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Clearwater customer service SUCKS!!!!

reddog

reddog

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If you saw my thread about no oil pressure on a new build knock off GEP block from Clear water, you know that I was having trouble getting oil to the top end of my motor.Well after hours of troubling shooting ,asking lots of questions, fixing mistakes like missing bypass valves,and oil galley soft plugs I pulled it back out of the truck and tore it back down. What I found was a solid (I mean SOLID) wad of metal shavings:eek: from the milling of the block stuck in the oil passage between the rear main cap and the ops. It was so solid I had to drive it out with a steel rod. No amount of pressure wash or air would have ever removed it. Enough oil along with shavings made it to the rear main bearing and #8 rod bearing to toast them but everything else was fine.Sooo I called Clear water just to talk about the situation. I got John on the line, told him this story and basically he told me tough s--t.No guarantee no nothing. Now I wasn't looking for money, Just wanted to inform him of the problem.What a crappy way to do business:nono:. If you're thinking about Clear Water I wouldn't:nonod:.Look some where else .An apology wouldn't have cost them a dime and I couldn't get one.This has cost me hours of labor and $300 more in parts.
 
It's good that you were able to finally find the no oil problem. It sucks to be treated like shit from some one who you just spent a roll of cash with. A few shavings in the block is understandable but a soild blockage isn't. Kinda has you wondering about the quality of the machining of the block and the quality of the casting too.
I take it ,your crank has to be ground now? Rework sucks!! Hope it works out for you.
 
I bought my heads from there and couldnt be happier especially worth the price. HOWEVER, upon my inspection of the heads i found a piece of wood stick in one of the precups of the cylinder. It was about 1/4 long wedged up- in there. Good thing i spotted it and took it out before installation, could have been disasterous. No matter where or what you buy you need to examine it.
 
That really is a bummer deal. I have had great success with their heads, and their service.

What a shame they just gave you the cold shoulder, -that's never encouraging, -especially when your talking about something as serious as that.

I guess when it comes to aftermarket stuff we are all on our own eh?

I'm glad it wasn't worse for you than it was. You know, if it was me, I would take lots of pictures, -and ask to speak with the owner of clearwater to clear this up, -it wouldn't hurt to be persistent.

I know full-well what it's like to do re-work, -it's depressing as all getout. I sucked a rag into the intake of a freshly built 18:1, and had to completely start over from ground zero, -a huge disappointment for sure.
 
Altough that sucks big time,
I would not put all the blame on Clearwater though,as he prob ships in the same crate the block came in without inspecting (i would'nt)it
I think that block fell trough a gap in the cleaning and assembly line as well as quality control at the factory,as all the plugs and cam brgs are usually factory installed(you said there where none)

being it a new block it is allways wise to run a pipecleaner trough the oil bores in case machining chips got left behind,and thouroughly wash the block,no matter what make or source.
In your case the block was clearly unfinnished though(no plugs,no cam brgs either i suspect)

Sooo, who you think is gonna be ultimatly held responsable here when push comes to shove?

I think old Murphy just got you by the balls.
 
Ratman said:
That really is a bummer deal. I have had great success with their heads, and their service.

What a shame they just gave you the cold shoulder, -that's never encouraging, -especially when your talking about something as serious as that.

I guess when it comes to aftermarket stuff we are all on our own eh?

I'm glad it wasn't worse for you than it was. You know, if it was me, I would take lots of pictures, -and ask to speak with the owner of clearwater to clear this up, -it wouldn't hurt to be persistent.

I know full-well what it's like to do re-work, -it's depressing as all getout. I sucked a rag into the intake of a freshly built 18:1, and had to completely start over from ground zero, -a huge disappointment for sure.
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Damm, Ratman, dont keep bringing that up all the time! .Its bad enough it happened.People might start calling you Ragman):h

Sorry i could'nt resist:D
 
bison said:
Altough that sucks big time,
I would not put all the blame on Clearwater though,as he prob ships in the same crate the block came in without inspecting (i would'nt)it
I think that block fell trough a gap in the cleaning and assembly line as well as quality control at the factory,as all the plugs and cam brgs are usually factory installed(you said there where none)

being it a new block it is allways wise to run a pipecleaner trough the oil bores in case machining chips got left behind,and thouroughly wash the block,no matter what make or source.
In your case the block was clearly unfinnished though(no plugs,no cam brgs either i suspect)

Sooo, who you think is gonna be ultimatly held responsable here when push comes to shove?

I think old Murphy just got you by the balls.
Click to expand...

Not bad advice, but, you should not have to...

And I am going to blame Clearwater 100%. There were the last to handle the part. I will not tear down a 'long block' to check oil passages - as that is what I would buy. They would get the cratered engine back... They can deal with their supplier on the issue!

I would mail them a letter with pictures along with CC the BBB.

Thanks for posting as there is a lot of keeping quiet on bad vendors going on till it is too late.
 
Friend of mine bought heads for his 94 CCLB that i'm working on, from CCH. After i got them installed cyl 2 has 0 lbs of compression. loosen the rocker arms and had compression. Tighten them back up 0 lbs in that cylinder again. Great so the intake valve is too long.

Put air in via the GP hole to see if the cylinder at least seals with the rocker gear loose and lots of air blew out of the intake port, with the valves fully closed.

The valve's not lapped either? What the hell? :mad2:

Now i have to pull that head off again and ship it back. There's a waste of a set of headbolts and a headgasket.

I was told that another head would be shipped out once they receive that one back.

So far out of the 2 products i've seen/installed from CCH, one's bad on arrival. I'm not impressed at all. We'll see what happens when the replacement head shows up.
 
iamdave0887 said:
Friend of mine bought heads for his 94 CCLB that i'm working on, from CCH. After i got them installed cyl 2 has 0 lbs of compression. loosen the rocker arms and had compression. Tighten them back up 0 lbs in that cylinder again. Great so the intake valve is too long.

Put air in via the GP hole to see if the cylinder at least seals with the rocker gear loose and lots of air blew out of the intake port, with the valves fully closed.

The valve's not lapped either? What the hell? :mad2:

Now i have to pull that head off again and ship it back. There's a waste of a set of headbolts and a headgasket.


I was told that another head would be shipped out once they receive that one back.

So far out of the 2 products i've seen/installed from CCH, one's bad on arrival. I'm not impressed at all. We'll see what happens when the replacement head shows up.
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You are making me glad I bought the gep heads from bobbie. CHS was going to be my second choice.
 
WarWagon said:
Not bad advice, but, you should not have to...

And I am going to blame Clearwater 100%. There were the last to handle the part. I will not tear down a 'long block' to check oil passages - as that is what I would buy. They would get the cratered engine back... They can deal with their supplier on the issue!

I would mail them a letter with pictures along with CC the BBB.

Thanks for posting as there is a lot of keeping quiet on bad vendors going on till it is too late.
Click to expand...

you would be 100% right if it would've been a longblock,but I think Reddog bought just a bare block.

now it gets fuzzy who is gonna pick up the tab.
The part was actually not defective,just not cleaned.

even one little chip left in a oil bore would/could have disastrous effects if it gets in a crank or rod brg.Thats why i said what i said,inspect and clean before assembling.
It would have avoided this whole mess.
 
It was a bare block and I washed it and blew out the out the oil passages and if I would have known more about the oil path through the block I might have found the blockage. I'm don't entirely blame Clearwater I just think their screw you attitude is really bad business and I would never deal with them again.I'm not too upset about rebuilding ,what would have been worse is if it would have blown that wad out when I started it and put those shavings through the whole motor.As it is the crank is fine. Only the rear main and the #8 rod bearings are ruined.After reading Bobbies thread I also took this opportunity to replace the cam bearings to relocate the holes to the proper position.

As to the issue about starting a new motor with out priming it.After a total of about 3 minutes of running it with out oil to most of the motor,other than the damage due to the shavings everything was fine. All the bearings, cam,rod and mains still had lots of assembly lube and the cyl. walls still had a film of the Lucas break in oil and Delo 15/40 mixture I used. I don't recommend this to others but those who think it will cause catastrophic damage are mistaken.Bill Heath told me he never primes his motors .He said he just fires them off.All this being said, I have built a oil primer and I will use it before I restart this motor.
 
I would email them and send a link to this thread and post on every other diesel forum like the place and copy links there as well, saying if they would have just apologized they could have avoided all this negative pub on the forums that keep them in business.
 
Rodd said:
I would email them and send a link to this thread and post on every other diesel forum like the place and copy links there as well, saying if they would have just apologized they could have avoided all this negative pub on the forums that keep them in business.
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Great idea! I just e mailed them a link.
 
I could drive to Clearwater in a couple of hours, but I bought brand new genuine GEP heads with diamond precups for a little over $100 (each) more than the CCH Chinese heads. These are the same ones used on the Optimizer 6500. Incidentally, the boxes said "Made in Canada" on them. So I'm guessing they are cast by International (they have the diamonds cast on them) and then machined or at least assembled in Canada?
 
bobbiemartin said:
I could drive to Clearwater in a couple of hours, but I bought brand new genuine GEP heads with diamond precups for a little over $100 (each) more than the CCH Chinese heads. These are the same ones used on the Optimizer 6500. Incidentally, the boxes said "Made in Canada" on them. So I'm guessing they are cast by International (they have the diamonds cast on them) and then machined or at least assembled in Canada?
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That dont make any sense to me :nonod:.Do i smell china here as well?
 
I know International has a plant in Canada, and i'm sure Bobbie knows what real GEP heads look like as he just sold a set. Sounds like GEP heads to me.
Don
 
bison said:
Damm, Ratman, dont keep bringing that up all the time! .Its bad enough it happened.People might start calling you Ragman):h

Sorry i could'nt resist:D
Click to expand...


I TOTALLY deserved that!!! :smilielol5:

Thanks for the laugh Simon!!! ):h
 
daustin said:
I know International has a plant in Canada, and i'm sure Bobbie knows what real GEP heads look like as he just sold a set. Sounds like GEP heads to me.
Don
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I dont say they are'nt,but Dont hold your breath,there's more China stuff floating around than you might think, including 506 blocks( thats the only one they cast there) with or without the diamond logo.
Ever since i imported a block from China i keep getting emails from 2 of the 3 diff outfits i dealt with offering blocks heads cranks etc you name it .Most of listed as OEM,for just about any brand diesel on the market.
 
My heads came from a large dealer for AMG. Their main business is rebuilding engines for Military HMMWVs. I'm sure they are AMG heads. It was a hassle dealing with them, but it worked out in the end.
 
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