[QUOTE=CourageOO7,Sep 26 2006, 09:37 AM]
Products are always evolving and it's possible Lovefab's current product is as good as we all hope it is.

 

Wow,

Sorry about all the bad news. I recieved my Manifold Turbo and DP just a week after Jakub. Maybe the first state-side who knows. I installed the manifold, DP, MP, and fabricated my intercooler piping in 11 hours. It took me one saturday. Now granted I would consider myself VERY Mechanically inclinded and have modified so many cars I have more experience then most shop hands, but still Jakub......that shop needed instructions?!?!?! And a week. Damn, pump up my self esteem huh? Am I good or what? But now let me see it from your side. My DP was perfect and everything fit great. I can quickly see how small things like this would push install times into the weeks......hmm...so maybe my skills aren't as good as I thought.
I recieved the injectors also, that were a total joke, but Cody did me right and got Brand New RC750CC injectors to me 6 months later. I guess I really didn't care because in the mean time I stole the 450cc injectors from my Talon TSI rally car and ran on those. Which by the way work GREAT if you are running a car around at 7-8 psi. At 9 psi there duty cycle is into the 90's but at 7-8 they sit right around 70-80%.

But back to the story. Here I am one year later and with 10k on the thing. I have no issues or leaks. Wastegate fit just fine even with a nipple on the top side. THere is no rattles or anything. I STILL USE THAT HEAT SHEILD, and have good underhood temps, and have not melted my heater solinoid even though it sits less than a inch from that POS heatshield. So what can we learn from that.....that that POS heat shield goes in the catagory of function over form. While it may be ugly, and I mean UGLY, it worked like a champ. I still run the car on the base map he sent me, I just modified it. The car would start and run though on the base map. PRETTY AMAZING that it would do that if you ask me from a tunning stand-point. Car is incrediblely streetable, and everything that rides in it swears that it drives just like stock till I get on it. Idle is stock, driveability is like stock, and tip in is stock. Maybe chock that up to my tuning ability or chalk that up to a good design on the turbo from Cody......who knows. But couldn't be happier with the car.

I am sorry to hear your experience. I think people should know the good with the bad. If your the bad, I guess I would be the good. I have had ZERO problems and ZERO problems with Cody. I am not blowing up his skirt, I am just sharing my experience.

It is good to hear that Cody is only doing in-house installs. I think that is a good idea, because I believe it takes a certain mechanical skill to make any "KIT" of such a level work......and that mechanical skill is not found in most shops. If you want to get a real "KIT" then get a log manifold, small IC piping, smaller IC, and Smaller DP with internal wastegate and call it good. Sure your numbers will be lower, but it will be a easy to install the kit and most shops will be up for the task.

Anyway, just thought I would share my voice. Jakub sorry to hear all the bad news, I thought you had had no problems with yours like mine all these years. Good to see some feedback from you. Let me know if I can help in anyway. Good luck to all who are going down the turbo road. Just rememeber, you will be transforming your car into a tuner car. It will not be headache free no matter what you do. There will always be little things that come up, so either stay away from turbo's or love the adventure!!!!!

J. R.

 

BLAME IT ON THE SAND !!!!!!!!!

 

So a former customer comes on and tells us his woes about your kit and you decide you want to turn off your pm's (even though you can't) and you're a sponsor? Now THAT's awesome customer service. InlinePro, here I come! At least when I call or pm Inline, I know my questions will be answered in a timely matter and not have to worry that they even want to think about turning off their pm's.

 

I have no intentions of dissappearing. I have not blocked my email and do not intend to - nor my website.
I check my emails regularly, but when 1-200 of them come in per day, its VERY hard to check the umpteen other forums that I build products for, and most have a Dissable PM option that forces the user to send an email. When I wake up at 5am check email until 9am, with packaging products and answering phone calls, I weld MAYBE 6 hours per day - on a good day. This was just to explain where Im coming from on the PM situation.

Now for the subject at-hand.:

I feel I bent over backwards for Jakub; he flew off the handle when I wouldnt ship him ANOTHER free part.

Heres my end of the story:

I have sent him the following, free of charge, after the initial sale:
One turbo manifolds($650);
Set of charge piping($500);
Injectors off of my personal car that were guaranteed to work;
Wastegate diaphram($40)
LoveFab GT1 oil filter relocation kit($500).

My warranty is a repair warranty. I do not replace parts unless I inspect them and determine they are unrepaireable. I never had this chance with the broken parts because shipping was $500 for anything over 10 lbs, or large sized one-way. I simply refuse to pay this, so I shipped new parts, saving $500 in wasted shipping money. Is this not going above and beyond?
Anyway, I requested the other parts back for inspection, to which I have seen none with the exception of the injectors, which worked fine in another car - WITH PROPER TUNING.

First problem: Charge piping. It was "crude", I admit. I sent another set, no questions asked. I requested the old set back, Jakub declined, the shipping issue.

Second problem: Injectors. His tuner could not get the injectors to work properly. This brand of injectors ran great in my car. I then pulled my personal injectors because I knew they worked with the basemap that I DID send Jakub, which was the exact map that was in my car. I then fitted his returned injectors into another car, and, with proper tuning, they worked great.

Third problem: downpipe. I goofed. However, I found out after Jakubs kit was shipped, which was essentially the same day that Jakub called me about his downpipe to frame rail issue. Easiest and quickest solution for both parties was to modify the downpipe, and I will pay for the modification cost. Jakub declined because he was a nice guy. This problem apparently went unfixed, as shortly after, the downpipe broke. Im unsure of the chain of events, but shortly after this, the manifold cracked more than likely due to the extra stresses of knocking against the frame(again my fault). I would elaborate more on Jakub getting the downpipe fixed, but I cannot remember exactly what happened. I feel there was an issue - my fault or not. I agreed to pay for the issue, yet it was overlooked for awhile, causing more damage. Would you drive the car if the oil dummie light was on? You shouldnt. I understand that it shouldve been right in the first place, but again, I admitted my mistake, and again, I offered to correct financially, and it went for awhile with no apparent action.

Fourth problem: Manifold(s). I replaced the manifold and notified Jakub that his new manifold would require downpipe modification, as they are paired with the downpipes for incremental variances in wastegate placement. I thought this was not an issue with Jakub, but apparently it was, as indicated by his post.
I had NO clue this replacement manifold broke; today is the first day I have news of this - unless my memory is severly clogged. I wouldve replaced this manifold again, or at least repaired it.

Fifth problem: heat sheild. The heatshield was crushed in shipping. Simple as that. I offered a replacement, Jakub had his local shop build one.

I have done all that I felt I could do at this point. In retrospect, Im not sure I wouldve done anything different. Perhaps try harder for more of an expedited shipment, but there are only so many hours in a day.
I tested the crap out of these parts; there were 15,000 miles on my car at the point of Jakub recieving the parts. I had JUST found out about the downpipe to framerail clearance when Jakub called me.

I dont know what to say anymore, except I am not leaving the installation of my parts to anyone that does not have any experience any longer. This couldve been cleared up in 4 hours if it were at my shop. Instead it was dragged on for a year and will probably destroy my reputation on here, despite the many happy customers that I have. Sometimes you have to draw a line, and Ive drawn it. I appologize for any inconvenience this has caused anyone, but it had to be drawn.

 

I think that's the best thing Cody; keep the kits one-off/custom made for each car and you will know it was installed right and 90% of your problems will disappear.

 

The kits are not one-of custome made. He has jigs he builds them on. A true custom kit is built on the car, then pulled off and the welds are finished.

Just to make this clear I'm not defending cody or anybody else here. If you search back I had some problems with his GT1 kit awhile ago. Fitment and HEAT were issues. The 4 inch DP is ridiculous and not needed in my opinion. The 3 inch DP fit good but still had an occasional rattle. After the first GT1 kit I now know exactly what needs to be done to make it fit and work w/o problems. The charge pipe I recieved was welded much better then yours. I'm lucky there, however i did need to get a bead rolled on them.

Pound for pound of boost, there isn't a better HP-per-pound kit out there. (GT1).

Now about the kit here, we have found that doing an external dump on the waste gate did free up about 4-5 hp per pound of boost. Scorpion made his own heat shield and hasn't had any problems since.

I reccomend anyone with ANY turbo kit either vent your hood or buy an aftermarket hood with vents in it. You need to get rid of the extra heat.

Once again, HP-per-pound of boost, you cant buy a better kit.
When someone enters the shop i work at with hopes of high HP, I call Cody hands down. Even with some issues.

 

Jakub - First off, this has to be the more important and critical thread the forced induction forum needs along with all the great supercharging options with absolute reliability. I couldn't have complimented you for doing any less, if anything ... This is a professional and clear resolute approach.

You could've gone off and attacked him but you took the high road. No doubts on the endless amount of money you poured into making this "kit" work for you, the final amounting figure I'm sure would've been at least close if not more from the cost of the entire kit.

Content - Moving forward, the manufacturer of the kit has spoken up, community organizers have spoken up and happy customer not customers have given their 2 cents. For all the hype and delight surrounding this product, I'd have expected an immediate chain reaction to happen if what Jakub said was false/misleading or factless. But the silence almost speaks for itself and is a lesson to be learnt for further manufacturers attempting to head down this route.

Ironically, the Internet is the breeding ground of love and happiness, things that are bad, don't work, fail to produce what it advertises and cannot deliver rarely make it into headlines online vs. the great and wonderful stories behind what really is being sold. If we all lived in the virtual world, there would be no problems. Unfortunately it isn't so and reality bites very much harder.

I hate to see what type of reaction this has already caused for this tuner/manufacturer but I can only say, reputable tuners like Trust, HKS, Top Fuel, Comptech, Vortech even they need alot of R&D and countless effort to get their "bolt-on kits" to truly work like a bolt-on with absolute reliability and deliver what it promises. After all, reliability is the key priority in tuning, not outright power which lasts in seconds or minutes before the need to shutting it down.

The gloating is happening for supercharged owners endlessly smiling that they didn't went this route. However, the lesson to be learnt here couldn't have been delivered without real experience and true comments from Jakub. This shouldn't be a thread to shoot down the tuner/manufacturer or a gloating thread that, "Oh, I went SC instead. I went with another tuner/manufacturer Thank God, blah blah." This should instead serve as a key reminder that the product is heavily surrounded by hype and distorted facts. And the consumer will decide what/when to buy in future moving on.

 

People build kits with full knowledge and understanding to know that it will work anywhere in the world. Problem with this, the tuner/manufacturer would've made it really easy to call it a development kit to save such a drastic customer report vs. a full blown bolt-on ready to go kit.

When shit fails in your backyard, it's often easy to fix and resolve. The problems that happen half a continent away or at the other side of the world will only magnify and escalate the problem, displaying true tuning knowledge along with technology and research invested in the entire product. Now you'd probably figure out why big reputable companies especially tuners never do things half-hearted or release something without absolute testing/breaking and measuring entire reliability patterns.

I can only say, it's disappointing to see such an outcome.

 

man. thats crazy. changed my opinion on lovefab. thanks!