Slowboy Racing

[danl]

Last Sunday evening on my way home from Erie PA I had a timing belt failure on the highway. AAA got me 95 miles to a friends garage in Indiana PA. I left the car at his garage until I could get around to repairing it today. I went into Slowboy racing and explained the situation to Mike Huml. I had all the parts I needed but a headgasket, some jack stands, and a power cable for the heater. He let me borrow the jack stands and power cable. He wouldn’t charge me for the headgasket.

Many people make posts when they have problems. I just thought I’d share my story with people to show how some shops are really out to help you instead of taking advantage of your situation.

[The_EE]

Dont hear about too many companies willing to help someone out like that. I had my own run in with a company who helped me out as well. A week ago last friday at the dyno. They helped me with some hose and clamps when my dump tube burned a hole through my transmission line. They helped me with jack stands, flashlight, tools and even offered to give me a ride to a autozone if I needed it. That company was Tuning Technologies in Colton, Ca.

We should really start a company appreciation thread so everyone could give props to the companies that have gone out of their way for their customers, be it long time or first time.

[4g63guy]

Last Sunday evening on my way home from Erie PA I had a timing belt failure on the highway. AAA got me 95 miles to a friends garage in Indiana PA. I left the car at his garage until I could get around to repairing it today. I went into Slowboy racing and explained the situation to Mike Huml. I had all the parts I needed but a headgasket, some jack stands, and a power cable for the heater. He let me borrow the jack stands and power cable. He wouldn’t charge me for the headgasket.

Many people make posts when they have problems. I just thought I’d share my story with people to show how some shops are really out to help you instead of taking advantage of your situation.

Hey bro. you said that you are right by slowboy right :confused: Is mike the same mike that does sales/wholesale. I am in the looking to by my next season's race motor (no time to build/work)and a guy named Mike from SBR gave me his number to talk to him. I am really stumped on what shop I want to buy my 2.3 stroker from. I have heard good/bad remarks about all the top venders that is why its so hard pick the right vender.
:D 2 thumbs up for a company appreciation thread :D

[danl]

Hey bro. you said that you are right by slowboy right :confused: Is mike the same mike that does sales/wholesale. I am in the looking to by my next season's race motor (no time to build/work)and a guy named Mike from SBR gave me his number to talk to him. I am really stumped on what shop I want to buy my 2.3 stroker from. I have heard good/bad remarks about all the top venders that is why its so hard pick the right vender.
:D 2 thumbs up for a company appreciation thread :D

They do a nice job on the motors. When you have someone with the experience of Brent Rau in the shop that really helps. I've only had them do cylinder heads for me but I do know a lot of fast guys that will be running their motors for next year.

[glenneclipsegsx]

i suppose they would be more willing to help u out or listen to problems u have if ur a local but ill say this again i used to do business with them but i got screwed over on a turbo and mike could not even reply to my emails of concern nor would anyone talk to me in the shop with anything but excuses. so i will not ever buy anything again from them. just my experience.

[4g63guy]

i suppose they would be more willing to help u out or listen to problems u have if ur a local but ill say this again i used to do business with them but i got screwed over on a turbo and mike could not even reply to my emails of concern nor would anyone talk to me in the shop with anything but excuses. so i will not ever buy anything again from them. just my experience.

This post is also good to here from. You were only dealing with $500/$1000 turbo and experianced that. Im about to drop $5000/$7000 dollers. Every post makes a diffrence to someone who has to rely on the trust of larg companies/threads. I have researched up and down on every post I could find. I finally dont have a money problem holding next seasons motor back. Now its down to choosing a reliable company that will hook you up when spending larg amounts of money. Any coments from others who have good/bad coments about the big venders helps greatly thanks dsmer's.

[glenneclipsegsx]

actually it was about 2grands worth of shit that i was buying from them. they screwed up on the oil line way to short for the oil filter housing i dont know how they could of confused that but they corrected it. they also messed up on a shipment once before that they corrected for me. and the turbo they invoiced me for the wrong one. and it ended up costing me the 800$ on it when i had an issue after a short month of operation. and i have spent quite a bit of money on them before (thankfully without any problem). I am planning on a very serious build myself as of late and have the same questions you have as to who im going to work with. i just purchased a TIG welder to do a lot of my own fabrication (intercooler piping, o2 housing, maybe attempt a manifold lol, roll cage, sump (no relevance just an example of how serious we are talking about). I was looking at slowboy for a motor build but i dont want to deal with any problems again specially with the amount of money thats going into this build. even though they are closer to CT then someone like jackson automachine. Im willing to drive my 2g head and 6bolt block all the way down to maryland (JAM) for the build. Probably stop in NJ at BM TRanny for my tranny build as well :D.

OH by the way if u live within a reasonable driving distance Jackson has a very sick CNC port profile for 2g heads. anything from ur standard 650whp stroker 35r setups to heads capable of flowing air for 1000whp+ :rolleyes:

[4g63guy]

actually it was about 2grands worth of shit that i was buying from them. they screwed up on the oil line way to short for the oil filter housing i dont know how they could of confused that but they corrected it. they also messed up on a shipment once before that they corrected for me. and the turbo they invoiced me for the wrong one. and it ended up costing me the 800$ on it when i had an issue after a short month of operation. and i have spent quite a bit of money on them before (thankfully without any problem). I am planning on a very serious build myself as of late and have the same questions you have as to who im going to work with. i just purchased a TIG welder to do a lot of my own fabrication (intercooler piping, o2 housing, maybe attempt a manifold lol, roll cage, sump (no relevance just an example of how serious we are talking about). I was looking at slowboy for a motor build but i dont want to deal with any problems again specially with the amount of money thats going into this build. even though they are closer to CT then someone like jackson automachine. Im willing to drive my 2g head and 6bolt block all the way down to maryland (JAM) for the build. Probably stop in NJ at BM TRanny for my tranny build as well :D.

OH by the way if u live within a reasonable driving distance Jackson has a very sick CNC port profile for 2g heads. anything from ur standard 650whp stroker 35r setups to heads capable of flowing air for 1000whp+ :rolleyes:

Ya, I have been looking at WWW.JACKSONAUTOMACHINE.COM also. Really the three companies im choosing between is- SBR, JAM, Magnus. I have a buddy who has been friends with Marco(Magnus) for a long time and he insistes on only using Magnus. The other big thing is what company is going to help you out on the build as far as parts/money/tunning goes. Or are they going to nickle and dime a racer on every part. When you do advertising for a company and bring them a larg clintell they should look over your profile and see what you have to offer them as a company. :cool: What ever happened to racer pricing(special pricing) :confused: People that are at the track/events constantly braking parts to put down times spend more money/time with most of these big venders then worth while. A lot of them dont help out racers at all. I am like every other guy on this board. This is going to be my 3 motor set up in 3 years. Blew up the first one because of lack of knowlege.2nd 2.0 CANT creat the hp goals im looking for. This one im going to do right sence I finally put enough money away(if thats even possible for a dsm lol)I want a 2.3(well tunned) to put out 550/600hp with consistancy at the track.Not looking to be the fastest just consistant and reliable(if thats possible). :D

[4g63guy]

Glenn forgot to tell you I live in MICHIGAN

[glenneclipsegsx]

Ya, I have been looking at WWW.JACKSONAUTOMACHINE.COM also. Really the three companies im choosing between is- SBR, JAM, Magnus. I have a buddy who has been friends with Marco(Magnus) for a long time and he insistes on only using Magnus. The other big thing is what company is going to help you out on the build as far as parts/money/tunning goes. Or are they going to nickle and dime a racer on every part. When you do advertising for a company and bring them a larg clintell they should look over your profile and see what you have to offer them as a company. :cool: What ever happened to racer pricing :confused: People that are at the track/events constantly braking parts to put down times spend more money/time with most of these big venders then worth while. A lot of them dont help out racers at all.


to answer that question its a big decision for a shop to sponsor a race vehicle. why build someone elses car when u can build your own. you know what i mean. Which is why some of the faster guys are all shop guys. they have money coming in from their business to fund their race cars. have access to vendors to prototype parts for and then in turn be a strong supplier for those parts. you rarely hear about the little guys who fund their own cars out of their garage unless they start some sort of niche market in the performance community. its all business. even i myself am looking into fabrication as my own niche for business on the side to help fund my car and have a chance at long term business opportunity.

But being an individual not in close contact with any niche business (dyno, parts supplier, fabricator, tuner, etc..) it can be really frustrating and virtually impossible to fund a car and still eat. unless funds are not an issue for u which im sure they are for most people

ITS A BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY!! :D

[4g63guy]

Im not looking for a full sponcership to get away without paying. I just think there should be a racer discount for the people really out there holding up there end of the deal. We all no that parts mark up is huge... When you have someone spending $5000/$10,000 in parts and constantly bring in new clintell they should offer some type of racer discount.

[WDP]

This post is also good to here from. You were only dealing with $500/$1000 turbo and experianced that. Im about to drop $5000/$7000 dollers. Every post makes a diffrence to someone who has to rely on the trust of larg companies/threads. I have researched up and down on every post I could find. I finally dont have a money problem holding next seasons motor back. Now its down to choosing a reliable company that will hook you up when spending larg amounts of money. Any coments from others who have good/bad coments about the big venders helps greatly thanks dsmer's.

how about this.. from another board/post

BTW here is a email i got regarding the business in question. from a local guy in my area.

So you're not the only one with SBR problems. I dropped $3700 with them and was told in the end by Mike that he was sick of my crap and not to call him again. He screwed up my 1G 7bolt and it ate two sets of bearings. He took 4 1/2 weeks to get my car back to me instead of "1 to 2 tops". He went $700 over our predetermined budget and I ended up with a 6-bolt 4g63 with oil squirters added to it and a ground crank. It leaks a 6" diameter puddle of oil every time I park it at 600 miles. He forgot the balance shaft inspection bolt which after I replaced it, it didn't fix all the oil leakage. He Left of the timing belt cover and the cam gears ate one of my brand new magnecores. (it still took four days to get my old cover back UPS) His mechanic created a couple hundred scratches in my 6 month old paint job on the driver's fender. He cracked off a corner of my brand new CF hood. There was a bunch of little things such as a throttle cable that was never tightened down. Th!
ere were three blown fuses inside the car when I got it back. Just a bunch of scary stuff. He must think us DC area guys are a bunch of push-overs. I called him every other day after week two and send about 8 emails total before he "was sick of my crap." I wish the forums were more friendly to complaints.

another

my best friend / roommate and i both have SBR blocks. My friend got his stage 2 block before i got my stage 1. The stage 2 block was ruined after a few hundred miles when an exhaust valve fell in the #4 cylinder. this completely detroyed the ROSS 8.5:1 piston and ruined the head as well. We took the block out and drove it down 5 hours to SBR. The first surprise was that my friend was suppose to have Wiseco 9:1 pistons, not the Ross 8.5:1 that were in the block. not horrible, but it is a pretty big mistake considering the pistons are the only objects that the buyer can choose for the blocks. and my friend wanted to up his CR to 9:1 since he already has a 2g.

I orderd my stage 1 block that day. and at the same time my friend orderd the SBR stage 3 head to replace his ruined one.

So SBR built our new blocks and was suppose to be building the stage 3 head. The 2 blocks and head were suppose to be delivered by one of SBRs guys on his way to northern VA as soon as the head was done. But the head never got done, and after 2 months of waiting and arguing and yelling at SBR my friend had to buy a daily driver.
So with the newly bought 93 lexus es300 we drove down to SBR to get our blocks and check on the head status. Well, at least we got our blocks, but we found out the head had never even been started on.

so we get back to VA and do the install for my new block in a few weekends everything on my car is like new and solid. But there is still no sign of the SBR head for my friends car. Eventually 2 more months pass by and there is still no head. So finally we get Huml on the phone and he says that it would be better to go to someone else for the head!!!!! WHAT!!! why the hell didnt he say that 4 months ago!? he LIED for 4 months straight saying that the head would be done "very soon" every time we talked to him. LIARS!!!

so now the head is being orderd from somewhere esle.

but thats not the end. my block with 1000 miles on it decides to push out a freeze plug while i am driving down the highway. for those who dotn know what a freeze plug (aka cap) is go look it up. they are suppose to pop out to release pressure if your coolant happens to freeze. but mine popped out because SBR doesnt know how to install them properly. its only a 78 cent part and could have destroyed my 1900$ motor if i wasnt able to smell coolant immediately and pull over before i overheated. when i called them to ask why this happened they had no idea. the guy on the phone didnt even know what a freeze plug was! they didnt say sorry and didnt offer any help on how to install a new one. gee thanks SBR!!! at least they sent me a useless f*cking xmas card !!!!! good thing i can fix everything my damn self.

[MikeHuml]

i suppose they would be more willing to help u out or listen to problems u have if ur a local but ill say this again i used to do business with them but i got screwed over on a turbo and mike could not even reply to my emails of concern nor would anyone talk to me in the shop with anything but excuses. so i will not ever buy anything again from them. just my experience.

Invoice #14058

Heyse, Glenn
55 Deer Run Lane
Shelton Ct 06484
glenneclipsegsx@aol.com

Recieved Turbo USPS w/ styrafoam throughout 9/2/05 CCB

Well, I see you sent your turbo back in full of peanuts, other than that if you wish to PM me and fill me in?

I may not be able to do anything, but curious about the situation.

MGH

[MikeHuml]

how about this.. from another board/post

BTW here is a email i got regarding the business in question. from a local guy in my area.

So you're not the only one with SBR problems. I dropped $3700 with them and was told in the end by Mike that he was sick of my crap and not to call him again. He screwed up my 1G 7bolt and it ate two sets of bearings. He took 4 1/2 weeks to get my car back to me instead of "1 to 2 tops". He went $700 over our predetermined budget and I ended up with a 6-bolt 4g63 with oil squirters added to it and a ground crank. It leaks a 6" diameter puddle of oil every time I park it at 600 miles. He forgot the balance shaft inspection bolt which after I replaced it, it didn't fix all the oil leakage. He Left of the timing belt cover and the cam gears ate one of my brand new magnecores. (it still took four days to get my old cover back UPS) His mechanic created a couple hundred scratches in my 6 month old paint job on the driver's fender. He cracked off a corner of my brand new CF hood. There was a bunch of little things such as a throttle cable that was never tightened down. Th!
ere were three blown fuses inside the car when I got it back. Just a bunch of scary stuff. He must think us DC area guys are a bunch of push-overs. I called him every other day after week two and send about 8 emails total before he "was sick of my crap." I wish the forums were more friendly to complaints.

another

my best friend / roommate and i both have SBR blocks. My friend got his stage 2 block before i got my stage 1. The stage 2 block was ruined after a few hundred miles when an exhaust valve fell in the #4 cylinder. this completely detroyed the ROSS 8.5:1 piston and ruined the head as well. We took the block out and drove it down 5 hours to SBR. The first surprise was that my friend was suppose to have Wiseco 9:1 pistons, not the Ross 8.5:1 that were in the block. not horrible, but it is a pretty big mistake considering the pistons are the only objects that the buyer can choose for the blocks. and my friend wanted to up his CR to 9:1 since he already has a 2g.

I orderd my stage 1 block that day. and at the same time my friend orderd the SBR stage 3 head to replace his ruined one.

So SBR built our new blocks and was suppose to be building the stage 3 head. The 2 blocks and head were suppose to be delivered by one of SBRs guys on his way to northern VA as soon as the head was done. But the head never got done, and after 2 months of waiting and arguing and yelling at SBR my friend had to buy a daily driver.
So with the newly bought 93 lexus es300 we drove down to SBR to get our blocks and check on the head status. Well, at least we got our blocks, but we found out the head had never even been started on.

so we get back to VA and do the install for my new block in a few weekends everything on my car is like new and solid. But there is still no sign of the SBR head for my friends car. Eventually 2 more months pass by and there is still no head. So finally we get Huml on the phone and he says that it would be better to go to someone else for the head!!!!! WHAT!!! why the hell didnt he say that 4 months ago!? he LIED for 4 months straight saying that the head would be done "very soon" every time we talked to him. LIARS!!!

so now the head is being orderd from somewhere esle.

but thats not the end. my block with 1000 miles on it decides to push out a freeze plug while i am driving down the highway. for those who dotn know what a freeze plug (aka cap) is go look it up. they are suppose to pop out to release pressure if your coolant happens to freeze. but mine popped out because SBR doesnt know how to install them properly. its only a 78 cent part and could have destroyed my 1900$ motor if i wasnt able to smell coolant immediately and pull over before i overheated. when i called them to ask why this happened they had no idea. the guy on the phone didnt even know what a freeze plug was! they didnt say sorry and didnt offer any help on how to install a new one. gee thanks SBR!!! at least they sent me a useless f*cking xmas card !!!!! good thing i can fix everything my damn self.

WOW!

Your in Texas, have two post, and have learned how to copy and paste!

Give yourself a pat on the back!

MGH

[danl]

Wow mike, I'm really sorry that their are so many ignorant people in this world.

To the rest of you, I'm not as professional as mike. I am not a first or second year dsm guy and I'm about ready to fuck up the next person to hyjack my thread. Before you think I can't get to you realize that I travel all across the country for work. You are accountable for what you say and your slander towardards others.

[diambo4life]

Wow mike, I'm really sorry that their are so many ignorant people in this world.

To the rest of you, I'm not as professional as mike. I am not a first or second year dsm guy and I'm about ready to fuck up the next person to hyjack my thread. Before you think I can't get to you realize that I travel all across the country for work. You are accountable for what you say and your slander towardards others.


Dude, you are a very respectable guy here, why would you make a post like this? :confused: Let the mods take care of it or better yet, PM them and tell them to clean up the thread if you feel something's not right. You just cannot threaten people (like you just did) on the board because you didn't like what they said in your thread. Factual or not. ;)

When you post a vendor review, expect to get bad feedback as well.

Mike.

[Van]

More glowing reviews...

I find it amusing that some vendors choose to acknowledge posts like these when it's finally out for everyone to see because the customer wasn't dealt with properly when it was time.
On the other hand, if you're a customer and have a legitimate problem with a vendor you should use ANY and ALL legal means to get your issue resolved. Once it gets to the point of having to post a huge bs story here, it would be better if you had paperwork, receipts, dates, times, e-mail quotes and all of the stuff that makes your "case" legit. Without all of those small details, it's hard to tell if you're just a whiney customer or a vendor flamer making some stuff up to try and get your bs resolved. I'd also say do your homework and not use vendors who get a ton of complaints posted about them. There's a few who very rarely have bad comments posted about them.

In my humble opinion, I think that vendors shouldn't be allowed to post in this forum. Is this a vendor review forum, or a SBR finally resolve the customer's complaint forum? This particular vendor has been in here quite a few times countering posts just like this. Maybe Rau will make it better, hehe.

danl, it's nice to finally hear something good about SBR like you shared, but when you have the number of bad posts out there on the intardnet like SBR does, every good comment is gonna get buried with the bad ones. It's not really a matter of ignorance that SBR's many pissed off customers post here in your thread. It's more of a "spread the word" kind of mentality I'd guess. But when a freeze plug pops and it ain't cold out and shit doesn't get resolved due to a "manufacturer assembly error," I'd be pissed off too. The people who spend all of this money to get their shit done there because they can't, deserve to have "manufacturer assembly errors" warranteed, that should include a fucking rental car as well.

Stop the madness. Merry Christmas to all.

[WDP]

WOW!

Your in Texas, have two post, and have learned how to copy and paste!

Give yourself a pat on the back!

MGH


Thanks bud look i did it again. :)

http://www.dsmtalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=137663

[nukefission]

In my humble opinion, I think that vendors shouldn't be allowed to post in this forum. Is this a vendor review forum, or a SBR finally resolve the customer's complaint forum? This particular vendor has been in here quite a few times countering posts just like this.
Yeah this is a problem. I see no good reason to keep this thread open. Danl shared his experience, so there's really no issue to resolve.