Buyer Beware - Rick Ehrenberg

[1967coronet]

To me the time to have tried to settle this would have been before the 340 was honed and then stripped for a 360 project.
That's like eating half your steak before telling the waitress its over cooked.
JMHO

 

[HEMI-ITIS]

Let me correct myself! LV will be gone 9 years this Sunday and he built NOTHING 2 years prior to his death.If he did indeed build this engine,it was not cared for properly for the last 11 years

 

[coronet68mx]

 

[rt-man]

In a reply to Jimi Vignona I wrote over on Moparts:

Jimi, sorry your father got dragged into this. You read my post that Rick said your father built it. I can't refute or back it up. When I asked Rick how he got the motor, he wrote this in June 2017; "I was advising a good local friend on a build for his car, unfortunately, he got quite ill and sold the car with the slant six still in it, and asked me to help him sell the engine." Rick told me he specced the engine for this guy and brought the block to your father to build it. When? How would I know? Rick may know.

I told Rick in recent emails that I don't think the bores got rusty while he had it, but how do I know? Maybe it got wet while in the guy's garage that Rick advised? There's another buddy of Rick's that's involved here, but I'm not bringing his name up. When I was looking for some kind of compensation, Rick said that he had to talk to his buddy cuz he had skin in this game.

I get the no warranty, caveat emptor bit, as well. And I'm using the heads off the 340 on the 360.

I respect Rick's knowledge and giving that advice over the years. But the car and parts flippers are sure getting a good laugh over this thread, I bet.

Again, sorry, Jimi, if you feel your father's good name was besmirched.

 

[HEMI-ITIS]

Let me correct myself! LV will be gone 9 years this Sunday and he built NOTHING 2 years prior to his death.If he did indeed build this engine,it was not cared for properly for the last 11 years

This is the reply posted by Jimi on another forum...........

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.

Registered: 07/21/05
Posts: 421
Loc: wappinger falls new york

 

[QuickBpBp]

This is the reply posted by Jimi on another forum...........

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.

Registered: 07/21/05
Posts: 421
Loc: wappinger falls new york

Be interesting to see if it does indeed have a job ID # that will speak volumes.... Knowing all this I sure hope Rick told him this engine was sitting for well over a decade verses "sat for awhile".....

 

[NJRR]

@rt-man

Why don't you post all the emails you have between you and Rick so we can all see the details?

 

[skicker]

While my dealings with Rick have not been substantial I've never had any problems...
Seems to me that the buy in price reflected the fact the motor was a few years old and maybe its condition had became questionable.
I can see the previous owner telling Rick "Hey I've still got the 340 that I had (...) build a while back... If you talk to anybody looking for one sell it for me..."
I tend to think the storage by the previous owner was sub par far beyond thinking the machine work from a reputable builder was suspect.
Worst part is FWIW and regardless of how it got to be where it is I think the op has handled it piss poorly... .02

 

[davescuda]

To me the cylinder had rust in it for a while (years). Even if he borescope it, it still could have bin 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.

 

[QuickBpBp]

To me the cylinder had rust in it for a while (years). Even if he borescope it, it still could have bin 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.

I agree I don't care what he is driving. Then to go on and insult the Op for putting a 340 in a 73-4 B-body NEWS FLASH nothing new here the FACTORY did it!!!

 

[rt-man]

Using FBBO for my posts and replies to this thread.

Here's the timeline, just to clear up misconceptions, whether on your part or Rick's.

June 2017 - saw the ad, had email and phone exchange with Rick, paid in full
Sept 2017 - picked up the motor
Sept-Jan 2018 - sealed motor sits while my mechanic fixes other things on the car ('73 SSP).
Feb 2018 - mechanic swaps the single plane for a dual plane Edelbrock Performer. Swapped the valve covers from the 318. Paint the engine blue
Feb 2018 - fired up for the first time (pre-oiled, too). Engine runs crappy. Leakdown test shows 25% blowby in all cylinders. Low vacuum. Cam is a mystery, Rick only knows it has a Mopar Purple stripe cam in it
Apr-May 2018 - Mechanic swaps two other carbs, no power
June 2018 - communications with Rick. Sillies, you shouldn't have used synthetic oil for break-in, even though it was labelled as break-in oil.
July 2018 - I tell the mechanic enough messing around, open it up to swap the rings.
July 2018 - Upon teardown, mechanic doesn't see anything amiss on the cylinders, rings still shiny on the edges. I tell Rick looks good inside.
July 2018 - he does a ball hone, sees shadows on the cylinder walls. After ball hone, sees porous rust. I send Rick an email. He's got some personal issues, I back away for 60 days.
Sept 2018 - pick up communications with Rick on the porous rust in the bores
Sept-Oct 2018 - work out a plan with the mechanic to build out the 360 block and crank he has.

Won't change what you think or believe, just giving you the timeline that I know.

Pics to follow.

 

[rt-man]

Pic in prior post was the one Rick sent when selling the motor in June 2017
H

ere's the motor in the mechanics garage in Sept 2017

 

[rt-man]

Here's freshly painted motor, then sitting in the car

 

[steve from staten island]

I dont know so if somebody can explain. You inspect the cylinder bores and they look good. You use a ball hone and then you see rust after you hone it. How does that work?

 

[beanhead]

What confuses me, and I'm not trying to take anybody's side here... But mechanic opened it up, saw 'nothing was amiss in the cylinders', buyer tells seller it looks good, then decides to disassemble and hone the cylinders.. and THEN sees the rust?

.... whoops me and Steve must have been typing at the same time lol

 

[69a100]

Here's the timeline, just to clear up misconceptions, whether on your part or Rick's.

July 2018 - Upon teardown, mechanic doesn't see anything amiss on the cylinders, rings still shiny on the edges. I tell Rick looks good inside.
July 2018 - he does a ball hone, sees shadows on the cylinder walls. After ball hone, sees porous rust. I send Rick an email.

I have a problem with this, he didn't look real close before he honed did he? If it was there after a hone, it was there before! Gotta give you a thumbs down on that.

 

[67Satty]

Way back in the mid 1980s a friend and I went in on the purchase of a 426 Max Wedge from a well-known Mopar racing legend who hails from North Carolina. The purchase price believe it or not was only $1000 for a complete engine. In hindsight, was it a real Max Wedge or a 426 Wedge with Max Wedge heads that made its way onto it? Back then, we didn't know how to run the numbers on the block and didn't really care anyway. It did have Max Wedge heads, that's all we cared about in the era before inexpensive aluminum heads. Long story short, even though it was advertised as ready to run and rebuilt and we were 19 year old knuckleheads who liked to drink mass quantities of beer while working on our cars, we still bought a gasket set and a set of new bearings and tore it down to make sure everything was OK. What we found was rings put on in the wrong order and the cam timing was way off but everything else was fine. Did we find out the cam timing was wrong by degreeing the cam? No, we were not that smart. We found out by putting the engine in my Challenger and getting it running and experiencing it running terribly, describing the way it ran to the local speed shop counter guru (also a Mopar racer) who then knew the exact offset key we needed to get the cam timing right based on nothing more than a conversation. Eventually it made my '72 Challenger street car run 12.80s which was pretty fast for a street car in the '80s. So I was very happy after all was said and done and never felt any ill will towards the seller of the engine.

 

[beanhead]

I have a problem with this, he didn't look real close before he honed did he? If it was there after a hone, it was there before! Gotta give you a thumbs down on that.

And from what I've always understood upwards of 20-25% leakage on a brand new motor can be normal... if the cylinders looked good, how did they verify that it wasn't a valve train problem? That thing needs to be driven for those rings to seat. That's why they tell you not to do those tests (leak down, compression Etc) on a motor that's only had some startup time. I would say if the numbers of the test were close to being even on all cylinders, that wasn't the problem.. but because they tore into it, I'd say they're stuck with it. Should have started communication with the seller the minute a problem was discovered.

 

[rt-man]

Thanks

 

[james vignogna]

In a reply to Jimi Vignona I wrote over on Moparts:

Jimi, sorry your father got dragged into this. You read my post that Rick said your father built it. I can't refute or back it up. When I asked Rick how he got the motor, he wrote this in June 2017; "I was advising a good local friend on a build for his car, unfortunately, he got quite ill and sold the car with the slant six still in it, and asked me to help him sell the engine." Rick told me he specced the engine for this guy and brought the block to your father to build it. When? How would I know? Rick may know.

I told Rick in recent emails that I don't think the bores got rusty while he had it, but how do I know? Maybe it got wet while in the guy's garage that Rick advised? There's another buddy of Rick's that's involved here, but I'm not bringing his name up. When I was looking for some kind of compensation, Rick said that he had to talk to his buddy cuz he had skin in this game.

I get the no warranty, caveat emptor bit, as well. And I'm using the heads off the 340 on the 360.

I respect Rick's knowledge and giving that advice over the years. But the car and parts flippers are sure getting a good laugh over this thread, I bet.

Again, sorry, Jimi, if you feel your father's good name was besmirched.

RT who is your present engine guy if you don't mind me asking?