Rip-off Alert for Thatsdax:
I bought a Super Titan engine the end of May 2012, couldn’t get it started for 3 days and contacted Duane at Thatsdax and told him the engine was lemon. He claimed the engine couldn’t possibly be bad and thus a 9 month saga of him accusing me of being an idiot and a litany of either of him avoiding my calls and emails or repeating the same inane excuses blaming me for the engine’s condition. The engine is hard to start, with the carb that came with the Titan it won’t idle, (you can’t adjust the idle mixture with that carb) with the other two carbs I have you can adjust the idle and the engine will idle for a while but will eventually die, and stall on acceleration, and at 3/4 throttle the engine will die sounding like it is starving. But the plug is not white or grey, it is black with thick carbon build up suggesting incomplete combustion.
After 7 months of hounding him he finally agreed to me shipping the motor back to him; he received it on Jan 9. I never heard from him for 5 weeks; he did not answer emails, phone calls and skype calls or messages – stonewalling me. When he finally answered his phone (forgetting to check caller ID apparently) he got livid with me for sending the engine to him “in pieces.” I had taken off the new carb I bought and the external exhaust, (He had kept telling my problem was with the carb and fuel system – so wouldn’t he want to clean the carb or use another carb before testing the engine?) He was going to charge me labor for putting on the carb and the stock exhaust – a task that would take 5 or 10 minutes! In emails I told him either the valves had not seated properly, there was a weak valve spring, or that the ignition timing gear was installed one or two teeth retarded. To check these things you would not need the carb and exhaust on the motor and should have been done these things first.
He also claimed that he would have to charge me $30 in parts because I hadn’t included the bolts for the muffler nor the foam for the air cleaner. He also claimed that the plastic shroud for the muffler was broken and that the air cleaner was broken. I never even used the muffler, having installed the exhaust system I purchased with the engine, which buy the way he did not include the bolts for. I had filed off the lower tabs on the air cleaner cover so I could remove it while the engine was installed due to clearance problems with my frame. However the air cleaner cover was in perfect working condition. None of these issues should have prevented him from checking the engine; in fact I asked him if had used parts for these things around his shop, which of course he did. More over, as you will see from emails below, I told him that unless he did a compression check on the engine and was able to verify that ignition timing was accurate he would be wasting his time.
It is now Feb 24 2013 and 10 days since I last spoke with on the phone and nearly 2 months since I sent the engine back to him. I got so aggravated with him continuing to berate for being such a “disrespectful jerk” for sending him the engine back without the carb and exhaust attached that I finally told him that after 9 months I was tired of his runaround and told him to just refund my money. He hung up on me and has not responded to any communication; I can only conclude at this point he plans to stonewall me and burn me for the price of the engine and for shipping it twice!
What follows are pertinent excerpts from emails showing the nature of the runaround and insults to my intelligence he has subjected me to: (Duane asked for photos of my install when I first contacted him back in June. He wrote back telling me my gas tank was rusty. I replied
“I had a standard HS 4 stroke on this same bike for 2 years mounted the same way with same tank etc. The tank is coated on the inside and bright and shinny. Never had a single problem with that engine and there has not been a speck of rust or dirt in the float bowl of the carbs.” (Duane avoided me for a month or so and finally responded to an email asking me to send photos of the install again,) “I already sent the pictures you ask for, but here they are again.” (The inline fuel filter was obvious in the photos but Duane wrote back): “I do not see any type of fuel filter between your tank and carburetor. Since you have no fuel filter between tank and carb, I would suspect you have debris in your carb. Some of those tanks will have rust and this can ruin a carb fast.” (I wrote back to Grady sending a close up photo of the fuel filter.) “Not only is there a fuel filter in line in that photo there is also a filter in the fuel shut off valve on the tank. The fuel line and filter are transparent and there has never been a spec dirt or rust in the fuel line or carb float bowl. The tank is absolutely clean inside. It's not starving for fuel because the plug is black with carbon. I have boiled my old carb and the Super Titan carb and soaked them in carb cleaner twice. And then I bought a new carb; the engine still runs the same regardless of which carb is on it. I have bought new spark plugs and kept checking the valves to make sure they were adjusted right. I’ve changed the carbs back and forth, changed magnetos, and spark plugs numerous times; the engine runs the same regardless. I told you the engine was bad right after I installed it. I need you to replace this engine, that's what I need you to do. Why would I ask you for a new engine if this one was OK? Duane, I started racing go-karts as a kid and motorcycles when I was 14. I’m 65 years old and have owned 15 boats in my life and worked on 2 stroke and 4 stroke outboards and gas and diesel inboards and rebuilt a number of engines from the crankshaft up; it is my sincere opinion that this engine is a Chinese lemon!” (He kept asking me to send photos of my install, as if I didn’t know how to mount an engine) “Duane, here are the photos you requested; I'd already sent these to you several times. After switching back and forth between the carb from my old engine, the carb that came with the super titan, and the new carb I bought from Helios I conclude it’s not the carb or anything in the fuel system like you keep insisting. I thought the coil/magneto wasn’t putting out enough juice so I bought a new one of those too. I can’t check the compression because my automotive pressure gauge is too large to fit the small spark plug whole on the engine, but either the timing is too retarded, and or the valves or valve seats were not ground properly, or a valve spring may be defective. The plugs keep getting fowled indicating incomplete combustion; so either the valves never seated properly or the timing is too retarded. Chinese quality is notorious for poor materials and sloppy machine work; either they put the timing gear in a tooth off or that the valves and seats were not properly machined.” (after 7 months of emails and phone calls in which he kept giving me the royal runaround Duane wrote to me): “Why are you waiting 7 months to employ a warranty that is 90 days? You are 4 months past your warranty period. Why would you not seek warranty help during your warranty period? You could have sent the motor to us during your warranty period and we would have taken care of it. Each Titan is load tested at the factory for proper operation and signed by our test engineers. This is also required by the EPA to be load tested and then data submitted to EPA. If you were having problems it right away it makes no sense for you to buy 100 bucks worth of parts when shipping costs around 20 bucks to ship a warranty motor back to us.” (I wrote back “Duane, I have bent over backwards trying to fix this engine because you kept giving me the runaround! I’ve done everything you have suggested. Here is the first email I sent to you on june 9 and all of the emails that we have sent back and forth for 7 months. The record of our emails proves that I starting asking for a replacement engine from the very first weekend when it took three days and a whole can of starter fluid, changing carbs and magneto just to get the engine to fire, ...”
I bought a Super Titan engine the end of May 2012, couldn’t get it started for 3 days and contacted Duane at Thatsdax and told him the engine was lemon. He claimed the engine couldn’t possibly be bad and thus a 9 month saga of him accusing me of being an idiot and a litany of either of him avoiding my calls and emails or repeating the same inane excuses blaming me for the engine’s condition. The engine is hard to start, with the carb that came with the Titan it won’t idle, (you can’t adjust the idle mixture with that carb) with the other two carbs I have you can adjust the idle and the engine will idle for a while but will eventually die, and stall on acceleration, and at 3/4 throttle the engine will die sounding like it is starving. But the plug is not white or grey, it is black with thick carbon build up suggesting incomplete combustion.
After 7 months of hounding him he finally agreed to me shipping the motor back to him; he received it on Jan 9. I never heard from him for 5 weeks; he did not answer emails, phone calls and skype calls or messages – stonewalling me. When he finally answered his phone (forgetting to check caller ID apparently) he got livid with me for sending the engine to him “in pieces.” I had taken off the new carb I bought and the external exhaust, (He had kept telling my problem was with the carb and fuel system – so wouldn’t he want to clean the carb or use another carb before testing the engine?) He was going to charge me labor for putting on the carb and the stock exhaust – a task that would take 5 or 10 minutes! In emails I told him either the valves had not seated properly, there was a weak valve spring, or that the ignition timing gear was installed one or two teeth retarded. To check these things you would not need the carb and exhaust on the motor and should have been done these things first.
He also claimed that he would have to charge me $30 in parts because I hadn’t included the bolts for the muffler nor the foam for the air cleaner. He also claimed that the plastic shroud for the muffler was broken and that the air cleaner was broken. I never even used the muffler, having installed the exhaust system I purchased with the engine, which buy the way he did not include the bolts for. I had filed off the lower tabs on the air cleaner cover so I could remove it while the engine was installed due to clearance problems with my frame. However the air cleaner cover was in perfect working condition. None of these issues should have prevented him from checking the engine; in fact I asked him if had used parts for these things around his shop, which of course he did. More over, as you will see from emails below, I told him that unless he did a compression check on the engine and was able to verify that ignition timing was accurate he would be wasting his time.
It is now Feb 24 2013 and 10 days since I last spoke with on the phone and nearly 2 months since I sent the engine back to him. I got so aggravated with him continuing to berate for being such a “disrespectful jerk” for sending him the engine back without the carb and exhaust attached that I finally told him that after 9 months I was tired of his runaround and told him to just refund my money. He hung up on me and has not responded to any communication; I can only conclude at this point he plans to stonewall me and burn me for the price of the engine and for shipping it twice!
What follows are pertinent excerpts from emails showing the nature of the runaround and insults to my intelligence he has subjected me to: (Duane asked for photos of my install when I first contacted him back in June. He wrote back telling me my gas tank was rusty. I replied
“I had a standard HS 4 stroke on this same bike for 2 years mounted the same way with same tank etc. The tank is coated on the inside and bright and shinny. Never had a single problem with that engine and there has not been a speck of rust or dirt in the float bowl of the carbs.” (Duane avoided me for a month or so and finally responded to an email asking me to send photos of the install again,) “I already sent the pictures you ask for, but here they are again.” (The inline fuel filter was obvious in the photos but Duane wrote back): “I do not see any type of fuel filter between your tank and carburetor. Since you have no fuel filter between tank and carb, I would suspect you have debris in your carb. Some of those tanks will have rust and this can ruin a carb fast.” (I wrote back to Grady sending a close up photo of the fuel filter.) “Not only is there a fuel filter in line in that photo there is also a filter in the fuel shut off valve on the tank. The fuel line and filter are transparent and there has never been a spec dirt or rust in the fuel line or carb float bowl. The tank is absolutely clean inside. It's not starving for fuel because the plug is black with carbon. I have boiled my old carb and the Super Titan carb and soaked them in carb cleaner twice. And then I bought a new carb; the engine still runs the same regardless of which carb is on it. I have bought new spark plugs and kept checking the valves to make sure they were adjusted right. I’ve changed the carbs back and forth, changed magnetos, and spark plugs numerous times; the engine runs the same regardless. I told you the engine was bad right after I installed it. I need you to replace this engine, that's what I need you to do. Why would I ask you for a new engine if this one was OK? Duane, I started racing go-karts as a kid and motorcycles when I was 14. I’m 65 years old and have owned 15 boats in my life and worked on 2 stroke and 4 stroke outboards and gas and diesel inboards and rebuilt a number of engines from the crankshaft up; it is my sincere opinion that this engine is a Chinese lemon!” (He kept asking me to send photos of my install, as if I didn’t know how to mount an engine) “Duane, here are the photos you requested; I'd already sent these to you several times. After switching back and forth between the carb from my old engine, the carb that came with the super titan, and the new carb I bought from Helios I conclude it’s not the carb or anything in the fuel system like you keep insisting. I thought the coil/magneto wasn’t putting out enough juice so I bought a new one of those too. I can’t check the compression because my automotive pressure gauge is too large to fit the small spark plug whole on the engine, but either the timing is too retarded, and or the valves or valve seats were not ground properly, or a valve spring may be defective. The plugs keep getting fowled indicating incomplete combustion; so either the valves never seated properly or the timing is too retarded. Chinese quality is notorious for poor materials and sloppy machine work; either they put the timing gear in a tooth off or that the valves and seats were not properly machined.” (after 7 months of emails and phone calls in which he kept giving me the royal runaround Duane wrote to me): “Why are you waiting 7 months to employ a warranty that is 90 days? You are 4 months past your warranty period. Why would you not seek warranty help during your warranty period? You could have sent the motor to us during your warranty period and we would have taken care of it. Each Titan is load tested at the factory for proper operation and signed by our test engineers. This is also required by the EPA to be load tested and then data submitted to EPA. If you were having problems it right away it makes no sense for you to buy 100 bucks worth of parts when shipping costs around 20 bucks to ship a warranty motor back to us.” (I wrote back “Duane, I have bent over backwards trying to fix this engine because you kept giving me the runaround! I’ve done everything you have suggested. Here is the first email I sent to you on june 9 and all of the emails that we have sent back and forth for 7 months. The record of our emails proves that I starting asking for a replacement engine from the very first weekend when it took three days and a whole can of starter fluid, changing carbs and magneto just to get the engine to fire, ...”
