Choate Engineering Performance

Sep 25th, 2023

Aug 22nd, 2023

Mar 11th, 2023

Waiting
Jan 29th, 2023

This is a very long review, but trust me, you will want to read the whole thing before you plan on doing business with this company. I ordered my engine (Workhorse 6.4) in early 2022. I received the engine as promised and all seemed well. I got a professional diesel shop to replace everything they required, did the whole 9 yards to satisfy their warranty requirements. After about 6 months and 40k miles, the engine began knocking and smoking heavily one morning. I contacted Choate immediately and emailed them a video showing what was happening. Cass (the owner of Choate) had me drain the oil to measure the amount, to see if there was dilution, which was not the case. Then, the rep (Leo) from Choate Performance Engineering told me to test drive it to see if there was a noticeable change in the drivability of the truck. At the point, the truck died completely. I called them to tell Leo. I was told to have to have the engine removed and shipped back to them. I did one better, I shipped the whole truck to them, in the beginning of October 2022, so they could verify everything. Leo tells me that they are really busy, but they should be able to look at it but the beginning of November. No big deal I tell him, just keep me informed. I started calling about once a week to inquire the status of my truck the first week of November, only to be strung along. The week before Thanksgiving when I called yet again, Leo told me that the engine blocked cracked and that the repair is covered under warranty. The week of Thanksgiving I called once again. Leo told me that my engine is completely built but they are short staffed to install it. The first week of December when I called yet again, I was told that Leo no longer works for the company, and that my original sales rep would now be handling my claim. I bought up to speed about what I told up to this point by Leo. He then informed me that my engine is not ready, but had only just been torn down and inspected. This is where everything went south. The rep emailed me pictures of damaged gears and informed me that Cass will not honor the repair under warranty. Cass claimed that a "foreign object" was dropped in the engine during installation. I explained to him that after 40k miles, I highly doubt that was the case. I asked him what they found that brought him to this assessment. He said just very fine metal shavings, nothing that could be identified. I explained to him that it was not possible for something to go through an engine and literally leave no evidence of what it is, especially to make it 40k miles before becoming an issue. I then drove 400 miles to perform my own visual inspection in person. When I arrived, I was that none of the alleged debris was saved. Furthermore, they were unable to provide me any photos of said debris. After debunking Cass's theory not once, not twice, but three time, he then tried to play the "I'm smarter than you" game and tried to convince me that the laws of physics don't exist in this scenario. I was recording the inspections an interactions with Cass and his employees. I later emailed Cass my assessments, but received no response. And to this date, Cass will not respond to any communication via email. The only response I got is from his (I believe) wife/co-owner, and she only said to call him, I assume so he can deny anything that would be verbally discussed, as had been one regarding my phone conversations with Leo. From everything I have learned by Casss behavior, he truly believes his word is the absolute truth and will not tolerate being questioned. While relatively young (38 years old), Cass has more experience than the other 6 companies to whom I have spoken, who all say that there is no way what he is claiming can be true, and that he should be repairing this under warranty. I will be pursuing all means to resolve the situation and to inform the entire diesel industry consumer base of this company and of Cass, and to be wary of working with his company. I will add a link to a more detailed review on Youtube later Services: Engine repair, Motor building
Jan 4th, 2023