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Accidents and oversights is going to happen.. doesnt matter who you are and what your reputation is..


IMO what most important is those that stand up and take responsibility when they do screw up.. I'd like to know what Shady Dell has said to you about this mishap..

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I have not contacted the shop. I know myself to well as to the action I might take if the result was not satisfactory so I choose not to. There is no excuse for the mistakes made. Looks like a high schooler put it together, only with parts he couldn't afford himself.

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If you are just stating facts, then please get your own story strait:

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/show...part=1&vc=1

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When did you check the lash prior to discovering this?

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About 40 passes ago.

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At the top of this post you claim to lash your valves ~ every 20 passes.

Everyone makes mistakes, sometimes BIG mistakes, it is how they are dealt with that matters more to me. The fact that you have not even contacted the builder (Shady Dell) and decided to trash them publicly is VERY poor form indeed. Give the man a chance to at least TRY to set things right....there are usually 2 sides to a story.

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Getting the "story" straight is easy. I lash the valves every 20 passes (guess I mis-typed before).

Not really sure why everyone expects me to contact the original builder. The heads have been fixed, the block has been fixed, crank fixed, pistons are geting coated,rods are being made, new cam has been bought and ground, etc... Shadydell is 1300 miles from me...maybe I load the engine up and take it by his shop? Or maybe I can ship it to the one who screwed the pooch in the first place, that couldn't cost more than $400 to $500 each way. Or maybe he will just cut me a check to fix all of the damage....$6,500 will cover it if I take nothing for my time.

Maybe you should get some facts about reality. Possibly you would like to send him a big donation so he can right his mistakes? Looks like you get the title of bleeding heart liberal #2.

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You missed my point...If you had contacted Ryan first, and then decided to go off on a rant, then that's your business, and most folks would care less. I also understand not wanting to send your stuff back to someone that you believe screwed it up (makes sense)....But what you should have done is be a MAN and talk to Shady Dell BEFORE all this crap.

I'll take the title of bleeding heart lib (even though I'm probably more conservative than Reagan) if you take you title as the new spokesman for Massengill.

You are sending a nice clear message to all engine builders though...a message to steer clear of the guy that will trash talk their shop in pubic forums before talking to the people involved......Nice job, I'm done here.

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Why would you post this on public forum before contacting the shop that built it? That's crazy and I do feel you burned more than one bridge. Good luck, I think your gonna need it?

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I've had one deal w/ a "professional" engine builder go badly which cost me a lot of extra $$$ to get taken care of, so I do understand something of the situation. Like I tell my wife when sh!t happens, you make the best decision you can with the information you have at the time.

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Agreed AND, you go handle it face to face and get it done one way or another...........I don`t get taken anymore and do whatever legal or otherwise to hopefully resolve it.

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I've had one deal w/ a "professional" engine builder go badly which cost me a lot of extra $$$ to get taken care of, so I do understand something of the situation. Like I tell my wife when sh!t happens, you make the best decision you can with the information you have at the time.

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Agreed AND, you go handle it face to face and get it done one way or another...........I don`t get taken anymore and do whatever legal or otherwise to hopefully resolve it.

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I suppose I should add that particular experience was my incentive for buying a bunch of new tools necessary for doing the complete assembly of my engines by myself. I still have to farm out the machine work, but I put it all back together so the only person I should have to stare down if it goes bad (again) is the person who looks back at me in the mirror.

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Well I believe the point here was the OP was tryinig to inform folks of an experience he had with a builder. We see good ones posted all the time here. but rarely the not so good ones. I think after reading all this we can see why. I have no issue with him just taking his stuff somewhere else. I have been in this business for a long time and it happens a lot.

Some people like myself do not like to complain. If we feel we have been treated unfairly or not given what we pay for or feel the level of service is subpar we simply move on and not patronize the business again. The best protest in my opinion is to withold your money from said business. I know that is what I do, live and learn. I will however share my experience with anyone that wants to listen.

His decision to not go back to Shady Dell is his decision. I dont hear him asking to be made whole again. Although I am sure he would cetainly be appreciative. I think the entire point was to share his experience. We have heard both sides of the issue and can all draw our own conclusions.

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You missed my point...If you had contacted Ryan first, and then decided to go off on a rant, then that's your business, and most folks would care less. I also understand not wanting to send your stuff back to someone that you believe screwed it up (makes sense)....But what you should have done is be a MAN and talk to Shady Dell BEFORE all this crap.

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Well I believe the point here was the OP was tryinig to inform folks of an experience he had with a builder. We see good ones posted all the time here. but rarely the not so good ones. I think after reading all this we can see why. I have no issue with him just taking his stuff somewhere else. I have been in this business for a long time and it happens a lot.

Some people like myself do not like to complain. If we feel we have been treated unfairly or not given what we pay for or feel the level of service is subpar we simply move on and not patronize the business again. The best protest in my opinion is to withold your money from said business. I know that is what I do, live and learn. I will however share my experience with anyone that wants to listen.

His decision to not go back to Shady Dell is his decision. I dont hear him asking to be made whole again. Although I am sure he would cetainly be appreciative. I think the entire point was to share his experience. We have heard both sides of the issue and can all draw our own conclusions.

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Well said Al.

Brian, for what it's worth I can sympathize with you. I think you have been made aware of my issues and I usually don't complain I just move on and take my business elsewhere. I'm at the point of selling everything and taking a break for awhile.

Mike Gray

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Hey Mike if your selling

People certainly are entitled to make mistakes, they do happen and parts failures occur. However when a business is aware there MAY be an issue and make no attempt to contact the customer I see that as going to the core of this issue. Whether the customer contacts you directly or not I fell you need to reach out. IF you are aware there MAY be a problem with something you built I think the burden should be on the owner of the business to reach out. Not simply hope it goes away. Afterall is it not thier reputation at stake here? It seems in this case the original builder was aware there might be a problem. In my mind a true professional would handle things in this manner. I know if my shop ever hears of any customer who is not happy that I personally reach out and at least make an attempt to make the customer happy. It does not always happen but I feel it is my DUTY to at least try. This all assumes what has been posted is accurate but I have no reason to doubt the original posters comments in the matter as this is not the first time I have heard of such issues.

I wanted to ad to what Dom(thumper)has said a few times. If anyone is looking to get an engine built you cannot go wrong with Jason at PETTIS PERFORMANCE! Of course it is not a Mopar shop So many of you might stay away. Jason knows his stuff. he builds good relaible power. The proof is in the pudding gents. They still hold both ends of the outlaw 10.5 record out here in the PSCA and the car has not been out in two years! If you guys want a guy who do it right the first time and make more power than most at a cost that will be less than ANY Of the Mopar shops give him a call..You wont be sorry!

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I've never heard anything but good things from Pettis. I have probably wrongfully assumed he was out of my price range though. Guess you never know until you ask right?

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I've never heard anything but good things from Pettis. I have probably wrongfully assumed he was out of my price range though. Guess you never know until you ask right?

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To the defense of the OP.. let me share this with you all..


You spend big money with a celebrity superstar engine builder and expect everything to be perfect..

Something breaks and so you investigate the cause of the breakage only to find out Mr Celebrity totally screwed up with a rookie dumbazz mistake.. So dumb you just kinda get sick to your stomach..

You now have two choices.. you can contact the builder and hope that he answers his phone or decides to return an email.. even tho you have lost all respect for the man.. OR... you can make a public statement warning others that this guy may not be all that he's cracked up to be.. and move on with your build..

Personally speaking, I've had dealings with RyanJ and didnt really care for the product he sold me.. So I have some respect for the OP because he is just trying to warn the public not to be star struck by ShadyDell and their reputation..

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Brian I agree with what you are doing and staying. We all spend our hard earned money on this stuff and you expect it to be right. Im sorry you have had this many problems and if I could help in anyway let me know. Good luck and I hope it works out for ya, I hope you get back in those 8s......

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Thanks....and we are going to give it a good shot.

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No, I was never contacted about any of this this via phone or email etc... & this would be the first I have read about it, as I was emailed this link from another customer. I do not visit or read moparts anymore so I don't have any knowledge of past posts etc.

Only things I am going to say about it is this:

If Brian had contacted me when he first had issues, I may have helped him out... he chose not to.

On the spring choice, yes I ran it further than .050" from Coil bind... alot of valve springs over the years have been ran further than .050" from CB on open & not immediately caused failures. When I put that motor together in the spring of 2008 that is the spring I chose. I felt it was better to have too much pressure than not enough on a roller that would get turned decent RPM. (low 8000's with a 3.79 crank) Today, we do try to run smaller diameter, lower IH springs that are run tighter to CB if possible on our race builds. Brian supplied the valves for those heads & they gave a very tall installed height, which limited valve spring choices greatly, generally to larger OD, larger CB springs. The smaller OD, high pressure, small wire PAC stuff available today was just entering the market 4 years ago, so to sit back today & look at what is available today VS: 4-5 years ago is apples to oranges.

& lastly & this will be my last comments on the subject, but I felt was a pretty relevant one that I have not seen mentioned: Brian supplied the Crane Ultra Pro lifters that failed & if my memory serves me they were USED that he purchased off of ebay or a classified site. He was aware there was risk associated with them, who knows how many passes were on them or what type of engine they came out of (most likely a 410" GM sprint car?) & how much use was on them. To sit there & say that my valve spring choice is what lead to the early failure of the lifters can never be proven... it's speculative at best & especially so when the lifters were used to begin with with an unknown history. I have ran Comp triple springs on several motors over the years including ones that have came back through the shop for freshen etc & have not noticed any unusual valvetrain issues associated with them, even being ran .200" + from CB. That being said, every engine is different in how it will transfer harmonics etc... Sometimes you just "miss" the proper parts selection in the valvetrain.. alot of times this can be caught on the dyno, by watching the raw airflow data & how the motor works at high RPM @ various acceleration speeds... unfortunately that motor never got dynoed.

Now... If I am wrong on the lifters being used, then I apologize, I build about 30-35 engines a year.... Spring 2008 to Spring 2012 means well over 100 have passed through my hands in that time & hard to remember every minute detail of all of them, but I do see on his invoice that we did not supply lifters, I know he supplied them & from my recollection they were used units.

I am far from perfect, I make mistakes EVERY DAY (I think we all do to some extent) but I try my best... not communicating with your builder when you have issues is not the best way to try to resolve disputes etc. & coming onto a public forum & blasting my valve spring choices again after zero communication/discussion about any of this really tells a story in itself.

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Did you install those lifters or did he ?