Reread tri, you don't have to tell them anything. Just record. As long as the unknowing party is not in any of these states, it is perfectly legal.
California Illinois Montana
Connecticut Massachusetts New Hampshire
Delaware Maryland Pennsylvania
Florida Michigan Washington

Not sure but Illinois May have changed over also

 

You can friend them on facebook.
Then tell the story of what happened.
that may be an effective way to get their attention.

 

I called ABs main number and couldn't get past the first person who answered. I was very polite and tried to make it clear that I understood I was beyond remedy as far as the warranty went. When I was told that any issue regarding this engine was between AB and my mechanic and it was their policy not to speak outside of this relationship I went on to explain that my mechanic didn't own the engine, I did. He ordered in on my behalf. She put me on hold to speak with her supervisor and came back to tell me that she was sorry but their policy was not to speak with "parties" outside of this relationship....at this point I was pretty ticked....

I don't want to speak for my mechanic but I believe (and I'll confirm this when he gets back on Monday) that AB didn't engage in a meaningful way with him either.

I'm not here to slander AB but they seem to be doing that job for themselves with their behavior. Ideally I'd be here sharing the exact details of what failed inside this motor so we could all benefit from the knowledge. I'd hate to have what happened to me happen to anybody else. I'll take another stab and getting through the iron curtain at AB next week.

There are other options. I spoke with Steven at Cannibal V8 in Oklahoma City about his engines. His enthusiasm and confidence in his product and process has me fairly convinced that I'll be shipping my truck to him for my next motor (if/when I can afford it).

Check him out here: CannibalV8

 

Peter I would re- engage AB first over the phone according to their requirements but indicate or have your mechanic indicate what you want..have the mechanic get you to the manager/technician involved with engine building service. I think the Face Book idea is a good one but not to complain/bash initially - just indicate you have a motor that failed and you would like to speak to someone who is in charge to discuss returning it for diagnosis or exchange. This will get anyone else looking at motors interested to see how they handle it....they do not want bad press believe me. Good luck on this tactic - I hope it gets you better result - it not let AB have it on Facebook and every way possible....including letters to them demanding to speak to higher ups etc....This community will eat them alive on FB as well if they are ****** .
On Cannibal - this is a great choice and Stephen is most knowledgeable ask him how he will handle the exact same thing with his motors soon or right after the 18mo warranty .... I have one of his motors in my Trek - I could not be happier!
GBR in fairness is another option as well.

Good luck

David Frankel

 

*GPR, unless you want diffs too.

 

Wow, I got excited when I saw the posting. My 4.6 will need to be replaced soon and I am looking at my options. Too bad they treated you like that, I understand they are not going to hand you a new motor outside the warranty period but they should at least talked to you? It would be nice if they would take the motor back, fix the problem (they learn what mistakes were made and retain a good reputation) you get your rover back running and everyone is happy. I'll bet the repair is no more than a couple hundred dollars and a few hours for them. Considering a good friend orders his parts from them (I get mine from Falconworks in Tucson) I will be telling him this story. Thanks for the headsup!!

 

Thanks Zack...oops sorry GBR .... too many acronym options

 

I went to my local machine shop recently to get my BMW head rebuilt and was surprised to see Land Rover blocks all over his shop and those plastic AB crates. He rebuilds a lot (maybe all) of the the engines for AB and showed me how he installs the tophats. He's just down the road from AB, nice older guy been building engines forever

 

more info would be great. Some pictures of the shop? I wonder where they are getting their used engines.

 

My mechanic spoke with Atlantic-British again today and they may be willing to supply parts if I'm willing to pay to have the work done to figure out what the origin of the problem is. To my mechanic's credit, he is offering me a substantially discounted labor rate...he feels pretty horrible that this happened. He told me he's installed about 10 of these motors and so far they are all running fine. Even though it's a small sample size, when you add my blown motor to the mix, it's a pretty poor run rate for his shop. He'd like to get to the bottom of it as much as I would.

If he finds that the cylinder is scored, I've just lit another pile of money on fire. So I'm not sure what the right decision is.

Can anybody think of a scenario that has oil above the piston that doesn't involve catastrophe for that cylinder? I'm just imagining bits of piston ring grinding in that cylinder. Can a ring slip without tearing up the liner? I just don't know enough about it to make this call. I'd love to hear what other's think.

He proposed to do the work with the engine in the compartment (all the bits are already stripped off and in boxes in the back of the truck). He'd take that head off and see what there is to see.