TLDR: Mike and Landon are a great team; Exceptional attention to detail, knowledge, judgement, workmanship and bottom line value.
The complete story...
18K miles ago I had a camshaft installed by a shop in Indianapolis(2008, M6 Corvette, 28K miles). From the beginning the install seemed off (valvetrain noise didnt seem right, big cam is more noisy, sure, but there was a pronounced clacking). This was confirmed (to me anyway) with erratic oil pressure. Then, upon changing the oil a week after the first install, the magnetic drain plug had way too much metal on it, and after the change I had no oil pressure. Something was definitely wrong. Well, the mechanic in Indy said the oil pump was the problem and he would change the oil pump...right (I was skeptical). Well, probably just by luck, the car seemed fine for 18K miles, it was getting good oil reports from Blackstone labs, but there was still that clacking. Now, this spring, now stationed in DC, the engine noise started to change pretty noticeably. Pending an assignment to Vegas in 6 weeks, and wanting to take the car on a cross country road trip, I called up people I had met over my time here in DC to ask who they recommended I take my car to to get it sorted out. One call I placed to Cooper's Corvettes; they don't do service anymore, but they gave a strong recommendation for Mike, who had worked there, but has now opened his own shop, Elite Speed. So, I called Elite Speed up. Mike and Landon gladly accommodated my ridiculousness; despite the limited timeline, despite that someone else's mess was in the motor to clean up, and despite that they weren't exactly begging for work (apparent after showing up). They listened to my concerns, addressed them and we came up with a plan that amounted to a top end rebuild and why not add a supercharger! Mike explained AND showed me that my worst fears (bad bearings) were unrealistic, but confirmed that indeed the first cam was scrubbing a couple lobes off...unsurprisingly from where the clacking was coming from all along. Additionally in going through the motor, they found where the timing gear had worn against it's retainer plate, which was likely the initial source of all the metal long ago, not the oil pump. Throughout the process they were communicative, and professional, sending texts with pictures, explaining what they found, and observing the most judicious break in procedures for all the new parts installed (which was very reassuring to me personally). When the day finally came for me to pick up the old girl, I couldn't be happier with the outcome! From the first startup, the valve train sounds right!...you know it when you hear it, which gave me a great amount of confidence right away! Landon did a great job tuning it, making the idle as smooth as possible despite the still aggressive cam (choppy idles are hard on the valvetrain, and understandably, I'm unreasonably risk averse), and still putting the power down up top (some tricks with changing timing depending upon engine RPM, you'd have to ask him the details). Even more encouraging, they took the time to put some miles on it and make sure they did it right; I know some people think this is a bad thing ("I'm paying you to fix it not drive it"), but that's like a chef cooking without tasting, and like a good chef, they put in the time to make sure everything was sorted! I'm unreasonably pleased with the result (if that's possible) and I'm more confident in the car now after adding 200 HP, than when it didn't even have a supercharger! Nothing about getting that much work done is cheap, but I feel that I got a great value; I think they put in well more hours than were captured on the invoice, and I would confidently recommend them.
Oh, they also cleaned the car for me too, just because. And free stickers. read more