Hey guys, I thought I should warn everyone out there to take anything LC Engineering says with a grain of salt. I ordered a header from them on May 27th, and was promised it would be on my doorstep in 4-5 days. My truck is down because of a cracked manifold, and I don't want to risk driving it since I'm afraid I'll burn an exhaust valve. Anyway, they called and left a message on May 28th, 'Hey, we know we promised you 4-5 days, but we won't be able to ship it to you until April 8th.' So I called and spoke with a supervisor, who said they didn't have any connector pipes in, they were all out being ceramic coated and wouldn't be back until the 7th of April. So I said I would wait, but I asked if they could ship the connector pipe to me next day air when it arrived so I could install it the weekend of the 9th. He said he would ship it next day, but I had to split the cost with him!?!?! I told him that wasn't good service, since I could get a Thorley from Summit within the week, and would have ordered a Thorley if I'd been told I was going to have to wait two weeks for the LC. I was promised 4-5 day delivery, and under the circumstances I think I was being very reasonable in wanting them to pay for the air shipment to get it to me by the 9th of April (still a two week wait). I even offered to accept a non-coated connector pipe if it would speed up delivery. After a lot of talking and my threat to cancel the order he finally told me that he would have the parts to me on or before the 9th of April if I was willing to wait that long.

Well, it's April 9th. No header, no connector pipe. I called them today and they said they shipped the header and connector on April 7th, and shipped it UPS GROUND!

I am so frustrated right now that I don't know what to do. I want to refuse the shipment because of this terrible service, but I also want to drive my truck again. I'm tempted to just order a Thorley and live with the extra few days it will take for a Thorley to get to me, but I'm not sure the Thorley will fit my truck. I've got a 1989 4Runner, 22RE, and Thorley says they don't make a header for it. They do make one for a 1989 pickup in 4x2, but not one in 4x4. Anyone know what the difference might be?

I know the quickest way to get my truck on the road is just to wait on UPS to deliver the LC Engineering header, but I hate walking into a project already ticked off. If I have any trouble with it, or it doesn't help the truck's performance, I'll be really, really upset with myself for keeping it.

Anyway, thanks for letting me rant. The bottom line is don't trust any date that LC Engineering gives you.

They've given me the runaround a few times. Too bad their stuff is so good... Otherwise I wouldn't get anything from them.


About the 4x2 header...

The differance is going to be in the length of the pipes. Think about it, the engine sits lower to the ground and higher in the bay. It shouldn't make much difference but you may need some custom pipeing because of the angles. Thats the only difference I can imagine.

Josh

It's a damn shame when you put your faith into a company who PROMISED you, the customer AKA: "pigeon" (I've felt this frustration before, and it SUCKS!!! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/angry.gif" alt="" />), a product w/ "speedy" service right to your door step, and they turn around and say,

Kinda feels like they've got you by the nuts, huh? Sounds like they want to wash their hands of you. They should be afraid. VERY AFRAID!! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/evil.gif" alt="" /> I'd wager a large amount of cash that you're one of many they've screwed. Sorry again!

-Kuso <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shiner.gif" alt="" />

services suck yes, but the LCE is WORTH the time and CASH!!

john

Based on my experience, I wouldn't run LC gear if they paid me to run it. I bought a full exhaust system from them about 4 to 5 years ago and it was nothing but trouble. It kind of fit, but not really. Welds broke, muffler rusted out, the cat they sent was junk and broke apart... all of it in short order and all of it in the California climate. Nope, no LC for me. Overpriced junk.

Yeah, I had a problem w/ LCE, too. I ordered the header, catback, cat. It took some time to get the catback since it was being ceramic coated. I finally arrived, only to find that the connector pipe from the cat to the muffler was the wrong one. The shop that installed it called them and asked them to send the correct one, but they refused, claiming they could not have possibly made an error. The shop ended up reinstalling the original cat back, driving it to a local muffler shop to have a custom connector pipe made. Cost me $100. The gave me a can of silver, heat-resistant paint containing ceramic. BTW, the "stainless" cat back isn't really stainless. It contains just enough stainless to prevent it from rusting from the inside out, according to the guy at LCE. Still, the bottom of my muffler has some rust on it, and I was living in Southern California at that time! The LCE header does work very well though...power gain w/ the TRD level 1 cam and 2 1/4" catback was surprising. If I were to do it over again, I'd get the LCE header, cat (cat is made by Car Sounds), and get a custom catback with a QUIET muffler. LCE muffler is damn loud.

I do admit their muffler (which is made by carsound also) it quite loud, but I like it. I don't have any rust on mine living in PHX and FLG. I've had the muffler/cat for a few years. I had a local mom & pop shop weld me up a really nice 2.25in pipe from the end of the stock collector all the way back for about 100bux. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

I got the LCE header about 6mos ago. It keeps backing off but I guess thats to be expected. High rpms (which is what it is designed for) makes it leak. then again, high rpms for this motor are 5-6k rpm. Thats not really impressive.. lol

Alot of their stuff is overpriced, especially when you have to pay shipping and tax, but I've never had a problem with quality.

Josh

As long as we are all sharing storys about service and products I thought I'd share mine. I sent my cylinder heads for my 3.0 off to be ported/polished and new cams/studs. I was told 5-7 day in shop turn around time. Well I sent them out Feb 21st thay where recieved by the shop march 1st. Its been over a month and thay still arent here <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> it took less time for God to flood the earth. To make matters worse I have spent 1600$ on them so far including shipping. Everything is paid in full and I have tried not to call the shop more than 3 or 4 times over the 50 day period but its getting difficult to keep smiling and pretend like I understand. I was hoping to see the heads yesterday but thay didnt show so maybe monday... needless to say I will probably be reconsidering any work I planned to get done by that shop in the future. I cant even convey how pissed off Im gonna be if there are any defects in workmanship when thay do finally get here. The Owner of the company has been very nice and friendly through out the duration of my dealings with him but its still hard to get past the month+ turn around time.