My Journey with VF - The TRUTH

Oh boy oh boy, where do I start!

Note, I am not a human calendar, so some of the exact timing on things might be slightly off, but you get the idea.

FIRST STOCK MOTOR

So, I switched from my AA kit over to VF's 2.5 kit. VF installed the kit and ran it on their dyno. I was there the first time it was being dyno'd and I was being very active with the dyno session, making sure things were looking good, ect. I saw the AFR's were in the low to mid 12's right off the bat (verified by both the sniffer and my own in car wideband) and mentioned it to Nik right away, in which he replied that it's fine, I actually pressed this issue a few times and was assured that it was fine over and over again. Boost was only supposed to be at 10psi or so, as per Drew's stage 2.5 kit and results, and based on what Nik had told me, but my boost was showing 12+psi! (Verified both with the dyno's boost meter and my own in car gauge). Others than have since "upgraded" from to the T-Trim blower have also seen 11.5-12.5psi, instead of the 10psi it "should be". Again, Nik said this was ok. The meth was not hooked up AND NIK KNEW THIS. At this point, I had no reason not to trust VF and Nik, so I went on my way. I drove the car for a while, and it performed very good and was very fast.

A week or two later, I returned to VF to do dyno tests with race gas, to see what it would do, and to help promote the kit. During this trip, as I was chit chatting with Nik, I asked him how he was going to market this new stage 2.5 kit, if it would be sold with a meth kit or not, and he stated that there was no need as my car was "running fine". Again the car was strapped to their dyno, showed the same dangerous low to mid 12 AFR's (some where even on the high end of 12's IIRC), and again I showed my concern about this to Nik, and again I was assured it was OK.

A few weeks later I attended a track event at Famoso Raceway. Right off the bat, I noticed how extremely low my traps were; somewhere around 110MPH IIRC. Drew was there with his Stage 2.5 e46, and he was trapping over 122MPH. After a few attempts down the track, the low oil level sensor came on. I popped the hood, and guess what, oil all over place! At first, I didn't even want to believe the motor was gone/blown. The first things that came to mind were either it was extreme oil blow by, or a blown supercharger.

I was obviously wrong...

After the track event, I immediately visit VF to help diagnose the problem and see what's up. Compression wasn't too bad, 4 pistons showed decent numbers, but 2 pistons showed higher numbers. I can try to find the exact numbers if needed. In the next couple weeks, I talk to many people, do some tests (install oil catch can), and try to get advice on what is actually wrong. Finally, Nik tells me it has to be the rings/ring lands, and that I'm probably going to have to rebuild the motor. Great!

"Nik, what are you going to do for me now?"

This is where Nik starts to create a stage 3 kit. He offers me all the parts at "cost" and a "reduced rate" for labor. I agree to this, but I really shouldn't have; VF caused the motor failure and should have had to eat some costs for their mistakes. I later find out that other people that have "upgraded" to the stage 3 kit have paid the same price I did, so I wasn't really getting a better deal since VF had blown my original stock motor.

SECOND MOTOR BUILD

VF wasn't able to start on the stage 3 build right away because the tech they hired to build the motor had started on building 2 other motors. One being another stage 3 (which had it's fair share of problems, but I wont get into that as it is not my place), the other being Tom Pham's blown stock motor, which was being built back to stock spec. A good few weeks later, I drop my car off at VF for them to start on the motor build. The build takes about 2 months or so, which is a very long time for what is being done. I am told that the tune used will be the same tune that was created for the custom Evosport car they had done a while ago. (which used different compression ratio pistons, and diff brand items as well, not to mention a built head)

I go pick the car up and am instructed to baby it and break it in for 500 miles. The carat this time, is running the stock crank pulley and the normal stage 2 pulley on the T-Trim supercharger (same 12psi). I am told the car has the standard stage 2 software on it as well. This is the setup I was told to break the motor in with. So, I leave VF, and I'm actually very surprised how well the car is driving considering it was still the stage 2 tune.

The VERY NEXT DAY, I start seeing slight signs on white smoke exiting the exhaust. I think nothing of it, and figure the motor just needs to be broken in and things need to just fall into place. The following day, while starting my car, a very big puff of white smoke exits the exhaust for a good 10 seconds. I call Nik to tell him about the smoke and he tells me that it probably just needs more break in miles, and not to worry. The white smoke issue continues to gradually get worse as the miles get racked on. Keep in mind I am babying the car***8230; I call Nik once again to express my concern about the smoke, and again I am told not to worry. Within these 400 miles, I check my oil level and IIRC I had to add about ¾ quart of oil.

After putting about 400 miles on the car, I head to VF to drop off the car so they can update the tune, install the larger fuel pump, and larger crank pulley (to bring the blower to 15psi). On my way to drop the car off, my buddy/ride is following me, and see's the white smoke blowing from my car. He calls me and expresses his concerns, so I push the car a LITTLE harder (take it to 3psi max) so that he can see how bad the smoke is while driving behind me. It's BAD! I can even see it in my rear view mirror!

I arrive at VF and am very worried and express this to Nik. He assures me it's probably nothing, and that the motor just needs time to break in.

REALLY NIK? A blind man would have known right there and then that the head gasket was blown!!! Why didn't you try smelling the exhaust smoke to see if it had that sweet smelling scent to it that burning coolant smells like? Why didn't you do a leakdown test? Why didn't you check the coolant level?

Anyways, it takes VF another 2 weeks or so to put on all the remaining stage 3 components on and strap it to their dyno (which the car was in no condition to start with). From what I am told by Nik himself, he dyno's the car back to back, playing with different size pulley's, checking things, ect, ect. The car actually makes a decent 560rwhp at 15psi. I am told that when pushing the car to 19psi, the power stopped climbing, which was most likely due to the T-Trim being maxed out and being out of it's efficiency range. So he settled at 15psi.

I am told to come pick the car up the next day. I call Nik to come pick up the car, and he says he did some more dyno's this morning and the car was smoking pretty bad, so give him a couple days to see what's going on.

A couple days later I am told to come pick up my car, and that the smoke is again most likely due to the car needing more break in miles. I picked the car up as per their request, and was told to baby it a little bit longer and see if the smoke issue went away. From the moment I picked it up, the car was smoking worse than when I had dropped it off. Ten miles after I picked it up and was babying it down the freeway, the smoke continuously got worse, and enormous clouds of smoke were starting to exit the exhaust. The low coolant indicator lamp lit up and the water temp rose steadily. I do not recall if the oil temps rose or not, but I think they slightly did as well. I pulled over immediately and shut down, popped the hood and saw that the coolant level was non existent, and the oil dipstick showed the famous "milkshake". I call Nik, and explained to him the symptoms; he finally agrees the head gasket is gone.

The car returns to VF and inspected, ect. Nik then comes up with this T-Fitting excuse; trying to pass the blame and swindle his was out of having to rebuild the motor.

Now this is where you start to see Nik's true colors. Nik states that the small T-fitting on the fuel line caused the lean condition, chipped a piston, and blew the head gasket. Please tell me how that is possible, even with a smaller T-fitting, when the car didn't even see one single PSI, and began to smoke from day one? That is IMPOSSIBLE! There is no way to have detonation and lean conditions when the car was BABIED and saw no boost, very little load, and under 3500RPM in order to follow the break in procedure. The motor didn't see anything more than .5psi (That's half a PSI), and believe me, I was pressing my max value button on my Defi gauges like every 3 minutes to make sure I wasn't hitting ANY boost.

(By the way, from what I remember the T-fitting was not smaller than the fuel line, for all I know VF changed this to try to make an excuse to get out it. But we will never know. (From the bottom of my heart I would not put this past them at alll)

I explain all of the above to Nik, and he finally agrees that the head gasket was most likely installed incorrectly (he actually tells me that he thinks the tech used too much copper sealant on the head gasket, which is what caused the failure). At first he tells me that he will have VAC rebuild the motor, but then backs out of that because it would cost him too much. I believe he told me this at first in an effort to alleviate my initial anger and concern, knowing that I would 100% trust a motor built by VAC.

THE THIRD MOTOR

A company called Ronin starts working on the third motor build. Nik assures me that they know what they are doing, and have built a few motors in the past. The build takes another few months.

Ronin pulls the head off first to see what's going on inside, and to see if they really need to pull the engine and do a rebuild. At first I am told by Nik that the motor is "partially hydro locked", that one of the CP pistons had a chip in it, and the head gasket was history. Great!

A few weeks later Ronis starts on rebuilding the motor, Nik tells me he will have them use brand new CP pistons and the old ones will not be used just to be on the safe side (lie? Who knows). The build takes another few months. I instruct VF to drive the car for a little while, and to make sure things are ok before I make yet another trip down there. While VF is putting some miles on the car, the CEL comes on and throws Vanos codes. Nik calls me, tells me he is sending the car back to Ronin to check it out. Supposedly Ronin takes the Vanos apart and finds milkshake sludge in there and cleans it out.

I am told to come pick up the car, and that it is running fine. I pick up the car and start the break in procedure again. Within the first 100 miles, the Vanos code returns. The car runs like complete **** the whole time with AFR's are all over the place. Extremely rich on any start ups and when coming to a stop; I'm talking low 10:1 AFR's! This is with their "stage 3 tune" too. I tell Nik about it and he says not to worry, he will fix it after I break it in and bring it back to him. This time, I break in the motor with over 1100 miles before I visit VF to have everything checked out and to run some dyno's.

First, me and Jeff Moss (VF's in house tech) take the car for a road test, monitoring fuel pressure, tracking the Vanos to make sure it is reacting to spec, and monitoring AFR. I was in charge of only monitoring AFR, while Jeff was in charge of monitoring the GT1 tool being used to track the Vanos, and the fuel pressure. During these road tests, I AGAIN see AFR's in the low to high 12's! Me and Jeff discuss this and even he assures me that that is a fine AFR. I wasn't able to see the fuel pressure or the GT1 tool, but Jeff tells me those both check out fine.

I get back to the shop and AGAIN express my concern about the AFR's to Nik, and AGAIN I am told that the AFR's are fine, and nothing to worry about!!!!!

The car is strapped to the dyno and puts out very weak results, somewhere around 450rwhp. The graph looks on point for most the RPM range, but then flattens out around 6000RPM. Again AFR's are in the low to high 12's, and again I bring this up to both Nik and Jeff, and again they say it is fine and to stop worrying! Jeff thinks it's probably due to a obstruction in the exhaust and instructs another tech to start taking apart the exhaust system. LMAO, the car is losing 100rwhp up top from an exhaust restriction that has no other symptoms?

Nik says the tune is a "low timing file" and that we should try the "high timing file". So after about 2 hours of waiting for the ECU to be "flashed", we put the car back on the dyno, and guess what, EXACT SAME RESULTS!

"What's going on Jeff?"

He can't figure it out.

It finally clicks in my head (ya, I can be slow sometimes, lol) that the only answer is that something is wrong with the Vanos. I mention this to Jeff and he agrees. Funny how the customer knows more than the "tuner" sometimes***8230;

By this time, Nik has left the shop, so Jeff calls him for instructions on how to proceed with my car. Nik tells him that I should come back in 3-4 weeks, because they are booked. Really?!?!?! After all I've you've put me through, you aren't going to make me a prority?!?!? I call Nik a couple of times to express my anger (just moments after Jeff talks to him) and he fails to answer. I offer to leave my car there, so that I don't have to make yet another trip down there, and they straight up deny me!

From this moment on, I am done with VF in my mind and heart. I am furious and have given up on them. Aren't I patient? I think most people would have flipped a lid months ago.

This new "high timing file" makes my car run even worse! The car struggles to idle, dies coming to a stop, and all the other problems I had with the previous "tune".

I email Nik and show him my frustrations, We email back and forth, and well, that email shows SO much about Nik's character, his company, his intentions, his lies, how shady he is, ect ect. Maybe ill post this email sometime.

Anyways, Nik finally has me take my car to Southbay Autohouse, an independent Euro car mechanic to get the Vanos checked out. They don't rally do much of a diagnosis, but rather tell me that it's just better and safer to replace the Vanos (a new Vanos unit costs $2500!!). I push them to see if the Vanos is installed incorrectly, but they really just want me to replace it. So, I start talking to Dr. Vanos (really nice guy btw), instead of purchasing a new Vanos unit, I sent mine to get completely rebuilt, including a new solenoid. I had to pay for this as Nik told me he didn't have enough cash flow to keep fixing things on my car, without me paying him the remainder of what I owe him. (In the emails with Nik, I tell him that I will make NO payments to him until I have a sound and running car, I have already made a big down payment and a couple of payments)

The new Vanos was put in and I was told to come pick up the car and this is where I am now. The car's AFR's are still horrible, and I think even more lean at WOT based on pushing the car slightly to see where it stands.

Now, would you let VF touch your car after all of this? After they have blown two motors? After they repeatedly tell you that high 12:1 AFR's are ok with 91 octane and 15psi? After all the lies, shady acts, trying to bass blame, ect ect? Not to mention the things I have seen about their tuning capabilities, or lack there ok (maybe ill share those stories later as well). What about other cars that have blown their motor, even with a stage 2 kit, that no one even knows about yet, that isn't very reassuring either...

Marry Christmas Nik.....

WOW! I don't think VF is going to be in business much longer after this post! How could anybody take their car to a tuner like this?

I guess you're banned overthere too.

Glad I went went with AA's Gen 6. Sorry bout all the issues bro.....:-(

Wow!, I've really read nothing but bad things about their demeanor, product aside, these guys seem like snakes..


you should post this on M3For..................oh wait, nevermind!..

omg. and i wanted a vf kit

Originally Posted by MSpired

Oh boy oh boy, where do I start!

Note, I am not a human calendar, so some of the exact timing on things might be slightly off, but you get the idea.

FIRST STOCK MOTOR

So, I switched from my AA kit over to VF's 2.5 kit. VF installed the kit and ran it on their dyno. I was there the first time it was being dyno'd and I was being very active with the dyno session, making sure things were looking good, ect. I saw the AFR's were in the low to mid 12's right off the bat (verified by both the sniffer and my own in car wideband) and mentioned it to Nik right away, in which he replied that it's fine, I actually pressed this issue a few times and was assured that it was fine over and over again. Boost was only supposed to be at 10psi or so, as per Drew's stage 2.5 kit and results, and based on what Nik had told me, but my boost was showing 12+psi! (Verified both with the dyno's boost meter and my own in car gauge). Others than have since "upgraded" from to the T-Trim blower have also seen 11.5-12.5psi, instead of the 10psi it "should be". Again, Nik said this was ok. The meth was not hooked up AND NIK KNEW THIS. At this point, I had no reason not to trust VF and Nik, so I went on my way. I drove the car for a while, and it performed very good and was very fast.

A week or two later, I returned to VF to do dyno tests with race gas, to see what it would do, and to help promote the kit. During this trip, as I was chit chatting with Nik, I asked him how he was going to market this new stage 2.5 kit, if it would be sold with a meth kit or not, and he stated that there was no need as my car was "running fine". Again the car was strapped to their dyno, showed the same dangerous low to mid 12 AFR's (some where even on the high end of 12's IIRC), and again I showed my concern about this to Nik, and again I was assured it was OK.

A few weeks later I attended a track event at Famoso Raceway. Right off the bat, I noticed how extremely low my traps were; somewhere around 110MPH IIRC. Drew was there with his Stage 2.5 e46, and he was trapping over 122MPH. After a few attempts down the track, the low oil level sensor came on. I popped the hood, and guess what, oil all over place! At first, I didn't even want to believe the motor was gone/blown. The first things that came to mind were either it was extreme oil blow by, or a blown supercharger.

I was obviously wrong...

After the track event, I immediately visit VF to help diagnose the problem and see what's up. Compression wasn't too bad, 4 pistons showed decent numbers, but 2 pistons showed higher numbers. I can try to find the exact numbers if needed. In the next couple weeks, I talk to many people, do some tests (install oil catch can), and try to get advice on what is actually wrong. Finally, Nik tells me it has to be the rings/ring lands, and that I'm probably going to have to rebuild the motor. Great!

"Nik, what are you going to do for me now?"

This is where Nik starts to create a stage 3 kit. He offers me all the parts at "cost" and a "reduced rate" for labor. I agree to this, but I really shouldn't have; VF caused the motor failure and should have had to eat some costs for their mistakes. I later find out that other people that have "upgraded" to the stage 3 kit have paid the same price I did, so I wasn't really getting a better deal since VF had blown my original stock motor.

SECOND MOTOR BUILD

VF wasn't able to start on the stage 3 build right away because the tech they hired to build the motor had started on building 2 other motors. One being another stage 3 (which had it's fair share of problems, but I wont get into that as it is not my place), the other being Tom Pham's blown stock motor, which was being built back to stock spec. A good few weeks later, I drop my car off at VF for them to start on the motor build. The build takes about 2 months or so, which is a very long time for what is being done. I am told that the tune used will be the same tune that was created for the custom Evosport car they had done a while ago. (which used different compression ratio pistons, and diff brand items as well, not to mention a built head)

I go pick the car up and am instructed to baby it and break it in for 500 miles. The carat this time, is running the stock crank pulley and the normal stage 2 pulley on the T-Trim supercharger (same 12psi). I am told the car has the standard stage 2 software on it as well. This is the setup I was told to break the motor in with. So, I leave VF, and I'm actually very surprised how well the car is driving considering it was still the stage 2 tune.

The VERY NEXT DAY, I start seeing slight signs on white smoke exiting the exhaust. I think nothing of it, and figure the motor just needs to be broken in and things need to just fall into place. The following day, while starting my car, a very big puff of white smoke exits the exhaust for a good 10 seconds. I call Nik to tell him about the smoke and he tells me that it probably just needs more break in miles, and not to worry. The white smoke issue continues to gradually get worse as the miles get racked on. Keep in mind I am babying the car***8230; I call Nik once again to express my concern about the smoke, and again I am told not to worry. Within these 400 miles, I check my oil level and IIRC I had to add about ¾ quart of oil.

After putting about 400 miles on the car, I head to VF to drop off the car so they can update the tune, install the larger fuel pump, and larger crank pulley (to bring the blower to 15psi). On my way to drop the car off, my buddy/ride is following me, and see's the white smoke blowing from my car. He calls me and expresses his concerns, so I push the car a LITTLE harder (take it to 3psi max) so that he can see how bad the smoke is while driving behind me. It's BAD! I can even see it in my rear view mirror!

I arrive at VF and am very worried and express this to Nik. He assures me it's probably nothing, and that the motor just needs time to break in.

REALLY NIK? A blind man would have known right there and then that the head gasket was blown!!! Why didn't you try smelling the exhaust smoke to see if it had that sweet smelling scent to it that burning coolant smells like? Why didn't you do a leakdown test? Why didn't you check the coolant level?

Anyways, it takes VF another 2 weeks or so to put on all the remaining stage 3 components on and strap it to their dyno (which the car was in no condition to start with). From what I am told by Nik himself, he dyno's the car back to back, playing with different size pulley's, checking things, ect, ect. The car actually makes a decent 560rwhp at 15psi. I am told that when pushing the car to 19psi, the power stopped climbing, which was most likely due to the T-Trim being maxed out and being out of it's efficiency range. So he settled at 15psi.

I am told to come pick the car up the next day. I call Nik to come pick up the car, and he says he did some more dyno's this morning and the car was smoking pretty bad, so give him a couple days to see what's going on.

A couple days later I am told to come pick up my car, and that the smoke is again most likely due to the car needing more break in miles. I picked the car up as per their request, and was told to baby it a little bit longer and see if the smoke issue went away. From the moment I picked it up, the car was smoking worse than when I had dropped it off. Ten miles after I picked it up and was babying it down the freeway, the smoke continuously got worse, and enormous clouds of smoke were starting to exit the exhaust. The low coolant indicator lamp lit up and the water temp rose steadily. I do not recall if the oil temps rose or not, but I think they slightly did as well. I pulled over immediately and shut down, popped the hood and saw that the coolant level was non existent, and the oil dipstick showed the famous "milkshake". I call Nik, and explained to him the symptoms; he finally agrees the head gasket is gone.

The car returns to VF and inspected, ect. Nik then comes up with this T-Fitting excuse; trying to pass the blame and swindle his was out of having to rebuild the motor.

Now this is where you start to see Nik's true colors. Nik states that the small T-fitting on the fuel line caused the lean condition, chipped a piston, and blew the head gasket. Please tell me how that is possible, even with a smaller T-fitting, when the car didn't even see one single PSI, and began to smoke from day one? That is IMPOSSIBLE! There is no way to have detonation and lean conditions when the car was BABIED and saw no boost, very little load, and under 3500RPM in order to follow the break in procedure. The motor didn't see anything more than .5psi (That's half a PSI), and believe me, I was pressing my max value button on my Defi gauges like every 3 minutes to make sure I wasn't hitting ANY boost.

(By the way, from what I remember the T-fitting was not smaller than the fuel line, for all I know VF changed this to try to make an excuse to get out it. But we will never know. (From the bottom of my heart I would not put this past them at alll)

I explain all of the above to Nik, and he finally agrees that the head gasket was most likely installed incorrectly (he actually tells me that he thinks the tech used too much copper sealant on the head gasket, which is what caused the failure). At first he tells me that he will have VAC rebuild the motor, but then backs out of that because it would cost him too much. I believe he told me this at first in an effort to alleviate my initial anger and concern, knowing that I would 100% trust a motor built by VAC.

THE THIRD MOTOR

A company called Ronin starts working on the third motor build. Nik assures me that they know what they are doing, and have built a few motors in the past. The build takes another few months.

Ronin pulls the head off first to see what's going on inside, and to see if they really need to pull the engine and do a rebuild. At first I am told by Nik that the motor is "partially hydro locked", that one of the CP pistons had a chip in it, and the head gasket was history. Great!

A few weeks later Ronis starts on rebuilding the motor, Nik tells me he will have them use brand new CP pistons and the old ones will not be used just to be on the safe side (lie? Who knows). The build takes another few months. I instruct VF to drive the car for a little while, and to make sure things are ok before I make yet another trip down there. While VF is putting some miles on the car, the CEL comes on and throws Vanos codes. Nik calls me, tells me he is sending the car back to Ronin to check it out. Supposedly Ronin takes the Vanos apart and finds milkshake sludge in there and cleans it out.

I am told to come pick up the car, and that it is running fine. I pick up the car and start the break in procedure again. Within the first 100 miles, the Vanos code returns. The car runs like complete **** the whole time with AFR's are all over the place. Extremely rich on any start ups and when coming to a stop; I'm talking low 10:1 AFR's! This is with their "stage 3 tune" too. I tell Nik about it and he says not to worry, he will fix it after I break it in and bring it back to him. This time, I break in the motor with over 1100 miles before I visit VF to have everything checked out and to run some dyno's.

First, me and Jeff Moss (VF's in house tech) take the car for a road test, monitoring fuel pressure, tracking the Vanos to make sure it is reacting to spec, and monitoring AFR. I was in charge of only monitoring AFR, while Jeff was in charge of monitoring the GT1 tool being used to track the Vanos, and the fuel pressure. During these road tests, I AGAIN see AFR's in the low to high 12's! Me and Jeff discuss this and even he assures me that that is a fine AFR. I wasn't able to see the fuel pressure or the GT1 tool, but Jeff tells me those both check out fine.

I get back to the shop and AGAIN express my concern about the AFR's to Nik, and AGAIN I am told that the AFR's are fine, and nothing to worry about!!!!!

The car is strapped to the dyno and puts out very weak results, somewhere around 450rwhp. The graph looks on point for most the RPM range, but then flattens out around 6000RPM. Again AFR's are in the low to high 12's, and again I bring this up to both Nik and Jeff, and again they say it is fine and to stop worrying! Jeff thinks it's probably due to a obstruction in the exhaust and instructs another tech to start taking apart the exhaust system. LMAO, the car is losing 100rwhp up top from an exhaust restriction that has no other symptoms?

Nik says the tune is a "low timing file" and that we should try the "high timing file". So after about 2 hours of waiting for the ECU to be "flashed", we put the car back on the dyno, and guess what, EXACT SAME RESULTS!

"What's going on Jeff?"

He can't figure it out.

It finally clicks in my head (ya, I can be slow sometimes, lol) that the only answer is that something is wrong with the Vanos. I mention this to Jeff and he agrees. Funny how the customer knows more than the "tuner" sometimes***8230;

By this time, Nik has left the shop, so Jeff calls him for instructions on how to proceed with my car. Nik tells him that I should come back in 3-4 weeks, because they are booked. Really?!?!?! After all I've you've put me through, you aren't going to make me a prority?!?!? I call Nik a couple of times to express my anger (just moments after Jeff talks to him) and he fails to answer. I offer to leave my car there, so that I don't have to make yet another trip down there, and they straight up deny me!

From this moment on, I am done with VF in my mind and heart. I am furious and hav e given up on them. Aren't I patient? I think most people would have flipped a lid months ago.

This new "high timing file" makes my car run even worse! The car struggles to idle, dies coming to a stop, and all the other problems I had with the previous "tune".

I email Nik and show him my frustrations, We email back and forth, and well, that email shows SO much about Nik's character, his company, his intentions, his lies, how shady he is, ect ect. Maybe ill post this email sometime.

Anyways, Nik finally has me take my car to Southbay Autohouse, an independent Euro car mechanic to get the Vanos checked out. They don't rally do much of a diagnosis, but rather tell me that it's just better and safer to replace the Vanos (a new Vanos unit costs $2500!!). I push them to see if the Vanos is installed incorrectly, but they really just want me to replace it. So, I start talking to Dr. Vanos (really nice guy btw), instead of purchasing a new Vanos unit, I sent mine to get completely rebuilt, including a new solenoid. I had to pay for this as Nik told me he didn't have enough cash flow to keep fixing things on my car, without me paying him the remainder of what I owe him. (In the emails with Nik, I tell him that I will make NO payments to him until I have a sound and running car, I have already made a bug down payment and a couple of payments)

The new Vanos was put in and I was told to come pick up the car and this is where I am now. The car's AFR's are still horrible, and I think even more lean at WOT based on pushing the car slightly to see where it stands.

Now, would you let VF touch your car after all of this? After they have blown two motors? After they repeatedly tell you that high 12:1 AFR's are ok with 91 octane and 15psi? After all the lies, shady acts, trying to bass blame, ect ect? Not to mention the things I have seen about their tuning capabilities, or lack there ok (maybe ill share those stories later as well). What about other cars that have blown their motor, even with a stage 2 kit, that no one even knows about yet, that isn't very reassuring either...

Wow Mike, I am sorry to hear about what went on with your car. It is a shame to see ones dream turn into a nightmare. I am sure people will come out and accuse you also of having an adgenda.

Originally Posted by MSpired

What about other cars that have blown their motor, even with a stage 2 kit, that no one even knows about yet, that isn't very reassuring either...

More and more people are going to see that I did not have an adgenda, I knew about these cars but never released their names. There are more than what people think.

Originally Posted by greg ogden

marry christmas nik.....

x2

wow what a story

That has got to be fustrating.

if this is all true mike, then VF will be losing a lot more customers including me. Its about time to dump my VF kit and go HPF. screw it.

Originally Posted by Forcefed M3

Wow Mike, I am sorry to hear about what went on with your car. It is a shame to see ones dream turn into a nightmare. I am sure people will come out and accuse you also of having an adgenda.

I thought modding your car is supposed to be joyful and fun? This has been exactly that, a stressful nightmare!

Originally Posted by finger123

if this is all true mike, then VF will be losing a lot more customers including me. Its about time to dump my VF kit and go HPF. screw it.

Ive lost count of how many VF cars i've seen run through HPF.

Originally Posted by MSpired

I thought modding your car is supposed to be joyful and fun? This has been exactly that, a stressful nightmare!

i've been their before

Originally Posted by finger123

if this is all true mike, then VF will be losing a lot more customers including me. Its about time to dump my VF kit and go HPF. screw it.

welcome brother! I can get you a $250.00 credit at HPF.

Originally Posted by Greg Ogden

Marry Christmas Nik.....

Originally Posted by Forcefed M3

x2

x3


so Doc, i guess Derek was right about the blown motors eh? or do you think Mike also has a hidden agenda and is reporting falsely that there were motors being rebuilt after blowing from VF kits??????

i've gone through something very similar, but all i wanted was a stock engine, except my issues werent with sealing the head, it was with keeping good bearings on my rods.

After the failures of my first few engines, I figured if someone was going to make a mistake, it might as well be a learning mistake, for my benefit, and I built my own motor. So far so good here.
Since so many professionals have been so unprofessional in my experience, often no one cares more than the owner and no one knows the car and its behaviors as closely. No one will be as thoughtful. There is no famous m54 builder with dozens of successful high-powered turbo m54s, otherwise I would have gone to them when I decided I wanted a forged-internals turbo motor. To you, I recommend the one that exists for the S54, the one that frequently addresses any issues and doesn't seem to give up until long after the customer does.

There's one sc company i think may take care of you with your current concerns, but it isn't their mess, so I don't think it'd be cheap, if you care to go back.

Oh man that sucks.

I remember seeing your car at Ronin for a while! I had made two trips and couldn't believe the car was still there, and that was months ago. I really can't believe your still having problems. Back then I even knew that VF was looking more shady at the moment. Talking to ronin's mechanics they said a couple of VF kits had come in to be "fixed" since they weren't running right either.

Best of luck man. I wouldn't let VF get anywhere near your car again. Time to make a change/do something different.

I also asked on m3f, Care to disclose what all this cost you out of pocket so far? Give people an idea of the kind of money you have spent with them?

Great read, and I mean that sincerely. Finally a well thought-out, well written ( you don't see that around here often) and thorough account of VF. Very sorry to hear all that has happened, and yes, you do have some patience! Hope you get your vehicle running well so you can enjoy it!...finally.

I think you should post Nik's email, it would complement your post and add credibility. I'm not implying its needed though

Good luck from here!