$4000 engine rebuild from 4Kruzn Motorsports

[kdwebber]

Today I saved a fellow Rotorhead from suffering what I went through and getting ripped off by what I believe to be a scam artist/ Con artist/ and in general sad and dishonest individual. My goal here is to educate and inform anyone who is considering getting a rebuild from Conroy @ 4 Kruzn. This is what you might get.
For those of you who don't know or haven't seen these are the pictures and story of my fresh engine rebuild from Conroy @ 4 Kruzn.

I paid $3800 plus a core deposit for this rebuild. I gave Conroy a 13B-REW core on top of the $3800 I paid him for a fresh rebuild, or so I thought. Unfortunate circumstances necessitated the replacement of the coolant seals after less than 300 kms. At this point no blame had been laid for the coolant leaking into the rotor chamber. Upon opening the keg with a fellow rotorhead much more knowledgeable than I, what we found inside was truly disgusting. I received a re-built engine with an FC3S E-shaft. The tension on the timing chain (I meant oil pump chain) was out of spec. We found used side seals with gaps to the corner seal less than 0.10mm and in excess of 0.4mm as per Mazda specs. For those of you in the know, to not use new side seals and to not carefully measure them is completely disgusting. If he failed to spend the proper amount of time sizing and shaping the side seals what else had he cut corners on?

The front stationary gear was showing copper. We had specifically discussed the replacement of any bearing that was in need of replacement. Apparently Conroy didn't think this bearing needed replacement. Onto the porting. The porting looked like it had been done by an amateur, decide for yourself. The rotor housings were in poor condition and Conroy had nicked the sealing surface when he was porting them. He told me that this was "no big deal" and that I was being "too picky". If you can't port the housings without nicking the sealing surface take a few minutes and tape them up, seems simple right? Back to the coolant seals. From time to time in the casting process there can be slight imperfections and indentations in the aluminum along the path where the coolant seal sits. Proper procedure is to fill this hole when building the engine. Conroy either failed to see this imperfection or decided not to fill it. As a result the coolant seal bubbled and I started to get coolant in the rotor chamber. This was the reason I had to pull the motor and the true story of the motor began.

I suspect Conroy did not think I would pull the motor at less than 300km's and could get away with not replacing the bearing. As I'm sure many of you can attest dealing with Conroy is a slow and painful process. Before he has your money he is quick and deliberate. Afterwards however he will straight up ignore you and is a complete PITA to deal with. After calling and text messaging Conroy with no response I decided to PM him on RX7 club. The beauty of RX7 club is that you can see when someone has logged on and of course I knew when I had messaged him. He was completely ignoring my PM's. Fantastic customer service!

Months later in a last ditch effort of frustration before I opened up the engine I text Conroy and finally got a reply. Dealing with him was terrible. All he offered me was warranty work on the motor. Why on earth would I want him to touch my motor again after everything that I found. I asked him for monetary compensation but all he offered was to exchange parts. I accepted the replacement parts. I invite Conroy to come here and defend himself, I'd love to see him try and explain his work.

PICTURES
http://s1286.photobucket.com/user/ky...?sort=3&page=1


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[-Jay21-]

Hopefully no one else repeats the same mistake of buying a 'built' engine from Conroy. Having seen this with my own eyes, I wouldn't advise anyone to waste their hard earned cash on his third rate handy work.

[94boosted]

Sorry to hear about your poor experience with 4KRUZN Motorsports. Hope the guy smartens up and does the right thing.

[Tik-Tok]

So, my general rule of never using a business with the letter Z as a replacement for S in their name, still holds true.

[HiTempguy1]

As with every story, my impression is there is more than one side to this.

Conroy is a very well respected member of the racing community in Western Canada. Having personally dealt with Conroy, I have a hard time believing his personal actions were malicious or with ill-intent.

I am not defending him, so much as saying that he has a lot to lose and the actions described in this post are not the ones of someone I've seen in the racing community.

YMMV

[EM2FTL]

^I'll second that. No idea what went on between OP and Conroy, but I've done business with him for the past 3 years and have never had an issue. Anytime something broke he was able to rectify it and never left me feeling like I got a bad deal, and he has gone out of his way to help me with several issues that aren't even his problem.

[Graham_A_M]

Wow that porting was done with a grinding wheel and a die grinder (normal, thats how I ported the heads on my buddies 5.0 mustang) but in the pics it wasnt even polished (let's say using a flapper/buffing wheel) afterwards.... yikes.

[revelations]

Sounds like possible sub-contract work to me - if he has an otherwise good rep with engine builds.

[P_D]

From 780tuners

I will not reply to Kyle in any way. And won't fight with him on the Internet.

But to say,
1-Three years ago when his engine was built it had warrentee.
2-One year ago when he actually called me he was offered warrentee which he did not accept and chose to tear down engine himself. Therefor I don't know what parts he actually found or how he tested them.
3- He no longer has warrentee and chose to go down this road to somehow make himself feel better.
4- there is WAY more to this story than what Kyle chooses to post and I will not argue and fight about who and what is true and what is not. This will be the last I say on this matter. If you know me and wish for more info on me or text my cell.
Those of you who know me... You know what i have posted is true and Kyle has now gone down the road of no help from anyone. Even got himself banned from rx7 specialties.
Good luck on your rotory endeavours Kyle.

Conroy.

[G-ZUS]

[kdwebber]

Conroy @ 4Kruzn Motorsports will try and say that I refused his warranty, which I did, and that too much time took place after he built the engine.

All I have to say is that the motor was dis assembled at a professional shop here in Calgary and that the pictures speak for themselves. Just look at the porting on the rotor housings and even the irons for that matter. Also Conroy admitted to me that he nicked the rotor housing and it was not a big deal.

[962 kid]

Quick post and I'm out of here.

Kyle wanted Conroy to take apart and figure out what went wrong. He did not refuse Conroy's warranty, Conroy simply did not offer any sort of plan or timeline for Kyle. After many many frustrating months of dodged and ignored messages, I pulled his engine apart with a couple of witnesses. It was not until the motor was disassembled and shoddy workmanship discovered that the offer of warranty work was declined.

Engine disassembly - this will always be he my word vs Conroys unfortunately. After pulling the timing cover and front stat gear, I advised kyle to go home and get a camera. He took pictures along the way of every side seal measured in each corresponding seal slot as well as any other substandard or out of spec parts. That's all I have to say on that.

This Upsets me to post because I was not expecting to find anything shady upon disassembly. Kyle picked Conroy to build his engine based on his good reputation and standing in the racing community. Unfortunately, the pictures do not lie. Even if Kyle was being dubious and misrepresented the seal gaps, or overheated the motor, or overboosted or didn't break it in... The wrong parts were used, the porting is not acceptable, the die grinder marks on the sealing surface are not acceptable. The housings are out of spec as are the irons and bearings.

No good

[A790]

Originally posted by P_D
From 780tuners

A reply like that to me suggests that he is more likely at fault as opposed to the opposite.

[kdwebber]

Originally posted by A790

A reply like that to me suggests that he is more likely at fault as opposed to the opposite.

We could go back and forth all day long about what I said and what he said. Better yet we could look at the pictures of the engine itself and decide based on the cold hard facts.

[A790]

Originally posted by kdwebber


We could go back and forth all day long about what I said and what he said. Better yet we could look at the pictures of the engine itself and decide based on the cold hard facts.

If I'm honest, I have no real interest in who is at fault.

I was just pointing out that when I see someone accused of something post a non-reply like that one, more often than not they turn out to be guilty.

A reply like that inspires no confidence in me. It doesn't tell me that person is genuinely interested in their customers or their businesses reputation. It suggests that your accusations are true.

[kdwebber]

Originally posted by A790

If I'm honest, I have no real interest in who is at fault.

I was just pointing out that when I see someone accused of something post a non-reply like that one, more often than not they turn out to be guilty.

A reply like that inspires no confidence in me. It doesn't tell me that person is genuinely interested in their customers or their businesses reputation. It suggests that your accusations are true.

I get what you meant earlier, I must have mis read it.

My only goal here is to prevent others from going through the headache and frustration that I did.

[HiTempguy1]

Originally posted by A790

A reply like that to me suggests that he is more likely at fault as opposed to the opposite.

Really? A reply like that I usually find indicates a person who is at their wits end trying to placate a poor customer. At the end of the day, you need to know when to cut your losses.

Also, I don't know 962 kid from a hole in the ground; does he have a shop?

I tried finding some info on him on this forum, and ran across this hilarious (and fitting) post from a RX8 thread

Originally posted by 962 kid
Sorry, but no mechanic will take a customers word on "diagnosis." It sounds like you are confused as hell. If I were you, I would have the dealer do the comp test. If results are ok, have them change the plugs - the job is half done from comp test, just need to swap the leading plugs after. Drive the car home and have your mechanic friend change the coils (can be done from above quite easily) and then sell the car haha.

Pot meet kettle, something something.

[rx7_turbo2]

Wow, if I was the builder of that engine I wouldn't want a public fight over it either, pretty tough to defend that type of craftsmanship. Well not tough, impossible. If you paid for a "streetport" then that porting is downright fraudulent.

I don't know Conroy, never seen the inside of one of his motors, but this sure does remind me of what I've seen in another "Specialists" motors

There really isn't a back and forth on this one. I really don't see what "the other side of the story" could be? Unless "the other side of the story" is the OP was told "Hey I'm gong to charge you for porting but instead of doing it I'm going to just let a die grinder rattle around in there on its own while I go for lunch"

My opinion having seen my fair share of rotary internals? Fucking pathetic, and as someone who has a soft spot for the rotary engine this makes me sad, saddest of all this type of shit doesn't surprise me anymore.

[A790]

Originally posted by HiTempguy1


Really? A reply like that I usually find indicates a person who is at their wits end trying to placate a poor customer. At the end of the day, you need to know when to cut your losses.

I agree with your sentiment, but not with his execution. Yea, you need to cut your losses, but maybe you do that after posting your side.

A single post explaining your position is all you need. Give the people who are reading an opportunity to evaluate your position and make their own judgements.

What he posted is a complete non-reply.

My experience with defending myself/my business on social media is to tell the truth, back it up with anything I've got to do it, and let the people sort it out. He's not doing that, and his lack of interest doesn't paint him favorably either.

[mobius]

The part that bothers me is that you have decided to take a tear at Conroy on a public forum because of one bad experience. Having known Conroy since 2006, I can tell you that this is not indicative of his work. I can also tell you that he has gone out of his way many times to help people diagnose and repair their cars with no gain to himself.

Did Conroy actually say the he was the one to spec and assemble your engine? I would find it more likely that someone he had working for him 3 years ago (or however long it was) was the one who actually assembled the engine. Does it make it right? No. But it does sound like he offered to make it right and you turned him down, so now it is your problem.