. They did all my machine work - new pistons, bearings, valve job, guides, the whole 9 yards. The only thing they didn't do was bolt the heads onto the block, which they assured me wasn't an issue as I asked them at the time if it was a good idea for them to at least bolt the heads on. They said not a big deal for me to bolt the heads on myself. Anyway, Gabe and I assembled the block, installed the engine in the car, etc. etc. No issues, all is well at this point.
Car ran absolutely great. Started up no problems. I was sending logs to Bren over the break in period and he never found any issues. The engine was running like a champ.
Let's fast forward to about when the engine had 2k miles on it. Keep in mind, no issues whatsoever during this time. Around 2k miles, I started noticing that the driver's side head was rather ticky compared to the passenger side. I know built blocks are usually louder than stock, and it wasn't crazy loud tick, but enough to get my attention. I took it over to Mike's to see what he thought. My initial thought was an exhaust leak, as it sounded just like one. Mike listened to it and said yeah the driver's side head is making a bit more valve train noise than usual.
That same day I called Butler to address the issue and report it to them. When I called them, I asked them to double check what they set my valve clearances to. When I brought them my heads I told them I wanted everything factory specs (WRX). He tells me they set the exhaust valve clearances to .014, when factory WRX exhaust valve clearances are supposed to be .009. If this has anything to do with the noise I was hearing and/or why the engine went down, I don't know. All I know is that I told them to set to factory specs and they clearly were not. The guy (who I've been dealing with since day 1) tells me to continue to drive the car as "the valves need more time to seat in". He didn't ask to bring the car in to them to have it checked, just continue driving it. So, trusting the shops advice, I continued to drive it.
Fast forward to about 8k miles, keeping in mind I have had NOT ONE issue with the car other then the noisey-er than usual driver's side head. Bren assured me my logs looked good, wasn't burning any oil, all is well. Literally NO issues. The car ran awesome!
So two weeks ago, around 8k miles on the engine, I'm driving to work on the highway. I hear an awful noise coming from the front end of the car. My initial thought was I lost my mudflap or I ran over something and it was dragging on the pavement. I looked down at my dash, noticed all my dash lights on, immediately killed the engine and pulled over. She's dead. Snapped valve. Complete engine failure.
So I had the car towed to Mike's and he pulled off the timing belt to check and see if I skipped timing, or seized a pulley. All my pulleys were fine and it didn't skip any teeth. He pulled the exhaust manifold off to reveal cylinder two and as you can see, clean snapped exhaust valve. Crazy.
Fast forward a bit. Engine was pulled out and I bring it to the machine shop complete. They want to see the engine, which is understandable. Keep in mind this entire time they keep trying to pawn it off as a timing issue, when clearly it's not, and you don't SNAP valves with a timing issue, you BEND valves. Plus, if it was a timing issue, Bren would have picked it up a LONG time ago, and the car would have run like crap.
I drop the engine off to them, and not even a half hour goes by, not taking anything apart, I get a call back saying "a couple of your pulleys are loose. Definitely the cause of your snapped valve". You've got to be kidding me I say, as you have to loosen those two pulleys to get the timing belt off. At this point I'm raging. If they are gonna be so quick to make a decision not even taking the block apart yet left me totally uneasy with them having the block and me not being there with them taking it apart. I call them back and tell them I don't want them taking the heads off without me being there so I can witness it and know they aren't going to tamper with any evidence.
Couple days go by. At this point they are tearing it down getting ready to pull the heads off. They tell me they are totally fine with me being there when they take the heads off.
I get a phone call yesterday from them, this time from part owner of the shop. First thing he says is "so we've got the heads off" Hold on. What did you say? Yeah exactly, they went ahead and pulled the heads off after they clearly told me they would wait until I was there to do it. He goes on to tell me that they found that valves were hitting the pistons. First thing that comes to mind is, oh yeah, so you still think it's timing issue? Think again. He tells me they are investigating and still "looking at things".
Clearly they screwed up. I have so many things I can use against them, it's not even funny. Everything from the initial phone call when the car had 2k miles and instructed to "continue to drive it", to them setting my valve lashes WRONG, to them going against their word and pulling the heads off without me being there. And now that they've torn it all down, who knows what they could be doing to it. I can't believe this crap with this shop at this point. I went to this shop because it had GREAT reviews. They do Subaru crap all the time. If they guarantee their work like they said, they better take care of me.
Comments welcome.
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