SC SAGA #9 1/26/99-4/26/99

1/26/99

Gave the car to Smith before Christmas, with a return delivery date of Jan 8. NOPE! Smith laid the delay off to the holidays and parts availability problems. He later said that my bottom end was pretty good, although the bearings were mostly gone, apparently from oil starvation. He replaced the block, kept the crank, rods, and pistons, changed rings and bearings. He suggested using the cost savings on the rotating assembly he was going to replace by diverting the funds to injection, my thoughts exactly. At this writing, he has gotten the lower plenum, is waiting on the upper, has the short block assembled with hydraulic roller cam, lifters, pushrods. He intimated the heads had been on, and feels the Darts will make more horsepower than the Twisted Wedge heads I'd read about and had been leaning towards. He has very strong opinions on things, though not combative. I'm alternately suspicious and impressed. We had a long discussion last week on front pulley sizes and how he though a smaller pulley turned slower. The engine is being sized with 65 mm throttle body, 28# injector pump mounted in the tank. He'll have the gas gauge sensor calibrated while it's out. He claims he's currently waiting on the fuel rails and the upper for the injection. He reiterated he plans to have the motor on the dyno by the weekend. He claims he'll be disappointed if it doesn't make 500 HP. I personally just don't see how. The motor is ending up at 9.7:1 compression. He would have liked to go to 11:1, and claims the injection and computer would let it run fine. It will run a 114 lobe center cam at 220/220.

He says he's welded the trans temp bung in the pan, has not yet mounted the many gauges, and will make a decision on how and where to place them tonight.

All of this is wonderful, particularly since the money has now run out, and I'm clueless how I'll find the cash to pay the remaining $3200 or so off when he's done. Oh well.

In response to my question about contacting Mark Sanchez regarding the off-center mounting position of the motor, Dave says he STILL has not called Mark. He says, however, that he mounted the engine STRAIGHT with the heads on, and it fits fine. Go figure.

So at the moment, the promise of a running motor now looms for THIS weekend. It is a certainty, however, that the car will not be back until sometime next week. At the moment, I still have yet to send Smith the oil and trans coolers, so this is not all bad. Smith is waiting also for the short water pump to allow for a clutch fan system.

3/20/99

All has turned to crap this weekend. Since the initial dyno testing schedule, I called Mikio at Performance to verify that Smith had an appointment. NOPE! I finally got him to make one, then he broke it. He said Mikio did not have the proper electronics to test the injection, did not have an injector pump, and that he was trying to get yet another “Dave” who works at Ford to do the computer programming.

We set an appointment for a week later, and he didn't make that one either.

He said he had another place, then said that didn't work out.

Smith then changed his plan and said he would chassis dyno the combination, not engine dyno as planned all along. He said he had an appointment at a K&N in San Bernardino, and that it would go the next Wednesday. That date came and went. At that point I left a message saying perhaps I should just pick up the car and I'd do the final tuning locally. Smith returned the call and was quite huffy. I smoothed him out, and he strongly suggested the quickest route to completion would be for him to have the car just 10 more days, as he was scheduled for the following Wednesday to do the chassis dyno tune. I called him again and left a message not to go any further, as I'd had some discussions with other engineers, and wanted to know which brain was going in the car. I also inquired as to who was actually going to do the programming, and he said he'd used all Ford SVO stuff, stressing the other makes like Accel used GM sensors. He said he'd do the adjusting with a laptop. He stressed that this car could literally be driven into any Ford dealer for parts, or a replacement brain bought off the shelf at most parts stores. With that all settled and agreed, he assured me the car would be dynoed the following Wednesday 3/17, and be home by the weekend. I called several times attempting to get confirmation from him that the dyno appointment was still on, with no repliy to my 6 inquires to his voice mail and pager. I suspected the old story again, so I called around and could find no K&N. I checked with Kenne Bell in case, and they'd not heard of him, either. I talked with Mikio, and he said Smith was known as a major flake, and why hadn't I called Mikio before dealing with him? The reasons are I didn't know Mikio knew him, and Mikio wouldn't build that kind of electronically controlled motor for my application. Mikio agreed.

I sent him a FAX stating that certainly all the intentions had been good, but that it appeared that for whatever reasons my car was not getting done, so why don't I pick it up Satruday and finish it myself? I asked that he contact me. He did not, so I sent another FAX early the next morning, very nicely worded, reiterating my intention to retrieve my car, and setting forth a payment schedule based on our original numbers. He called me angrily and left a message threatening to dismantle everything he'd done, call the DMV to report the car as illegal (it is in fact quite legal), and accusing me of changing everything, going behind his back, etc., all of which is preposterous. He threatened I would end up in jail over this, that I could get the car Tuesday in pieces, and said something about getting my money. I kept the recorded message for evidence. It is obvious at this point that he has probably put the money up his nose, or at least not done what he claimed. Nothing I've said or sent him was in any way derogatory or angry, and he went ballistic.

I went out to San Bernardino, found the shop, and couldn't see in to verify if the car is even there. I paged him several times, sent him yet another nicely worded FAX saying I didn't care at this point if I had been deceived or not, we could work out whatever was required. Let's just finish it.

I've spoken with my lawyer regarding an injunction against him touching the car (can't be done economically or quickly enough to matter), went to the police in San Bernardino (they can do nothing), and talked to my ex-CHP race buddy Dave McDannel, who said he'd go by Smith's shop and house in the course of his work out there and see what he could find.

I've paged Smith again, also with no answer.

My friend, Jerry Lee, is upset with how nice I'm being with Smith. I just feel getting ballistic with him is not the answer, but I may be very wrong.

It looks like I'll just be struggling for weeks to get whatever remains of my car, and start all over again, except to deal with this idiot in court for the next 6 months.

What a ridiculous chapter in what should have been the proper incarnation of the original idea.

4/6/99-That weekend Smith called and we worked out a new finish date of HIS choosing. He has failed to make that April 6th date (today). He has not communicated with me in over a week. I gave him a 4-day grace period as part of the written agreement he signed on the extension. Meanwhile, the SB Police called me 4 days in a row, and then put me in touch with the BAR. They're waiting for the full file from me, and promise to put him in jail if at all possible (as they did last time). He is a prior offender doing exactly the same thing again, and this time it spells bigger trouble for him. He apparently has a nasty meth habit as well. I will attach the WHOLE story to this eventually, but for now, it's a nightmare of monumental proportions. It's like the bumper sticker says, “My other car is up my nose.” In this case, it's up his nose.

I did locate an ostensibly reliable computer-capable guy in Moorpark through Kenny Duttweiler who can finish the car once I get it back. He seems cheerful, upbeat, unafraid, and experienced. I will do due diligence on him (as I failed to do with Smith), before handing over the car.