BJ's Cylinder Head

[91turboTSi]

A good friend of mine ordered the JS1 motor package from BJ's Cylinder Head in Tulsa, OK in January of last year. The total for the package was just over 10,000 dollars. 5,000 was sent upfront to start the build and then BJ called him to send the balance as the motor was ready to ship approx 6 months later. It has been well over a year and he is only able to get in contact with BJ maybe once a month, and always given an excuse and a promise that his motor will be shipping by the end of the week. Has anybody else been ripped off by BJ? This is not 120 dollars for a clutch fork, this is over $10,000!!! Legal action is now being taken but I am just trying to figure out if this is something that has happened to others and to warn everyone else about this vendor.

[Iceman21]

BJ has fallen off the face of the planet from what I have heard. There are a few others out there that are waiting for product from him, not anywhere near 10K though

[Cyndi]

this is the first negative thing I've heard; beleive it or not, about them

[4SFED4]

I seen John Shepard at the NDRA race last weekend in Maryland and he removed the BJ's logo out of his back window. I didn't ask him if he is still dealing with BJ, but I don't take that as a good sign. I had my own troubles trying to buy an intake from them.

[anconover]

BJ's is no longer one of sheps sponsors as far as im aware. They have basically fallen off the earth. I dunno specifics of why, maybe it was their move? But they are getting way behind.

[garychios]

It is said to say that something has taken its toll with BJ. Not exactly sure what is going on, but A lot of people are complaining. None of us can get in touch with him and these are the racers that worked closely with him. I can't speak for Shep, but I no longer work with BJ a well.

[1QuickChic]

bjs is haveing alot of issues since the move from what i have heard, including getting broke into at the new shop , ever since they moved to ba things have went downhill stuff took forever to get before, but now its damn near imposible

[thimages]

The only issue BJ is having is that not enough people are sending him cash to skip off with.

He says his c/c machine is down so people send money orders. He won't take c/c orders because if he does, his account is subject to charge backs.

He cashes them and then never sends the materials.

He owes Shep parts, he owes Al parts, and he owes parts to a bunch of other people.

Looks like he's gone the way of Ken Bacon (Indy Race Cores).

Say what you want, but people who take money and don't provide the ordered services are thieves.

To those that are defending BJ (or any other scumbag vendor), what would you say if it was YOUR money?

Hal

[AWD Terror]

A good friend of mine ordered the JS1 motor package from BJ's Cylinder Head in Tulsa, OK in January of last year...
Ideally, your friend would post his experiences here himself. But since other members have chimed in, I'll let this stand.

[Boosted1]

BJ cashed my cashiers check a few weeks ago and I have yet to hear from him after my initial conversation about my cylinder head. It has now been close to 5 weeks and I'm still missing my cylinder head for the season and down $1,000 bucks. I know its not much but this adds up quickly when you account for everyone else that is getting scammed.

[anconover]

hehe must be nice. i consider 1000$ to be ALOT.

[Iceman21]

Network Admin's :rolleyes:

1000 is a helluva lot of money.

We need our old smileys back, they convey a point much better than these.

[Boosted1]

BJ gave me a call on Sunday, the head should be arriving at the end of the week!

[edpettit_TSI]

sure it is :rolleyes:

[awdornowd]

I ordered a stage 2 head from him in June of 2004!! I still didn't get the head. The last I heard from him was about 4 months ago. He called me at like 8PM on a Sunday and said he's really sorry that it's taking so long but since I was being patiant he was going to give me a stage 3 head at no charge. But that was the last I heard. He told me he had moved and fired all his guys but one and that he's behind on about 700 intake orders. I don't know how real that number is though. He also said that his mom did all the paper work for BJ's but she took off without telling him and that he also got a divorce. None of that is a excuse though. It's unfortunate cause we all know he does great work.

[91turboTSi]

BJ gave me a call on Sunday, the head should be arriving at the end of the week!
We've heard that multiple times now, good luck! Hopefully my friends money is being refunded asap or the OK State Police are paying someone a visit very very soon.

[kalla]

If you're a business owner (I am), you should respond to more orders than you can handle by either:

1. staffing up so you can do the extra orders (and I realize it is difficult to get good, reliable people)

2. turning down the extra orders

Either #1 or #2 will ensure that you remain a reliable, respected business. In circles where the community talks a lot about vendor experiences, shafting even a few people gets around very fast.

[XakEp]

BJ gave me a call on Sunday, the head should be arriving at the end of the week!

So did it get there?

[AWD_XTC]

Damn if Dave Buschur did this I (and others) would be at his door steep demanding money or parts and he knows that. Thats why I usually only deal with him. I am glad this has not happened to me and I hope you all get the parts you ordered or your money back.

[sherwinz28]

I have first hand experience dealing with BJ. I sent him my cylinder head/intake mani/exhaust mani to get it ported and stage 3 cylinder head. I sent it to him in early october and he had said it would ship a week before thanksgiving. Well I didn't recieve it till February 2005. I called him on a daily basis and just hounded him. I know he was having issues with the move to a new shop and personal problems. I'm not sure if he lied to me about anything he had said over the phone as I tend to be trusting but deep inside...well I won't go there. He seemed like a really nice guy so I just waited and went along for the ride. I also didn't get my intake/exhaust manifold till March 2005, he said it got lost in the mail...so he sent me a spare set fully ported. If I could do it all over again would I...NO! I know now to go to someone local for machine work. Don't get me wrong his product looks awesome...but I have yet to drive my DSM since I bought it back in September 2004. His web admin was also helpful in pushing BJ to ship my stuff to me...just wanted to thank him immensely.

[spoolints04]

I sent BJ a MINT condition head in early 03 to have a stage IV port job and 1mm oversize valves, valve job, Double valve springs, etc... Took like 4 months to get it. Anyway finally get the head and put it on my brand new built 2.4 First thing I notice is that it's not the head I sent him. I stamped my name on the head I sent him. So I install the head and put the cams in, WOW they won't turn. Pull the head and take it to a machine shop and have it line bored. Reinstall the head, install the exhaust manifold and 3 studs pull out because of a sorry helicoil job. Redo the helicoils the right way.
So 1500 miles later #3 exhaust valve drops taking the head, piston, rod, block, 1500 mile SCM61. All gone in 5 seconds. Great, pull the head and don't really see any problems as of why this would have happened. Then I pulled the valves out of the head. The guilds were so wasted, I mean I've seen 2 and 3 hundred thousands mile engines that the guilds were still like new. These were like a million miles were put on them. I could move the valve stems a good 1/16 side to side with the valve about 1/4" off the seat.
I called BJ in 04/04 and he said he had a bad machinst working from him at time a was sending out bad stuff. He assured me he would take care of it and he was building me another stg IV head. So I sent him another head. I continued to call him up to 01/05. When I could get him on the phone, it was always, oh where waiting on the valves, oh where waiting on the new ISKY valve springs. I say well put stock springs on it, oh well we want the ISKY's on it. It was always some excuse and he aways said he would call me the next week and never did. HE SEEMS LIKE REALLY TRUSTWORTHY GUY OVER THE PHONE.

I hope I never see this Towel at an event or somewhere! This guy needs a good Texas @ss kickin.


Brian

[eagletalonawd]

I sent BJ a MINT condition head in early 03 to have a stage IV port job and 1mm oversize valves, valve job, Double valve springs, etc... Took like 4 months to get it. Anyway finally get the head and put it on my brand new built 2.4 First thing I notice is that it's not the head I sent him. I stamped my name on the head I sent him. So I install the head and put the cams in, WOW they won't turn. Pull the head and take it to a machine shop and have it line bored. Reinstall the head, install the exhaust manifold and 3 studs pull out because of a sorry helicoil job. Redo the helicoils the right way.
So 1500 miles later #3 exhaust valve drops taking the head, piston, rod, block, 1500 mile SCM61. All gone in 5 seconds. Great, pull the head and don't really see any problems as of why this would have happened. Then I pulled the valves out of the head. The guilds were so wasted, I mean I've seen 2 and 3 hundred thousands mile engines that the guilds were still like new. These were like a million miles were put on them. I could move the valve stems a good 1/16 side to side with the valve about 1/4" off the seat.
I called BJ in 04/04 and he said he had a bad machinst working from him at time a was sending out bad stuff. He assured me he would take care of it and he was building me another stg IV head. So I sent him another head. I continued to call him up to 01/05. When I could get him on the phone, it was always, oh where waiting on the valves, oh where waiting on the new ISKY valve springs. I say well put stock springs on it, oh well we want the ISKY's on it. It was always some excuse and he aways said he would call me the next week and never did. HE SEEMS LIKE REALLY TRUSTWORTHY GUY OVER THE PHONE.

I hope I never see this Towel at an event or somewhere! This guy needs a good Texas @ss kickin.


Brian

Dude, your not THAT far away to do a roadtrip to Tulsa with a sock full of lugnuts.

[kristmen]

We've heard that multiple times now, good luck! Hopefully my friends money is being refunded asap or the OK State Police are paying someone a visit very very soon.

The police really don’t give a rats ass. You need to speak to detectives and get multiple people to file complaints and let them know you will all take turns calling for updates until something is done.

Helps if you all speak the same detective and call the prosecuting attorney to see why he hasn’t done anything yet even though you all have spoken to the same detective. Normally they will try to tell you its a small claims issue but just make sure you say no its not, we have multiple people ripped off by the same guy in which it was all the same type of scam.

Sooner or later they will do something. Happened to a guy in Michigan and it took the detectives a good year to look into the matter and more then a dozen people to file complaints to the same detective.

I'm dealing with the same type of shit with Taboo right now. Sooner or later something will happen.

[Beaner]

The police really don’t give a rats ass. You need to speak to detectives and get multiple people to file complaints and let them know you will all take turns calling for updates until something is done.
Look up the difference between a detective and a police officer. You will be surprised.

[kristmen]

Here, there is a big diffrence between a normal police officer and a detective.

[nukefission]

Stay on topic.

[sherwinz28]

Just an update to my post...I finally got the car back together but its having idling issues and I have one hose left over and no ports to plug into. So after A LOT of research I find that the intake manifold that BJ sent me is not the one I sent him!! Also the intake manifold that he sent me which I attached to my car has no nipple for the BOV hose@!?! I was like WTF?!!! I emailed him and will definately call tomorrow to sort this out. I hope I can get ahold of him or he at least he replys to my email. I will link a pic of the one I sent to him with the missing nipple circled in red. If you guys have any advice let me know. Oh and the cylinder head he sent me had really bad exhaust holes. I mean none of the exhaust studs would stay in...just keep spinning and spitting metal out the head. To top it off #1 spark plug would not go in no matter what so I had to helicoil it and now it fits but this was after I installed everything to the block!! I'm pretty sure theres still metal left over in the cylinder even after all the cleaning I did or tried to do. I'm pretty sure this isn't the head I sent to him as the one I sent to him had no issues at all, besides bent valves. I'm learning alot from this experience. Don't listen to peoples praises about someone or some shop on a board and do research before you buy...go local if you can and don't be very trusting. Also check and triple check the final product before you put it back together...stamp your name on all the parts before shipping them out. LESSON LEARNED!

intake manifold (http://img36.echo.cx/my.php?image=miniimg01491ci.jpg)

[TALONTED TURBO]

People should stop buying products from this place... there are NUMEROUS people on the EVO forums as well that have been ripped including Dynoflash a top vendor/tuner! Sent money for manifold 3 months ago... nothing so far, no call-backs, email etc. However, when you want to send money they call ya back... :rolleyes: Scumbags! Also not a good sign if Shep ditched them.

[awdornowd]

I am now kicking myself in the ass!! Just for the hell of it I tried calling BJS and of course didn't get a answer and still am not able to leave a message. Well not even 5 minutes later my phone rings and I couldn't tell who it was on my caller ID so I waited for the answering machine to pick up. Well it was BJ!! Hes message was so quick I didn't have time to pick it up. I called back but just got the same thing. dammit!!

[91turboTSi]

BJ called my friend today too and made a few promises that I doubt he'll keep but we shall see.

[awdornowd]

Well he called me back and said he was on his way back to the shop and should be calling me in about a half hour. I guess we'll see what happens but if we stay on him I think he should come around.

[Van]

Do NOT give this vendor ANY money for anything until he comes clean with everything and every customer is satisfied.

If for some reason you don't think Shep dropping him was enough, then demand your product up front, take it elsewhere and get it inspected before any payment, because you just might drop a valve and kill everything.

You've been warned.

[XakEp]

I have one of his manifolds (two actually) but I wasnt dumb enough to buy them from BJ. I got them from people who were parting out their cars.

I wouldnt trust this guy with a dime.

[Boosted1]

I finally received my head from BJ... WoooHoo. It’s been around 5 months since I initially sent BJ my money order.

Here is an update with my dealings with BJ or probably best stated with my dealings with Mike since he was the one that helped me out the most. Mike is local friend that helped me out quite a bit. Let me say hats off to Mike for all the help and harassment from me, since I could not get a hold of BJ myself. Mike is an honest and outstanding guy for helping another DSMer out. Thanks again Mike

I cannot stand up for BJ and I am not going to; however I can say that is work is flawless. Let me say BJ's work is awesome, his craftsmanship is amazing. The heads are more than what I expected. The port work is top notch and the pictures serve no justice.

Here are a few snapshots of the heads.

Cylinder Head (http://gadsm.org/forum/album_personal.php?user_id=967)