CROWER Stage-3 Cams broke!!!!

[madwick]

has anyone had bad experience with crower?

i recently bought everything from them;
pistons, rings, crank, rods, cams, cam gears, valves, springs and retainers

well i just recently got everything hooked up and ready to beging the break in and nothing was starting. something made a snap noise but it was faint. i had someone try to turn itover while i listend to the motor. no spark! i removed the valve cover and looked at it and the intake cam (CROWER Stage-3) was twisted off and only the timming side was moving!

wtf, they only have a 90 day warranty and i bought it all in janurary and they took til april to get here and then may to get the cam gears here! so im out of warranty and no intake cam and a type-r that has been a project since last october!

any ideas suggestions or comments? i have no idea what to do bc im broke and now unable to drive still!

[§treet_§peed]

see you should of went to E-Bay...

[madwick]

thanx but i need some advice on what to do next!

[§treet_§peed]

lol i like Skunk 2 cams myself...

[Fr33way]

I guess this is late but:

They should always be x-rayed for hairline cracks.

Installation error can also cause them to snap. Happens now and then with JWT cams in the Nissan community.

[bigdare23]

Just hold your horses and find a used set on IA. Put up a WTB thread.

[The BUCKY]

damn chad. way to let me know. i can prob get you some cams if you want.

[madwick]

well find me some! i just found out like at 3pm today! sooooooooorrry! i mean i haven't even gotten the car to turn over so there aren't any miles on the cams. and it's just the intake stage 3 so i need to talk to dustin at crower and see if he'll take the shitt cam back and send me another!

[Infinite]

alot of the old crower cams used to snap. bad castings

[madwick]

old? the only thing is i bought these his year! and another frined of mine told me about someone he knows had the same issue about a year or 2 ago! man if i knew this i wouldn't have bougth these damn things!


would it be smart to just get a brand new one by CROWER or should i get something by another company?

[Infinite]

doesnt matter, you could be buying shelf stock from 3 years ago.

[§treet_§peed]

SKUNK 2 FTW!!!!

[BABY J]

http://forums.importatlanta.com/showthread.php?t=64987

[kennyboi]

I have the CROWER stage 2 turbo cams haven't had any problems
out of those try to contact them an tell them what happen? If you
sound like your nice on the phone they will tell you some BS

[BABY J]

They sent me replacements and I sent the replacements to EBAY. A few people on IA wanted them, but I'd hate to see them go through what I did. FUCKED up my head, etc. I compared the core (just eyeballing it) and it looked like the same SHIT that they sent the 1st time. They did not argue with me b/c I faxed them receipts from PFI Speed, AND I sent them a link to my thread... they were NOT happy about the thread.... LOL. Just ask for the guy whose name I posted in my thread.

[madwick]

and see my problem is that i ordered this shit from brian crower in jaurary and he was great. hooked me up with the price, nice guy, seemed like he was there to help. i then get dustin and ask a few questions and it seems like im interupting his day! i tried calling earlier and got his voicemail @ around 2pm. no responce so i called again at 6pm earlier, no responce! and my thing is that the parts have a 90 day warranty and it took so long for the parts to get here, then the cam gears weren't in the box then they came a month later then the block was assembled and then teh head was done and i go to start it and nothing!

were you with in the 90 days?

[2.0civic]

interesting cause i just saw a ad earlier in dsport for brain crower cams...2 different companys now?

[Vteckidd]

Brian Crower is DIFFERENT THAN CROWER.

brian is the son, hes got his own thing now seperate of his fathers company.

what do you expect, crower breaks all the time lol. Ive seen like 20 sets break.

[2.0civic]

mike, so are the brian crowers better as far as reliability?

[§treet_§peed]

yeah what would you recomend Mike?

[madwick]

yeah mike?

[Vteckidd]

Skunk2 if its VTEC, if you got an LS, ive always used 403s from crower with no problems. perhaps it was installer error. what were the cam caps TQed too?

[§treet_§peed]

see i said Skunk2 FTW lol

[madwick]

tqed to spec at 20 ft-lbs

[madwick]

heres the broken cam

[BABY J]

This is how it goes. Believe it or not there are only 3 or 4 MANUFACTURERS of the major cams you see out there. Now, if it's some eBay brand you are on your own. I will not say who makes cams for who, but if you have broken a few sets or you move parts (retail/wholesale) then you will know (Mike, I know you know... shut-up. LOL). I have broken cams, and I also used to slang parts... reading the fine print works wonders! LOL. That is no knock on any brands, that's just saying that a smart company will not pay for tooling when they can get a manufacturer to build cores to their specs. Also use your eyes... you can tell who pays Crane to manufacture their products, it's not brain surgery if you can see.

Yes the BRIAN CROWER cores ARE different than the ones I got from Crower. I JUST looked at the new cores (BC, not Crower) last week and they look AMAZINGLY similar to the S2 core. (they are NOT made by the same manufacturer). I heard that the Crower brand is ONLY safe if you get them from a distributor who is turning over a lot of volume. Go to Bob's Corner Performance Store in Mayberry and you are taking your chances b/c it doesn't work by consignment... they have BOUGHT the cams. So they WILL sell them to you when know burden of problems will reside w/ the manufacturer. I was a YEAR past the warranty and still got new cores from Crower... HOWEVER, I sent them a link to my thread and they were NOT happy that I was bashing the brand. I actually believe that's the only reason I got product in my hand so fast. I also sent them the receipt from www.pfispeed.com.

S2 - S2 "has close ties to a certain OE manufacturer in Japan". If you have heard of a S2 cam snapping since 99 - 00 then I think you better check TQ specs and also check if they had supporting mods to effectively run the cam. It's not likely. What makes S2 cams so great? 1 - construction. If you are manufacturing your own cams, chances are your metallurgy is NOT gonna rival that of OEM standards. NOT TO MENTION SOME GANGSTA ASS DURATIONS/DEGREES. S2 sources factory quality blanks and are chill-casted (this wasn't always the case, I'm just being real). Most import cams ** cough CROWER ** ** cough TODA ** just heat treated before final grind. (these companies are getting the hint though). Bottom line - YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!! DO IT ONCE, DO IT RIGHT!!! I didn't, and it cost me a handful of intake valves, a timing belt, water pump, a handful of ex valves, cracked valve guides, and OEM lost motion assemblies (go price those bitches and tell me what you come up with) and all of the labor for it all. I am NOT a genius at this shit, but I HAVE done my homework. But not only until AFTER I was stranded beside the road waiting on a tow.

S2, Comp, Crane - you can't go wrong. Out of those 3 you will know who has the better profiles, but "better" is relative to what you need. S2 will recommend springs even w/ their stage 1 cams... w/ a Comp it may or may not be req'd. Just do a lil homework and you will be fine.

/rant

[madwick]

also they are the 403s but they didn't work well for me! and if they were torque to far they should have siezed and not moved or had a dif break. not enough would have left serious scaring and it didn't do or leave either!

also being 403s what ecu upgrade would be necessary

[§treet_§peed]

heres the broken cam

damn..looks it said "i'm out bitch" .

[BABY J]

Your pic = 2nd generation core. CRAP! Same as mine was. Sorry.

[madwick]

now i had bought all crower one day and now the problem exists! brian was still there and he sol the stuff to me! then he left before they were delivered and i had to deal with dustin. i got the crank, rods, pistons, rings, valves, retainers,dual springs, cams and cam gears from crower! $3000. took them from jauray to june to get them to me! now i get my stuff worked on and ready to run and they break! i have everything recommended by crower for the cams to work but for some reason the cam snapped. the only thing im lacking is a hondata s200 or s300! now im just in need of them to be true to their products and send me just the intake cam! i'll even be willing to overnight them the broken one to prove the problem and they can send me one ground for all i care i just need that cam!

[Vteckidd]

id call crower an ask them to look at it.

chances are if you spent $3000 with them they will be willing to help you out an not risk losing future business

[madwick]

wtf is 2nd gen? they are 403s but whats 2nd gen? and what is the new good gen? 3rd? i need to know this stuff since ill be talking to them soon(hopefully)

[Vteckidd]

SOON?

fuck that, id be calling them at 9am when they open.

"hi , i recently purchased $3000 worth of stuff, an my cam broke. i installed it per your insturctions, can you take a look at it for me?"

/thread

[BABY J]

SOON?

fuck that, id be calling them at 9am when they open.

"hi , i recently purchased $3000 worth of stuff, an my cam broke. i installed it per your insturctions, can you take a look at it for me?"

/thread

TROOO THAT MIKE!!!! Crower is on their 3rd Generation core. I just looked at a set last week... and they look a WHOLE lot better. Look at the PDF of BRIAN CROWER site... the pics do no justice, but it shows why BC left and wanted to make things right. They will square you away on replacement gear, don't worry. But you gotta pressure them.

[madwick]

SOON?

fuck that, id be calling them at 9am when they open.

"hi , i recently purchased $3000 worth of stuff, an my cam broke. i installed it per your insturctions, can you take a look at it for me?"

/thread

lol dude heres the thing i called today at 2pm (11am cali time) left a message being blunt," i nned you to call me back and let me know what is going to be done about this cam",

called when i got home from work around 6pm (3pm cali time) left another message letting him know i am in need of immediate assistance!

then at 9 pm i sent an email to [email protected] with the pic i had attached stating that i would like a refund for the cams and tehy can have both of them back or they send me another intake cam!

i am normally very patient but i NEED THIS CAM!!!

[Vteckidd]

Call every 30 min , thats what i do.

[madwick]

i also sent [email protected] an email stating that he had initially helped me out before he left and after that things went down hill for me! hell my intentions were to only buy a crank rods pistons and rings. he made it a deal and i bought all the stuff. hopefully he can say something to his dad and get sometrhing going, that'd be cool. either way i'd like to use crower but i need something that performs and doens't blow up the motor!

[madwick]

i'd love to do that but i work in a call center at a bank! so me being on personal calls are limited! i wish i had a good shop down here that i could work at!

[madwick]

well good news! dustin asked for me to send him mine and he'll take care of the problem and get another pair sent! i guess i just needed to wait to hear from him to ease my mind from all the bad ideas!


with that being said!

where is the best place to get hondata s200 or s300, installed, and tuned?

[BABY J]

Contact Mainstream - they will put you in touch with Scotty. He should be able to tune with it in a coupla weeks... his Hondata Dealer Pack shoudl ship to him this week. If you are not gonna boost, then just go with the s200. (there is no OBD0 dealer support for Hondata anymore BTW)