Blackjack, a member mainly focused on the For Sale section of this site and a few others, is a shady member and sells mis-advertised/unusable parts. I recently took a trip down to San Diego, which is a seven hour drive, for a SVTF longblock he had listed for sale on Focus Fanatics.
Link to thread:
http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/s...d.php?t=228210
Listed as so:
The longblock was listed for $300 OBO and advertised as having bad rings on pistons two and three. Other than that, he listed the rest as being in great shape.
I asked him if he'd cut me a bit off the price because of the long drive there. He said sure. Anyhow, I got there and ended up paying $320. He sold me two items: the SVTF longblock and a SVTF alt bracket. No deal really cut there. He did however throw in a glorified POTs mod for free. Before the engine got into my car, I had to remove the thermostat housing, which the O-ring was caked with red RTV. O-ring failure sounds like a common problem with Zetec thermo housings, right?
I got the engine home and began to disassemble it. The first thing I noticed about the engine was the massive amount of oil buildup on the outside. I pulled the upper timing cover first, which was cracked. The next part I pulled was the valve cover. It has a piece broken off near the intake cam on the outer rim. The gasket was also caked with the same red RTV that is not for use in an oiled environment. I then proceeded to disassemble and remove the head. The cams checked out fine.
After pulling the head off, I noticed three out of four pistons were fried. Really now? My friend, Doug, a 30yr mechanic, proceeded to tell me the block is more than likely screwed because of the apparent piston damage and the rings being unseated (damages the cyl walls). Well, guess who was right? Doug was.
Once I got the head flipped over, Doug immediately pointed out damage to three water jackets from electrolysis and running the cooling system dry. Two water jacket's corrosion spots are on the outer ring of a combustion chamber and greatly interfere with the usefulness of the head. It might as well be a piece of scrap now.
So now, to total it up, the head, pistons, block, and possibly the crank are done. The pistons are only dealer-ordered and are paired with the forged rods. You cannot order them separately. The setup is over $500 new.
Blackjack and I have been going back and forth on this purchase and he has denied all liability for the engine and its mis-advertisement on Focus Fanatics. He claims the engine was running in his car just before he pulled it and the car was running "PIG RICH." Just a note: When your car is running "PIG RICH", you don't fry pistons. You fry pistons when you run "DUCK LEAN". Also, running your car low on coolant or mixing coolants that aren't supposed to be mixed destroys aluminum cylinder heads.
Blackjack has also refused any form of compensation for my apparent loss. I shelled out a lot from my savings in hopes of a decent turn-around for this purchase.
I have several pictures and the private messages to back up my claim if necessary. My best advice to fellow ZXtuners: avoid purchases from Blackjack involving anything that requires disassembly to check the condition of, OR you could avoid him altogether and save yourself a lot of stress and money.
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Originally Posted by Dave94LX
