How Forged Performance screwed a GTR owner out of $250,000

Mook

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May 23, 2007
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You read that right. $250,000.

Forged Performance: The Truth ! - Vendor Reviews - GT-R Life

The Truth About Forged Performance

This is going to be a long winded review, but my experience spans over a 22 month timeframe and I am still dealing with the repairs as I write this. I feel it is important to notate all of the details in order to properly warn my fellow GT-R owners. I would never want anyone to have to go through what I have experienced over the last couple of years.

Here are the cliff notes for anyone who doesnā€™t want to read the entire detailed experienceā€

ā€¢ 22 month project
ā€¢ Over $250,000 spent at Forged Performance
ā€¢ Countless lies and broken promises
ā€¢ 300 whp below goal
ā€¢ Engine failure before delivery
ā€¢ Transmission failure shortly after delivery
ā€¢ 2nd Engine failure upon teardown
ā€¢ Hacked up turbo kit
ā€¢ Overcharged for the performed work
ā€¢ Horrible craftsmanship
ā€¢ Shoddy work
ā€¢ FP refused to compensate me for the troubles or refund me

I dropped my car off to start my project with Forged Performance back on March 3rd of 2011. I had originally intended to build this project in a couple of stages because I wanted to enjoy my car over the summer. I already had all of the basic bolt on modifications as well as a stock frame AMS turbo upgrade, and a moderately modified transmission with upgraded clutches, but I wanted a noticeable power increase over what I was currently making. All of the previous work was also done at Forged Performance. After discussing the project with Sharif, he recommended the HKS GT800 turbo kit. We had planned to keep the motor and transmission untouched for the time being as the car would be making its way back up to Forged in the fall for the engine and a full transmission build.

After a couple months of waiting on parts and the work to be done, there was little to no progress on my car. I talked to Sharif and his sales staff for updates several times a week. While my car was there, Sharif recommended that I add the OS Giken Rear Differential. He said it completely transformed the car and made it feel much lighter. I was also told while we were in there, it would be a good time to replace some of the older Willall transmission upgrades I had with the newer and better pieces made by Dodson. I agreed to the recommended upgrades provided that it would not significantly delay the completion time of the project. However, as I would find out, this amoung other things would end up delaying the completion date further than I would have ever anticipated. As the months passed away, it became evident that the car would not be done in time for me to enjoy over the summer. I am still not sure what could possibly have taken this long to complete the project. The mod list for this round of the project is listed below:

HKS GT800 Kit

AMS MAF Sensors
T1 Fuel Rails and ID2000cc Injectors
Update Cobb to NIS006
Walbro 255 Fuel Pumps (not sure why this was not done on my last turbo upgrade done by Forged)
OS Giken Rear Differential
Dodson Stage 1 upgrades (no clutch, no gears. Just small pieces)
Complete Fluid Change
All Associated Labor
Tuning

Total Price Tag for the above and a 6 month install $33,931.85.

My previous invoices for the bolt ons, Willall clutches and fasteners, transmission cooler, brakes, and sway bars was $38,107.23. Granted there were some parts that were not power related, but this makes the running total $72,039.08 paid to Forged at this time with no engine or significant transmission upgrades (No gears and no major clutch upgrade).

This stage of the project was completed September 7, 2011. By this point, it was not worth it to transport the car back home for me to enjoy for only a month or two. I never anticipated that it would take anywhere close to this long for a turbo install and stage 1 transmission upgrade. This should have been my first indication of things to come. I decided to leave the car up at Forged as I had already been discussing and planning the engine and transmission project with them.

Over the next few weeks, we discussed the details to the engine and transmission build. The initial build plan was to build a 4.0L engine, heads, stage 4 transmission, and upgrade the fuel system. Just as with the previous round of work, it was very slow moving for the first few months, to the point that I was not entirely sure any work was being done at all. Once work started and while the car was down getting the motor built, we decided to send off the HKS turbos to be upgraded in order to make more power. My goal was to make 1000 whp with the new setup.

As with any large scale build, I continued to add small parts along the way. After talking with the guys at Forged it was suggested that I add parts such as DSS axles, transmission brace, and additional transmission upgrades. I am pretty sure at this point I have the entire Dodson catalog in my transmission. I knew adding some of these parts would add some time to the completion of the project, but with the engine and transmission already out, I was led to believe that it would not have a significant impact on the completion time.

I continued to talk to Sharif and my goals for the car began to increase as I saw some of the other GT-Rā€™s around the country setting faster and faster Ā¼ mile times. We started talking about what would be required in order to go after the record. Sharif recommended that instead of using the upgraded HKS turbos that we had initially planned on using, that we go with the JUN GTX35R kit. I was told there were no other turbo kits available that would make the type of power that the JUN kit would. ETS and Boost Logic were not making large enough kits at this time, and the Alpha 12 kit would not make enough for my new goals (So I was told). Sharif told me that with the JUN kit we could expect to make around 1300+ whp and no other kit on the market would. I wanted a setup that would be faster than an Alpha 12. Sharif had told me that the Alpha 10 and Alpha 12 turbos were based off of the same turbo, but just had a different compressor. Based on this information, we decided the GTX35R size turbo would produce more power as it was a larger frame turbo. I found out later that this information was not in any way accurate.

Additionally, Sharif tells me that due to the new power goals of this project, the AMS Alpha Fuel System is not sufficient to support this power. He says they can modify the kit in order to flow more fuel in house at Forged. I end up paying a total of 28 hours of labor plus additional parts on top of the cost of the Alpha Fuel System in order to modify the kit to ā€œflow enoughā€ fuel. I would be very interested in AMSā€™s thoughts on whether or not this actually needed to be done. I have been told by several other sources that this is total BS and the additional modification never needed to be done.

I was excited about the project again. I knew that changing the turbo kit from HKS to JUN would add further delays as it had to be made and shipped from Japan. However, I was told that the motor and heads would be built and completed while we waited for the turbo kit. This would minimize the delays on completing the car. By doing this, all that we would need to do when the kit arrived was bolt it up and throw the motor back into the car.

As we waited for the turbos to show up, no progress was done on the engine or transmission. When the turbos do finally arrive, I was informed the motor has not been completed. Due to this, the project continued to run behind schedule. Once the motor is finally assembled (the motor will fail later) and we start to install the JUN turbo kit, we run into a new problem, it does not fit. The JUN kit is a RHD kit and does not have the same fitment as a LHD GT-R. Sharif tells me there is no need to return the kit; they can fabricate and modify the manifolds on the kit in order to make it fit perfectly with no problem. It would take some labor, but considering how long the kit took to come in, it would save a significant amount of time. I am asked to pay for about half of this modification (10 hours). I approved the modification to the kit because I was assured it would work perfectly and I would have nothing to worry about.

By this time, the project is already past the revised completion date. To be fair, I did continue to add parts throughout this time, but nothing that I would consider would hold up the project significantly. I added parts such as a set of HREā€™s, intake manifold and throttle bodies, larger intercooler and piping, JRZā€™s, seats and harness bar, and some small carbon bits. These parts were added throughout the build process as I was growing bored with the project due to it taking so long. A good bit of this was already out of the car for the build, so I had assumed it would be minimal delays to add them. Closer to July I am getting impatient, so I sent an email

This was on June 29th, 2012

Please send photos of the car, I would like to see where it is at. I am getting very discouraged with the build, don't think that is good for any of us.

Thanks
Todd


Given the amount of parts I had purchased overall, I knew I would have a great deal of used parts coming off of the car. I instructed Forged that I wanted ALL of my parts back and that I would be driving up to Forged from Miami in my brothers truck to pick up all of my old parts. I made the long drive up and arrived July 6th. I really had two reasons for the trip; one to talk to Sharif face to face about the long time it is taking to complete this build, and two, to pick up all my parts. Sharif explained most of the reasons for the delays to the best of his ability, but it still did not make me feel any better about the long time it was taking. I am told that they like to only have 1 technician work on the car in order to avoid confusion and that the tech working on my car only works three days a week. It was frustrating to hear that with a project the size of mine, they would put a part time technician on the car. However, I was told he was the most qualified tech at the time to work on my car and I rather have it take a little longer for quality work. Additionally, to my surprise, I am only given one blue bin of my old parts. I know there has to be more parts that I should be getting back, so I continue to ask if there are any more parts. I am told several times that the blue bin was everything. I understand that they are busy, and they appeared to be quite disorganized as well. Regardless, I left and made the long drive back down to Miami with my one bin of parts.

At this point in the project, I continue to talk to Forged almost on a daily basis to make sure that my car is a priority. I continue to discuss the delays and eventually send another email to Sharif.

July 20th, 2012 email sent to Sharif:

Progress still seems to be at a very slow pace, I am sorry but growing more impatient every day. I need to get this project finished. When we made the switch to the Jun turbos you said it made a start of summer vs end of summer difference. Now we are looking at August in 11 days. Do I need to give a deadline? I am totally frustrated and not a happy camper. At this point when it is finished I don't even want a thread on NATGROC. I just want the car finished. How would you feel if your car took this long and you invested what I have?

Thanks
Todd


Shortly after my email, I am told the car is getting very close to being completed. Sharif tells me that we should wait for the Motec and it will be ready very soon. He said the Cobb software was not capable of handling the high hp GT-Rā€™s safely and we really need to run the Motec. He tells me that he will get one before the official release date and expects it to arrive August 14th, 2012. I ended up waiting for the Motec for 3 months while Sharif told me every time I talked to him that it was only 1-2 weeks away. I even recall getting told it was about to ship out, yet it never did. Finally, I get fed up with waiting near the end of November of 2012, and ask Sharif to tune the car on Cobb.

We are now in December, and finally the car goes on the dyno for final tuning. However, it does not go on the Forged dyno. Sharif tells me that it cannot handle 1000 hp cars, so they have to rent time on a different dyno down the street. That sounded odd to me, but I didn't put up a fight. The plan was to tune the car on Cobb for the time being, and bring the car back up to Forged once the Motec is finally ready. On the other dyno Sharif mad a little over 1000 whp on E85. I was told around Christmas time the car was finished and about ready for pickup. So right before I was to drive up and pick up the car Forged thought the wheel alignment looked off, so they took it to the alignment shop. While the car is at the alignment shop, oil starts pouring out of the motor. Keep in mind, this was a fully build Forged FP1R 4.0L engine that has not even been delivered. After they got it back to the shop and dug into it they found that a spun main bearing had protruded through the rear main seal on my brand new engine. Sharif tells me that they do not want to take any chances, so they decided to use a brand new engine instead of using the existing engine that spun the bearing. He tells me he will be paying for this out of his own pocket (like he is doing me a favor).

I tell Sharif at this time that I have lost confidence in Forged Performanceā€™s ability to do this build right. I expect the car to be 100% perfect when I get it back, no exceptions. There are several reasons I have lost confidence in Forged at this point. The motor was never tuned past 26 PSI, so it wasnā€™t even being pushed that hard when it failed. Additionally, multiple technicians and other staff members have quit Forged throughout my build process, including the part time technician that I was told was the most qualified to do the job. I was told these technicians were supposed to be the best, yet they quit and someone else has to resume the work. Forged has had almost a complete turnover in staff since I started dealing with them. This is a huge red flag in my book. Does this mean they donā€™t have technicians qualified to work on this large scale of a project? After all, this was one of the reasons I was told for the earlier delays on my build. Additionally, none of the promises I was made were kept both in terms of timeframe and power numbers. The tune felt terrible. How is it that other shops are capable of tuning 1000+ hp cars on the Cobb AP, but Forged cannot?

Forged installed the new engine and the car is finally delivered to me in Miami on January 26th, 2013ā€¦ 22 months after I had initially sent my car to Forged Performance. I was obviously excited to drive my car after being without it for so long. The car felt pretty fast, but it was very jerky on acceleration, especially in 3rd and 4th gear rolling into the throttle. It also seemed to sputter pretty badly. I let my brother drive the car and it actually stalled on him twice while at idle. I informed Sharif of my issues. He told me it was the tune and he would fix it when it comes back to get the Motec installed and tuned.

Under harder acceleration it would act like it hit the rev limiter, the tune was that bad. (but didn't do it all the time, so I was told maybe the engine is still cold)

I never drove the car hard or launched it. I was honestly reluctant to drive the car hard because I had lost confidence in the quality of work. I had a bad feeling about the car and did not want to test my luck. Shortly before the TX2K13 event in March, I was driving the car in a good bit of traffic on the way to and from work. The car never got above 40 mph. In 4th gear, I went to downshift and the transmission would not shift. I tried again, and once again nothing happened. The transmission light comes on and throws the car into limp mode. I limped the car home and pull it into the garage. I immediately call Sharif and tell him what happened. He tells me to try a relearn. This does not fix the problem, but the transmission feels like it is lurching forward and backward slightly and will not get past the transmission check on startup. At this point, the car will not get out of park.

Regrettably I began making plans to have the car transported back to Forged. I needed to have the transmission fixed and I was once again told that the Motec was extremely close to shipping. Over the next couple days I went back and forth on weather to go down this road again. I knew that having the car looked at or fixed by another shop would cost me extra money but I honestly couldn't stomach the thought of my car sitting at Forged again.

The weekend of TX2K13, which I was not at, I decided there was no way I was going to send the car back to Forged. At this point, I did not want Forged to ever touch the car again. At this point in a very short time I had a major engine failure and now a transmission failure as well. I saw all the major shops around the country were able to take cars making much more power than mine and run flawlessly at TX2K13, yet I canā€™t even drive home from work in traffic without the car failing. I inform Sharif the following day that I will not be bringing the car back to him. I am a very upfront person and never want to mislead anyone. I wanted to talk to Sharif myself to explain the reasons I was not going to be bringing my car back to Forged.

After weighing my options of where else to send the car, I chose TopSpeed Motorsports. Honestly one of the main reasons for doing this was their close proximity to Forged. Both shops are in Georgia and if anything needed to be inspected quickly, TSM is less than an hour from Forged. Another reason was all of the positive reviews I have read on them on this forum, as well as simply proven performance. I have the car picked up on March 23rd, 2013. My brother has to help the driver push my car on the transport because it will not drive. While the car is getting loaded, my neighbor says ā€œI thought it was a new carā€ how embarrassing. I walk back into my garage after the car is gone and I see fluid on the garage floor. I didnā€™t know it at the time, but it ended up being coolant.

When I told Sharif about where the car was going, he immediately started trying to discredit TSM and their abilities and competencies on the GT-R platform. Iā€™ll leave the details out for now, but it became very obvious that he was worried about TopSpeed looking at the car. I know TSM and Forged are direct competitors, but I was still surprised to hear Sharif talk so poorly about them, especially because NONE of it was true. It was disheartening to hear Sharif make up lies about TSM and the cars they had built in order to try and sway my choice in shops. It just made me realize even more the type of person I had been dealing with all of this time. I should have picked up on it earlier with all of the broken promises and excuses to cover them up, but Sharif is a VERY good talker and for some reason, I believed what he was telling me.

The car arrives to TopSpeed Motorsports on March 25, 2013. At this point, I want the entire car looked over from top to bottom. I donā€™t trust a single thing that was done on the car. We quickly decided to send the transmission to Shep Trans as they do ALL of the transmissions for TSM. The transmission is currently at Shep being repaired. So far I know that the clutches were put together incorrectly, they welded the piston seals which you're not supposed to do, one of the Dodson Mechanical Circlips that I paid Forged for was never installed, and the 2,4,6 cluster had a crack in it.

Upon inspection of the car, TSM found a laundry list of problems that are shown in the below pictures. Keep in mind, these are just the pictures we found at first glance, at this point we had not even dropped the engine down to inspect further.

ToddsPic15_zps15b8f15c.jpg


ToddsPic19_zps9bdbb7e8.jpg


ToddsPic13_zps26559f4a.jpg


ToddsPic12_zps93d9e2bc.jpg




ToddsPic10_zps4280ae5f.jpg


ToddsPic8_zps7c9c64c3.jpg


ToddsPic7_zpsd19b9ec4.jpg


ToddsPic5_zpsccb93a56.jpg


ToddsPic4_zps7d79fbd0.jpg


ToddsPic3_zps5d59746e.jpg


ToddsPic2_zpsf0f854de.jpg


When asked where the transmission cooler was, Sharif replied "that's a good question"

ToddsPic_zpsdf7b319e.jpg


todd-24_1_zps33f15e9f.jpg


todd-23_1_zpsa0c20750.jpg


todd-20_1_zpsf4de19d0.jpg


todd-18_1_zps08967d18.jpg


and then they pulled the sleaved 4.0 block apart and this is what they found...

ToddsPic16_zpsfeb1c500.jpg


ToddsPic6_zps231e1314.jpg



I informed Sharif that the engine was also bad and needed to be replaced. He replied by telling me that TSM would do anything to make him look bad including sabotaging the motor that was in my car. He wanted to see the engine for himself, even after I had sent him pictures of the engine. Even after all of the problems that have been found on my car, Sharif continued to try and point the blame everywhere except with Forged Performance.

Durring all of this, I decided to go through my invoices to see which missing parts were not returned to me. I knew I was missing a good deal of parts. Below is the list of parts that were not returned to me. As mentioned prior, I asked for ALL of my old parts back. I am sure I am still forgetting some, but this was the list I was able to come up with. From what I can see, there are thousands of dollarsā€™ worth of parts on this list.

AMS Cast Catless Downpipes
Synapse Intake Kit
Synapse IC Pipe Kit
Deatschwerks 800cc Injectors
HKS EVC Boost Controller
Willall Clutch Upgrade
Willall Gear Fasteners
Willall Clutch Retaining Clips
Willall Piston Seals
Willall Front Mount Transmision Cooler
OEM Fuel Rails
OEM Rear Differential
2X Walbro 255 lph fuel pumps
Greddy Upper Intercooler Pipes

OEM rods
OEM pistons
OEM valves
OEM springs/retainers
OEM camshafts
OEM 1-6 Gearset
OEM output shaft
OEM FWD output shaft
OEM FWD Clutch housing
OEM FWD Clutches
OEM FWD Pinion

OEM Selector Rings
OEM Gear Selector Shafts
OEM 1-R Shift Fork
OEM Air Guide/Duct
OEM throttle bodies
OEM MAF sensors
OEM MAP sensor
OEM Shifter Surround
OEM stub axles

I sent the above list of missing parts to Sharif and was told that they would find them and return them to me. After 3 weeks with me asking every few days, the parts had still not shipped to me. Finally, this week after a total of 4 weeks of me asking the shipment came... The only problem was it only included half of the list of parts that I had requested. Sharif told me they forgot a box of transmission parts. There is a box coming today, we will have to see what is in it. I don't think AMS downpipes are transmission parts, and was also told the transmission cooler can't be found.

As mentioned before, I am a very upfront person and very understanding. I sent all of these pictures to Sharif throughout the process and expressed my concern. I gave Forged several chances to make things right, but Sharif refused to help me out unless I brought the car back to him. I of course would not take my car back to them after seeing the horrible work that was done on my car. However, I did asked Sharif to compensate me appropriately for the poor work multiple times. I also requested he take back the turbo kit and engine as well as cover the cost of repairs for the transmission. Even after seeing the above pictures, Sharif refused to compensate me and instead said what I had sent him was mostly minor issues that could be easily fixed. He also refused to take the turbo back because I have ā€œchanged my mindā€ on what I wanted. He did offer to take back his sleeved block and give me a usable core and crank to start over with, but would not refund me the money I had paid him for the Forged Performance shortblock. He said he would fix the existing engine and give it to me, but would not reimburse me because I had decided to have TSM build me an engine. How am I supposed to trust a third engine after two have already failed in such a short time, not to mention the engines were not pushed even close to their supposed limits.

In the end it is overwhelmingly obvious that Forged Performance is not qualified to take on this type of a project. Two engines failed, the transmission failed, and the turbo kit was hacked up and did not perform as promised. This project took nearly 2 years to complete, multiple failures, and Forged made no effort to make it right at the end of the day. I would warn anyone considering using Forged Performance for any work to think twice. I spent over $250k with Forged and this is the way I was treated. At the end of the day, Forged Performance failed to do anything correctly on my car and I am having to pay a second time to fix those mistakes and do it right.

I can't take back my experience with Forged, but I can at least warn others to ensure they do not find themselves in the same situation that I have had to deal with. I really hope that nobody else has to deal with the heartache that I have had to deal with.
 

Vogz

Moist Ass Bitch
Jul 4, 2006
4,481
233
Batavia, IL
Holy shit. I knew Sharif back before he was in the business. He was a just another guy on the 350Z forum. He started Forged back around 2004 just selling 350Z specific parts, and when he had enough capital he opened the shop. He wanted to be "different" than other tuners, and do everything "right". All the 350Z builds his shop did back in the day were top notch and everyone loved his hands on approach and customer service. I spent several evenings back in the day on the phone with him discussing 350Z tuning.

WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?????
 

Vogz

Moist Ass Bitch
Jul 4, 2006
4,481
233
Batavia, IL
Ok, just finished reading the entire debacle.

This GT-R owner is a dweeb. He doesn't even know what coolant looks like. He has no business owning a 1000+whp car. He talks about all these 1000+whp GT-Rs from other shops running flawlessly. I don't think he understands what goes into a car like that and just how finicky they can be.

That said, Sharif fucked up. BAD. It seems he has turned into another greedy speed shop owner who takes in way too much work and doesn't care about the quality of the product anymore.

Oh, and the welds are NOT bad. They aren't amazing, and they could have ground down the bead a bit, but they are far from bad.
 

Donnie

Ethanol Junkie.
Jan 31, 2012
2,891
40
Uranus, Sol System
The owner of the car is the idiot as much as the shop.
A fool and his money are soon parted.

Couldn't agree more. I understand many guys aren't like me, but I can't handle having others work on my cars. And when by necessity it happens, I'm so far up their shit they have to waddle... For someone to maintain nearly zero oversight of what is being done to their car- Let alone their brand new 100k car, while forking over a QUARTER MILLION DOLLARS in addition??

Jesus. Christ. What the fuck.

:ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh:
 
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