Oakley’s Motorsports buyer beware

FTR, I know many of you know and like Phillip and Jay. I do too. Now, with that being said, how would you feel if you spent thousands of dollars with them and received an inferior product? They built an engine for me last August and we got the engine in the car late in the year. No time to test. We took it in February(this year) to Sickweek and the car could not be street driven due to overheating issues. We battled this car all year long. It doesn’t have 100 street miles on it and has never made a complete pass down the track. I missed 5 events that I had registered to compete in this season(all drag and drive). After spending a few thousand more on radiators, fan shroud setups, pumps, going from two turbos to one to make room for a bigger radiator, fabrication and FINALLY trying 2 radiators together in series, we threw up our hands and decided to pull the heads. I was stunned by what I found. Nearly all the coolant ports were partially or completely filled with silicone. These are Flatout copper head gaskets .072 thick and for a 4.600 bore. It looked like someone from high school shop had put the head gaskets on. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. I paid thousands to have the “pros” build me an engine. I called Phillip at the shop and left a message. I texted him pictures and video. Jay called a bit later and asked that I send everything to him. I did. It’s been 5 days and I’ve heard NOTHING!

BUYER BEWARE. You’ve been warned.

That sucks i hope they make everything right at no cost for you!!

"buyer beware". It's none of my concern but, In my opinion sometimes when there is a problem with this kind of Hot Rod Stuff and there looks like a mistake was made on the contractors or in this case builders part, it's may be best to keep it in house and try to resolve it, first. I have seen some "Off the Wall" mistakes made by some of the best places out there once in a while, It Happens. It's just my opinion, I guess from being Old School like that.
The 5 days part, I would be pretty agitated too. I would imagine you have their attention now. Hope you get it Squared Away.

I remember that 611 Thor deal elsewhere {different shop} turned into a Circus, that seemed counter productive to me until it got "worked out"

Carry On

There’s more to the story. I chose them because they told me they could put hoops in the engine. Once I got it back they said, “oh, btw, the hoops wouldn’t fit so we put an o-ring in it”. I had a CAD program done that said the hoops would fit. There was also a hiccup last fall with some fittings and I chose to look the other way, forgive and move on. I just had a little heartburn after missing all 5 events and thousands more that could have been remedied months ago. If anyone here decides to do business with them, they should seriously consider going elsewhere. Lots of reputable builders out there. This mistake was not a simple human error. It was incompetence pure and simple. I’ve got pictures,  video and eyewitness accounts. At this level, this shouldn’t happen.

Sometimes it is just better to do things by yourself.That way you only have yourself to blame .

Many performance shops have very good builders and machinist. But that doesn't mean that those people will be working on your project. I've seen some poor work even though I'm no expert.
I helped a friend sort out his D0OE heads that came back from a well known reputable shop. The chambers wouldn't hold solvent and the assembled spring heights were all over the map. After that I determined to setup my own heads going forward.
I sent my P-51's to Total Flow Products, Troy Michigan for repair where they had 3 chambers cracked into the spark plug thread. They came back totally destroyed with 2 chambers burned up deep into the chambers. They claimed bad casting material even though they welded one chamber without damage.
The owner Steve Sanchez was arrogant about the whole ordeal for after all he works on high end engines and can't be bothered about this bracket racer customer. I know that my heads were a learning curve for someone at my expense.
I bought a cam and lifters from a well known company that frequents here. The cam failed after a half season where the lobes grooved and transferred metal onto the roller wheels. I strongly believe the heat treat was wrong on the cam. That person would not respond to correct the issue so $1,800 down the drain. I have since then found a cam expert that in my opinion walks on water.
I hope Oakley at least makes an attempt to clean this up and make this right.

Dave De wrote:Many performance shops have very good builders and machinist. But that doesn't mean that those people will be working on your project. I've seen some poor work even though I'm no expert.
I helped a friend sort out his D0OE heads that came back from a well known reputable shop. The chambers wouldn't hold solvent and the assembled spring heights were all over the map. After that I determined to setup my own heads going forward.
I sent my P-51's to Total Flow Products, Troy Michigan for repair where they had 3 chambers cracked into the spark plug thread. They came back totally destroyed with 2 chambers burned up deep into the chambers. They claimed bad casting material even though they welded one chamber without damage.
The owner Steve Sanchez was arrogant about the whole ordeal for after all he works on high end engines and can't be bothered about this bracket racer customer. I know that my heads were a learning curve for someone at my expense.
I bought a cam and lifters from a well known company that frequents here. The cam failed after a half season where the lobes grooved and transferred metal onto the roller wheels. I strongly believe the heat treat was wrong on the cam. That person would not respond to correct the issue so $1,800 down the drain. I have since then found a cam expert that in my opinion walks on water.
I hope Oakley at least makes an attempt to clean this up and make this right.

Your first 2 sentences make a lot of sense and i'm sure are very true[i have thought those same things before]!!And i agree on your last sentence!!My good friend may he RIP[Leukemia took his life at 39 years old in 2012] assembled my 466 short block back in 2004 by himself he rebuilt and assembled engines transmissions,rear ends and did Roll Cages and Roll bars he was a great fabricator and welder!!Now i'm not sure who i could trust to do any work for me!!

You're going to find a very high percentage of happy Oakley customers. If he's not responding, it could be due to the first call, and not the follow up calls. Silicone sounds more like something that happened putting it in the car, and not assembling the engine.

If the hoops would have failed, you'd have blamed him.

Just saying.

You obviously have no clue what you’re talking about. Take your fanboy nonsense somewhere else. The engine went straight from his shop and was installed in the car. They messed up. Move on.

Curt wrote:You're going to find a very high percentage of happy Oakley customers. If he's not responding, it could be due to the first call, and not the follow up calls. Silicone sounds more like something that happened putting it in the car, and not assembling the engine.

If the hoops would have failed, you'd have blamed him.

Just saying.

How do you get silicone in the coolant passages by installing the engine in the car?

Any Update on this ?

Never heard a word back from Phillip or Jay. Kaase’s is finishing up the engine this week. Supposed to dyno it today or tomorrow. Grateful for Kaase stepping up to fix the issues with the engine. So much more to say but I’ll simply say, “I’m moving on”. I would still encourage anyone not to use Oakley’s in a high hp or boosted application. I now realize that it’s not their “wheelhouse”. Mostly disappointed in Phillip Oakley. His lack of response says all anyone needs to know.

Phillip and his team always seems to be stand-up . Hope this issue get resolved.

738drvr wrote:FTR, I know many of you know and like Phillip and Jay. I do too. Now, with that being said, how would you feel if you spent thousands of dollars with them and received an inferior product? They built an engine for me last August and we got the engine in the car late in the year. No time to test. We took it in February(this year) to Sickweek and the car could not be street driven due to overheating issues. We battled this car all year long. It doesn’t have 100 street miles on it and has never made a complete pass down the track. I missed 5 events that I had registered to compete in this season(all drag and drive). After spending a few thousand more on radiators, fan shroud setups, pumps, going from two turbos to one to make room for a bigger radiator, fabrication and FINALLY trying 2 radiators together in series, we threw up our hands and decided to pull the heads. I was stunned by what I found. Nearly all the coolant ports were partially or completely filled with silicone. These are Flatout copper head gaskets .072 thick and for a 4.600 bore. It looked like someone from high school shop had put the head gaskets on. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. I paid thousands to have the “pros” build me an engine. I called Phillip at the shop and left a message. I texted him pictures and video. Jay called a bit later and asked that I send everything to him. I did. It’s been 5 days and I’ve heard NOTHING!

BUYER BEWARE. You’ve been warned.

did you get pictures of the silicone in the block?i would send them to oakley,they should respond and not ignore you if there are any kind of profesional shop.some times its not what happens to a person,but how they repond to it that matters.just sucks that you spent so much time on this and not finding it untill so late in the year.i am sure that it would make some people think twice about spending money with them.

I sent pictures and video immediately to Phillip and Jay. One of the head gaskets was on backwards. Fortunately, we found a lifter bushing had fallen down and was nearly touching the camshaft. Just in time. Both Phillip and Jay never responded. To say I’m disappointed would be the understatement of the decade. Lesson learned. Kaase’s shop got it squared away. All good. It’s back in the car this week. Won’t waste my time with Oakley’s ever again. I would advise others to do the same. Happy New Year guys!

its good that you went to kaase.did you dyno that combo? its worth the money to prove out build or find mistakes!

It did well on the dyno with such a mild cam and low compression. Should make big power on boost. Looking forward to getting it to the track. Thanks.