Offshoreonly.com - Pier 57 Horror stories

Quote:

Originally Posted by 682gold (Post 4126368)

You might be happier with a 24' toon with a 60hp Johnrude or Force. From Scotts account of what happened it seems you haven't a clue. Maybe you could provide us all a clue with a written rendition of your side of the story. I personally would love to read it and hear all the comments on it.

So here is what transpired in my dealings with Shogren/ Pier 57.
In late 2011/, early 2012 I saw a boat that Shogren had listed on their website, a 1984 Formula 402 SR1 with 420 hp’s. I spoke with Greg Weber the General Manager at Shogren about the boat and was told that Shogren had gone through the engines and outdrives. The engines had 200 hrs. since total rebuilds and the previous Spring they had leak-down tested the engines and the bottoms were good, so they had the heads redone, and completely went through the engines; and they only had 2 hrs. on them (from the sea trial) since the tops had been done. Greg told me that they took it out for a sea trial and the boat ran “great.”
I drove up from Texas and arrived to 11” of fresh snow, went to Shogrens and spent the day checking out the boat. Greg again (in person) stated to me that they [Shogren] had redone the heads, carbs, and completely gone over the engines outdrives, and that the boat runs great, but that it needed different props. I checked out the boat. Due to the weather, a sea trial was out of the question. They did fire up the engines on hoses inside the building and they sounded ok. The engines had the correct carbs, exhaust and intakes for 420’s and the top ends had fresh gaskets and silicone. There were many cosmetic and other issues with the boat, and I almost walked away from it three times knowing that it would be at least a 4 year project to get it back into shape. But I eventually pulled the trigger on the deal because of Shogren’s reputation and their representation to me that THEY had done the engines and outdrives, and that I should not have to mess with the engines and outdrives for the next 4 to 5 yrs. I tried to negotiate the price down but Greg Weber stated to me that the owner had already dropped the price, plus he still owed them over $8,000 for the work Shogren did on the boat. So, I signed the papers and hauled it back to Texas.
I spent the next 2 ½ months with the boat in dry storage while I found a bigger lift and had the slip prepped and lift installed. I did gelcoat and other minor repairs prior to putting the boat in the water at the end of May 2012. First time out, I filled the tanks and found out the gas gauges and senders didn’t work. The gas tanks were full already. Got out on the water and it would only run 40 mph - 4,000 rpm and 4,200 rpm gas sheen on water (too rich). My thought was that it was bad gas and the wrong props. I ran two full tanks of 93 octane non- ethanol thru and changed fuel filters, replaced fuel senders and 1 gauge. No change, so I replaced plugs, cap and rotor. Found auto plugs 1 range hotter and gapped wrong, 4 wires crossed, bad distributor sensors, timing set wrong. Slight improvement (less rich). Noticed condensation in oil starboard, pulled t-stats, and there was no stat starboard. I replaced it and found the gauge reading hot – again, the wrong sender – so, I replaced the sender. Finished out 2012 rewiring both dashes, replacing bad gauges, and cleaning up other wiring and many other small projects (which I fully expected to have to do to the boat).
Spring 2013 - Started wondering if these were the correct engines, so I pulled one valve cover to check the head numbers, which were correct. The rockers were Crower stainless rollers not the Crane golds that were supposed to be on these engines. But, I went ahead and put the valve cover back on. I tracked down the previous owner to try to get info on the engines. The story he gave me was that he had bought a 357 sr1 and swapped engines with the 402. I had a local engine builder run the serial numbers he gave me(since there were no serial no. tags on the engines – and Shogren was aware of this but did not disclose it to me - but they were not good numbers. One matched a 420, and the other was an outdrive , so I was once again back to being uncertain what engines I had. On a side note, this same engine builder told me he had seen me out on the lake with the boat and he did not know what engines were in the boat, but they were not 420’s. He said the cams were not big enough for 420’s (just from hearing the boat on the lake). My response was that the reason was probably that the exhaust has mufflers. He said it does not matter. Those are not 420’s. This conversation occurred in May, 2013.
In the middle of June, I started hearing a slight lifter noise on the starboard engine. I got past July 4th and started searching for the problem. I found a bad pushrod (minor damage to the tip), and also noticed that the Crower rockers were mismatched - literally two different styles. The rocker to retainer clearance was too tight - one lifter would not bleed down. So, I ordered Crane Golds, lifters and push rods to get me through the season. I removed the intake and all but front and rear bolts were just finger tight. I removed the heads because the head bolts were rotted out and the valve seals were bad. I sent the heads to Derebery Performance Marine in Pottsboro, TX. The valve seals and guides were bad, so I had to get a new valve job. The springs were weak, so they shimmed them to get me through the season till I could afford new ones. I also changed the keepers to achieve retainer to rocker clearance. I ran the boat the final month of the season and winterized it. I emailed Scot Sjogren to inform him of what I had discovered with the engines and the misrepresentations made to me by Shogren about the engines ,and that it looked like someone threw these engines together with leftover **** off the floor. Scott’s response was, there is no warranty, the boat was sold as is where is, and we [Shogren] did not do the engines. Scott eventually had the previous owner Larry Fales contact me. His reply was rather politely to pound salt.
February 2014 - I tore the top end off the port engine and found much the same. I again sent the heads to Derebery Performance Marine. While the engines were apart, I measured the cam and checked it against the 420 specs. It was the wrong cam - 500 530 lift – it should be 530 – 551 – so, I pulled the cams and started checking. I found that these were indeed not 420’s, but at best mags that had been dressed to look like 420’s, The intake valves were 2.18 not 2.25, etc. Now, I’m Pissed! I pulled the other engine back apart and had to replace the entire top end of both engines with all new CORRECT parts. I finally got it back on the water 2 weeks ago. With the same props, I am now at 54 mph and 4750 rpm. A simple prop change and I should be close to 56-57mph with proper rpm’s. Greg Weber from Shogren told me all it needed was props.
I did all of the work at my dock with the boat in the water. My total out of pocket on this is over $7,500. Obviously, not what I was expecting when I bought it from Shogren. I quote from Shogren’s web ad: “Motors were leaked down and compression tested last spring. Bottoms were fine; heads were weak, so we just had the heads redone. Carbs rebuilt. Basically EVERYTHING gone through. These are bone stock 420HP. Boat runs great.”
I called Scott Sjogren and discussed the issue with him. He again stated that the boat was sold to me “as is - no warranty.” I explained to Scott, again, this is not about a warranty on a 30 yr old boat that broke down, this is about the misrepresentations made on the Shogren website, to me on the phone and in person by his General Manager. He asked me to send photos, which I did. Scott’s reply to the pictures was that it was the boat’s previous owner, Larry Fales who lied, and I [Scott Sjogren] have told him to come and remove his current boat that we are brokering for him.
But, according to the Shogren website, Mr. Fales’ boat is still listed with Shogren - weeks later, and the price has been dropped twice.
http://www.pier57.com/web/used/Formu...inois/8493562/
Scott also stated I should know that they are not in the engine rebuilding business and never have been
http://www.pier57.com/web/service/
And they knew nothing about the engines.
http://www.pier57.com/web/consignment/
He did offer me $1,000 as a goodwill gesture. It was not accepted.
Here is the ad from Shogren/Pier 57 website
http://www.pier57.com/web/used/Formu...linois/2466295
Should I have had it surveyed? Probably, but how would a survey have caught this without tearing into the engines? There were no serial tags.
Should I have taken it for a sea trial? In hindsight, yes, but it was Feb. 28 with 11 inches of fresh snow on the ground. So, I relied (funny word in this story) on Shogren’s reputation and representations that it ran great when they took it out.