Buyer Beware - Rick Ehrenberg

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oldkimmer said:
I have been using synthetic oil in every engine I’ve put together since early 80s weather just a re ring job or a full on built engine. I never had a problem with the rings not wanting to seat. Kim
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Puzackly.
 
RustyRatRod said:
The length of time that past would have me also not wanting to make anything good. That said, if I told someone I would stand behind, I would. I would work hard to come to some kind of an agreement that wouldn't be too hard on either of us. I believe that would be fair.
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I'm sure you would work hard to make him satisfied but would you give him money a year or more later after the motors been apart?
 
j par said:
I'm sure you would work hard to make him satisfied but would you give him money a year or more later after the motors been apart?
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if he would have fired it off a year later and drove it over since he was close by you would have been all over it just like I would have but seriously cash a year later after it's been disassembled:realcrazy:
 
Im no engine builder, but if someone came back to me for work i had done 1 year or 1-1/2 later id likely refuse too. I chalk it up to an expensive lesson.

We all learn from our mistakes, smart ones learn from other’s mistakes.

I bought a good running engine/trans that i knew ran very well. I didnt pull it,and it was stored under a tarp.
Never thought to check it. It was siezed and trans was smoked.
Motor and trans both were donors for parts only. My lesson.
 
Dicer said:
Pivoting from 340 to 360
Did anyone read his first thread...…………..
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You mean this part?

rt-man said:
So, the '72 340 I bought for my '73 Satellite was torn down and found to have significant scoring in the bores due to it sitting around for years. Condensation took that puppy down.
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Personally, I'd tell him to kick rocks.

Without Ehrenberg's input, I'd hazard a guess when Ehrenberg said he'd stand behind it, the plan was to drop it in and run it, not drop it in, pull it, pull it down, and let it sit forever before trying to use it again.

The OP is pretty much all over the place with this.

Stand up and take some responsibility for the role *you* played in poor storage.
 
HEMI-ITIS said:
1st I'll say I always tell buyers NOT to buy a crate engine or if it's used it must be at least partially disassembled for inspection.Now,,,,even if every cylinder were not looked at,rust and pitting would have been evident.So,,,,,IMO this rust occurred after the purchase.
I am surprised the buyer did not even "go through" the used engine before installation!
Rick has been around this hobby a long time and so have I:realcrazy:
Have NEVER heard a bad word about Rick and was surprised to read the beginning of this thread.
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is the reply from the supposed "'engine builder" that was mentioned by the op..........

QUOTE"Let me clarify some things,

My father is gone 9 years , he could barely walk or see since 2007 so we are talking about 11 years at a minimum since an engine was built by him. I can count on one hand the 340 engines I have built since then. Most of those engines are being built right now in my shop.

Rick claims my father built the engine which is fine by me if he did , but I’d like some proof. Every engine that had any type of service other then a hot tank job has a job identification number on it. We started doing this in the mid 1980’s to keep track of this very thing, possible fraud. Back then there was 6-8 machine shops in a 20 mile radius and everyone had a muscle car. We constantly caught people selling parts off that “LOU MACHINED” that never entered our facility. Even some complete engines and car builds. So if someone sold an engine to Rick and told him my father built it it wouldn’t be earth shattering to me that it may be “FAKE NEWS”.

I think this is [censored] all these years later that my father who’s is not here to set it straight gets pulled into something that has IMO nothing to do with him.

I would like some clarity as to where the engine came from (people) and how it got to Rick."
_________________________
 
So if in fact Lou did build this engine........it was 11 years ago. To even bring Lou into this is insulting! I will leave it at that!!
 
j par said:
I'm sure you would work hard to make him satisfied but would you give him money a year or more later after the motors been apart?
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You're probably right. That's a lot of time to pass. Really no telling what happened in that time frame.
 
RustyRatRod said:
You're probably right. That's a lot of time to pass. Really no telling what happened in that time frame.
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My customer and I just took his Trans Am back to Portland engine rebuilders last month. They have built his motor well over a year ago and we just got fired up a couple months ago. Everything went fine with the break in and a small drive. and then he called me a few days later and said I had started it and he thought he heard some kind of a knock? True enough I can hear it as well and told him to turn it off quickly. Let's call Ted at Portland engine rebuilders and see what he says. We trailer the car out there and sure enough it was just a rocker hitting the custom valve covers my customer wanted. the first thing we did was take it straight back to the Builder who is more than happy to give a look. I know for a fact that if we would had any problem seriously down low we may have been in for taking the motor back out but I'm sure Ted would have fixed it and made it right no problem. The years time till we started it didn't faze the Builder one bit. And the fact that we brought it right to him when we thought we had a problem... He was very thankful of that. And we were very thankful for him asking us to quickly bring it out so he could help us. And he did. We took the valve covers off and banged in the baffle a little bit and problem solved. I know it was a simple problem but before we got crazy doing our own diagnosis I don't want to the person responsible for building a motor to have the first crack at it.
 
To me the cylinder had rust in it for a while (years). Even if he borescope it, it still could have been missed. Not to many people today but there motors in right away thats for sure. If Rick guaranty the engine was good he should have done something to help. Anyone that states I am in My V code Road Runner right now driver across country right is a pompous a*s! Who cares what you're driving(Right there is a red flag). He is just a middle man that buys from other venters that doubles the price if not more. I had an issue with him, a package was damage and was rebagged from the post office with a note on it that it was damage from the post office check for lost or damage items. I contacted Rick and he did not believe me even after I sent him picture of the package. He was not a nice guy to me at all. That was the last time I bought from him. That's when I looked into what he sells.
 
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replicaracer43 said:
A fresh machined cylinder bore can rust in DAYS....
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But, why didn't it after so many years?

Here's the thing. He's been challenged on FBBO to post up what the email chain he claims to have which would set the timeline.

He says the rings didn't seat they pulled it down and found rust.

Ehrenberg says the pulled it down, said the walls were good and a year later said the walls were rusted.

Reading the thread on FBBO there's one or two posts where the OP is almost whining about it. (And getting basically bent out of shape people are doubting him - even as he won't rise to several challenges to post the email chain.)

Somehow the name of the builder has been brought into it, igniting some emotions. Nice tactic to take the onus off the *real* issue: was the engine torn down and sat for over a year or not?

According to the OP the email chain should cure the timeline issues and take the debate away.

Fact is, how many engines have you pulled down years after being pulled from a car, and the sealed engine still shows no sign of rust on *any* machine surfaces? I can think of several which I've pulled from a car that hasn't been run in years and everything is still fresh. The same could be said for a fresh engine, just sealed up, still coated in oil and break in lube no matter how long it's sat on an engine dolly.

Now, if you were Ehrenberg and found the engine had been torn down and sat around for a year, what would *anyone* do in this position? At that point the seller can't guarantee the bores were coated in anything to keep them from rusting.
 
#1. You bought it. I got a new bad motor sitting in my neon. I didn't tear it down right away and if I had, I would've caught the bad water pump that probably caused the knock that it has. My fault, nobody else's.

#2. I LEARNED the phrase 'caveat emptor' from Rick via Mopar Action. Given his 'New York Heeb' way (his words, not mine), I very highly doubt he would even SAY he stood behind it.

#3. Who's to say that rust didn't form under YOUR watch? You took your sweet time with that motor, too, y'know.

#4.
Kern Dog said:
Posting this on every Mopar board does not make the OP right.
FACT: You bought an engine that had been built long ago by someone else.
FACT: You obviously do not have the tools or skill to build an engine yourself so you had to rely on someone else to assess the quality of the build.
FACT: Rick admitted that he did not build the engine.
FACT: You did a poor job of inspecting a used engine.
FACT: The engine sat for years but you decided to paint it and run it anyway.
FACT: New engines get by with synthetic oil because they run tighter clearances for the piston, have thinner rings and have tighter ring gaps. Older style engines and synthetic oil is a crapshoot as to how well the rings will seat.
FACT: People that do not understand something often feel that they were "cheated" when something goes wrong.
FACT: Unless you saw the engine run, you do not know exactly how well it will run, no matter WHO built it.
This is a sad attempt on your part to cover your own mistake. YOU should have done a better job inspecting the engine.
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Kerndog is right, you should've verified the condition on ANY rebuilt motor you bought, ever. I got a sweet rebuilt 408 sitting in my basement, makes 800 horse and I'll make you a deal on it. I know it LOOKS like a bone stock 5.2, but it's a sleeper.
Would you fall for that? My guess is, probably.

Btw, how would even know what cam you had, what heads, what crank, etc without a total teardown. You spent THOUSANDS on a motor and won't spend a hundred on gaskets? Really?

brian6pac said:
Yes you are right to a point, but if Rick said it's good and he guarantees it, than that is it, there is no argument. Rick should back up his word.
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I agree but GET IT IN WRITING, and don't expect it to be valid ad infinitum.

OP, this is on you, dude. Rick is smart enough to know better, so should you be.

And I damn sure wouldn't count on someone as OLD as Ehrenberg to be around to make it right after so much time. He's liable to drop any minute.

Edit, since this post was edited, let me clarify: I called Rick E. a 'new york heeb' WITH MARKS around it, because that's what Rick calls himself, in print in the magazine.
The marks were added because those are HIS WORDS, NOT MINE.

So before you bums edit my post, look it up. Single marks are routinely used to indicate a quotation that the person quoting the quote does not agree with the language in the quote.

So I'm restoring my post to the best of my memory, because the statement lacks credibility without context. If you don't like the words I use, learn some context.

Second edit: I don't like you implying that I'm racist. I'm a prick but not racist, I don't like that ****. Imma run for president someday and I don't need you Papa John'ing my run.
 
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If Ehrenberg is right and the engine sat for a year after teardown the biggest thing he's guilty of is not writing down what he would stand behind and any timeline on it.

Presumably in crayon.
 
Its does not matter Rick guarantied it, that it was good. That rust was there for years!!! For that much money Rick should have pulled the heads and double checked everything to back up his guaranty. Rick took a gamble that its was still good and It was not. Bottom line! He should have offer to do something.
 
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davescuda said:
Its does not matter Rick guarantied it, that was good. That rust was there for years!!! For that much money Rick should have pulled the heads and double checked everything to back up his guaranty. Rick took a gamble that its was still good and It was not. Bottom line! He should have offer to do something.
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did we confirm that he guaranteed it or are we just confirming that the o p said he did?
 
I wouldn't take nobody's word that I haven't known since high school for a guarantee for money. Without it being written on paper.
A couple hundred dollars is my Max gambling limit on car parts. thousands of dollars I'm going to have a guarantee on a piece of paper. I think I'll just stick with my request for a new title to this thread...
 
:BangHead::BangHead::BangHead:

There is so much wrong with this I don't know where begin.

I think the first place I'd start is by telling my "Mopar mechanic" to stick with modern Subarus.

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