TheSamba.com :: View topic

Thu Nov 20, 2003 5:45 am

OK - so after you all told me about the bad bad people at GEX and their poor engine quality - I stopped by my local air cooled VW shop, to ask more Qs. They didn't say anything but the 20 something young woman there with waiting for her Golf overheard me talking and immediately remarked about all the bad things she's heard about GEX (Her friend had a motor of theirs last ONE MONTH she said!) .....So now I'm really starting to sweat it. *sigh*

Can anyone lead me to the GEX company themselves, or just their vendors (CIP1 I found....how about the Mother Ship of GEX though)? I have several questions I'd like to ask 'em, as you might imagine.

This is the second time this month I've discovered any NIMROD can assemble an engine: At my shop - I removed a cylinder head from a 73 BMW to find the previous engine had the pistons installed BACKWARDS! (yep - on some BMW motors the pistons have assymetrical crowns) so...uym...I guess that's why it kept blowing head gaskets over the last 7 or 8 years eh? I can't believe it ever even RAN!!!!

After that - nothing surprises me anymore.
It's a shame that cashflow seems to override pride in workmanship these days. So far the GEX runs well - save for that weird rocker adjustment issue on one valve. Smooth, power OK, no major oil consumption, and good compression...am I just lucky?

Thanks!

Z

Thu Nov 20, 2003 6:38 am

http://www.gex.com/

GEX International Corp
15245 Nubia Street
Baldwin Park, CA 91706

Toll Free: 800.543.6805
Fax: 626.962.6975
Email: sales@gex.com

Thu Nov 20, 2003 7:13 am

I've got some friends that are old school VW mechanics that have used GEX off and on through the years. They've currently stopped using them due to a bad batch of cams. In the last 12 months, they've had 3 GEX motors brake the cams. I know that its a pain to ship the motor back and get another one. But GEX isn't saying it their fault and won't replace them. THat's the pain in the butt. How do you tell a coustomer that you've put a 1200 dollar engine in it that they need another engine in less than a year?

Before you buy from anyone, consider doing it yourself. get the book and bug me video. It's not rocket sience.

Thu Nov 20, 2003 7:31 am

Here is the warranty they also supply. I will bet you could drive a bus through the loopholes. I am sure they do hire pretty good lawyers!

Warranty Procedure -
GEX PREMIUM stock engines are warranted for a period of 12 months or 12,000 miles, whichever occurs first. See individual warranty cards, that are supplied with each engine, for details. Our engine sales are tracked through the WARRANTY CARD NUMBER. If a problem should occur, it should be brought to the attention for the GEX Warranty Manager at 800 423-1869 before any repair work, other than diagnosis, is started. You will need to supply the WARRANTY CARD NUMBER before any a repair authorization can be given. Authorizations will be given over the phone and followed by a purchase order. All authorized repairs will be reimbursed at a rate not to exceed 100% of the Mitchell Repair Manual's published flat rate schedule. Hourly rates will be paid in accordance with the original installation rate, not to exceed $ 36.00 per flat rate hour. Parts will be either supplied or reimbursed at cost. Warranty claims should be submitted on the repairing garage's work order with our P.O. attached. Unauthorized repairs will not be considered for reimbursement.

My engine was overhauled by a pretty good small shop (Northwest Connecting Rod in Seattle) and I have a little over $3,000 in receipts from them (incl new heads) + install costs + clutch from a small shop in WA.

GEX could have sold the replacement engine for $1300.

Good work costs good money. When it comes to rebuild time, parts alone will most likely cost me almost $2K just to do the work myself. Nobody works for nothing (except me when I am working on my bus).

I have also worked on the other side of the counter where the customer wants it for a cheap as can be found, even if you tell them it is inferior junk. People are funny. They want to sell the car and they know they are going to lose their shorts on the deal anyway, so why spend a bunch on repairs? Sometimes they think like that. Sometimes you do get what you pay for.

I don't know if I need to spend $5K from Raby or Boston Bob for a bus engine. They are good, but I don't need that for what I do. I would be looking for something that would hold together for as long as I intended to keep the car and was in my price range.

Do it right and do it once. Then go for a good ride!!

Thu Nov 20, 2003 3:58 pm

I'm glad someone finally brought up the subject of GEX, cuz everyone out there needs to know what total criminals those guys are... i have personally seen many GEX engines that only lasted a month. after examining the situation i found at least one big reason why they dont last- all the case halves were mismatched! VW stamps each case half with a three digit number, located at the top near the split. this number is the same on both halves of any one motor that leaves the factory, and obviously those two halves should stay paired up to the death! but GEX puts the left case half of one motor with the right case half of a different motor... INSANE! on each blown GEX motor ive seen the two case half numbers didnt match each other the way they should. and further examination revealed that the oil seal, cam seal and oil pump bore halves didnt line up at the split -causing leaks galores! GEX IS PUBLIC ENEMY NO.1... i called them to ask them what in hell they were thinking and they gave me the standard corporate response: "we havent had any problems with that, and if yours has a problem, send it back for a replacement". using logic on that guy was hopeless.

Thu Nov 20, 2003 4:04 pm

Exactly! dansvans has seen some of the same shit I have.

I have also seen 40 hp cases opened up for 1600 jugs and built into a dual port! gotta love the size of the oil galleys!

not to mention .020 and .030 early non cross drilled cranks etc etc...

Thu Nov 20, 2003 4:19 pm

You simply have to wonder what kind of parts are going in when the engine and labor costs less than quality made parts like the original items that VW used in the factory builds.

Thu Nov 20, 2003 7:04 pm

"Hourly rates will be paid in accordance with the original installation rate, not to exceed $ 36.00 per flat rate hour"

HUH?!? What repair shop is still in business at $36 per hour?

Thu Nov 20, 2003 11:14 pm

Before I knew better I took an engine down to their shop for an exchange. They tore my engine apart and told me that they needed to charge me for, heads, crank, cam, and case halves because my, heads had cracks, crank was standard but had a spun bearing, cam showed "signs of wear"!I went ballisticand said " what are you doing with that pile of heads there, I bet you send them to a machine shop to have tham rebuilt, the crank can be reground 3 more times, what cam won't have wear"? I was so pissed that they tried to pull the wool over my eyes I was threatening to call a TV news station if I doidn't get my engine as stated in their ad! I did and am sorry I did! Dang engine spun a #3 rod bearing in less than 3K miles! I looked at the " Heat tag" on the case after the first drive of 8 miles and it was melted. I knew that this voided the so called warranty. Never again! GEX sucks!

Fri Nov 21, 2003 5:49 pm

My GEX engine I bought years ago in my younger and dumber days lasted about 6000 miles. They had JB welded one of the sump studs into a stripped engine case. It fell out while I was driving and the engine blew the same time the idiot light came on. They, of course, stated that I had stripped the case during an oil change and refused to warranty anything. Pricks! Also, they've moved to somewhere in the midwest to probably avoid the legal hassles of the countless Californians who have been burned by their crappy engines and intolerably bad customer service. I hope to God they go out of business with the IRS coming after the owners! :evil:

Fri Nov 21, 2003 6:31 pm

I have a GEX 1776 that a guy gave me after he locked it up after 6 months. When I rebuilt it I found the crank had bent.

Sun Nov 23, 2003 6:46 pm

I bought my 71 square and it had a new GEX motor with onlyt a few thousand mile on it , as of now it have less than 10,000 miles , 2 pulled head studs, pulled exhaust studs, leaks oil like nuts and runs like crap. Glad i didnt buy it myself.

Sun Nov 23, 2003 8:13 pm

... but hey, they have a fancy looking ad in the magazines!!! :roll:

Thu Nov 27, 2003 11:12 pm

Boston Bob and I share something in common. Neither one of us needs a magazine ad. Shiny ads don't mean a damn thing except the shop has to make another grand every month before they profit a thing.....

Boston Bob and I have our work find us.

Fri Nov 28, 2003 4:20 pm

Hey All... I've bought "parts" from GEX in the past, but I always picked them up in person, that way I could check them out before handing over any greenbacks! There "return/warrantee" pile was gigantic! Pallets & pallets & boxes & boxes of returned defective parts! They had at least 15 guys working on just returned stuff!
When we bought our 71 Bus, the guy said the engine only had about 25,000 miles total on it & he had only put about 1500 miles on it since he had to replace the heads! We drove it about 5000 miles before the #4 rod broke! When we bought the Bus, I noticed a slight oil leak, that I figured was probably the oil cooler seals! After the engine died, I pulled it out & dis-assembled it & after pulling the tin, I noticed the infamous "GEX" stamped in the top of the case! One of the mounting ears on the engine case had been welded, but had broken again, that caused the minor leak! BUT... the wrong oil cooler seals had been installed & they were pinched down so they only had an 1/8" hole in them for the oil to go thru! As I pulled the engine tin, the "elbow" for the doghouse cooling tin was gone so the hot air coming thru the oil cooler wasn't going out the bottom as it's supposed to, it was staying in the engine compartment! The cylinder cooling tin was missing too! As I pulled the case apart, I discovered that the front main/thrust bearing was machined smaller than the rest of the mains & the case was opened up more than the rest of the main saddles! Two of the rods were installed upside down too! One of the reasons the rod finally broke was that it had been machined/re-sized too many times & it was way too thin, plus the restricted oil flow & extra heat etc., etc.!Some of this was GEX's doing & some of it was whomever installed the heads! After doing some checking, I found out that the engine actually only had 7500 miles when it broke - 2500 that the previous owner put on it & 5000 miles that we put on it! The GEX heads cracked at 1000 miles & he had them replaced! I won't buy parts from them anymore & I'd recommend not buying anything from them!
Good Luck & Have Fun... ManxManiac

Fri Nov 28, 2003 6:59 pm

Here is a thread on another forum about the infamous quality of said company.

http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=59569

Fri Nov 28, 2003 8:49 pm

My daughter needed another engine in her 77 Westy and I was pressed for time.....so I bought a used engine for a 100 bucks at one of my local self serve wrecking yards. It was a complete 78 2.0L FI engine, GE case and all. Including a pretty GEX sticker. Put it in and it ran nice.... on three cylinders. #3 was gone. I dropped the engine and pulled the head. Everything looked nice and clean and fresh. It was all correct as a 78: hydraulic lifters, steel pushrods, and even the correct spacers and wave washers between the rockers. All except the #3 exhaust seat.... it was gone, pushed all the way up and blocking the exhaust port!
I replaced the head with a good used one and reinstalled the engine. Now it ran on all 4 but I had a banging lifter at #2 that would never shut up. I replaced it. Runs great now. I hope it stays together for the winter while I build her a real engine!

Fri Nov 28, 2003 11:02 pm

Quote: Boston Bob and I share something in common. Neither one of us needs a magazine ad. Shiny ads don't mean a damn thing except the shop has to make another grand every month before they profit a thing.....

You know, I'm in the middle of my second restoration in 2 years, and I've bought 100% of my parts on the internet (Samba, ebay, company websites). I picked up a copy of Hot VW's for the first time in years the other day and was just amazed at the ads for companies I had never heard of. Then I started reading the ads themselves and I realized that I had accidentially dodged a bullet-- if I had used the magazines instead of the internet I almost certainly would have spent more and gotten less. I felt pretty good about things after reading those ads.

Sat Nov 29, 2003 12:05 am

I just stopped by my mechanics and there is a brand new GEX engine sitting there. Guy bought it to “restore” the beetle his wife drove in high school. My mechanic knows better, but the damn thing just showed up and this guy’s money spends real good so what the hell.

Fact is, this guy will take that car home and park it. It may go 1000 miles in a good year. At that rate even a GEX engine will last 5-6 years. At that point he will blame either his wife or the mechanic when it blows up. Or, he’ll sell it to some unsuspecting chump who will, in turn, blame him for lying that the engine was rebuilt. Either way GEX gets off scott free, and thanks to their advertising will probably sell the engine that replaces that one.

I once knew a guy that had a family business selling rebuilt starters and alternators. This guy would contract with junkyards to buy every starter they had. They would arrive by the pallet load. He had a couple junkies employed cleaning them and putting them in boxes with big “REBUILT” stickers—he didn’t even test them. He just knew the odds: out of every 100 starters 90+ were working when the cars hit the junkyard. If one happened to be bad the customer brought it back for exchange. Just a cost of doing business. Same with GEX, quality costs more than advertising and doesn’t pay nearly as well--most people don't know or care about the difference.