Rb-Performance

[krisdeezy]

wow. sorry to hear that man.. i called him to ask him how much would it be to install my ka-t and the ka is out of an s14..he told me that he needs to pull all the internals out of the s14 ka and put in my m s13 ka ( i have arias pistons in it ) i clearly told him it was converted to s13 already and he just went on how it wont work...

[C. Senor]

i'm not trying to take sides, as i personally know both otis and karl. both are cool guys. otis in fact did the swap on my car. although shit went south with my motor, we were able to fix everything monatarily speaking. i've bought stuff from otis before, never had a problem. karl is a nice enough guy, and i would accuse him of lying either. obviously there is a story that no one but otis and karl are going to completely know. seriously hope both parties work things out.

[karl wasabi]

Originally Posted by whatda

damn this sucks

Yes it does...

Originally Posted by 90hatchie

wow
and i was gonna have him do my harness when i do my swap

time to look elsewhere

Hit up Bardabe.

Originally Posted by xkamikazestormx

dam karl. hope you get it up and running.

I hope so too. =/

Originally Posted by krisdeezy

wow. sorry to hear that man.. i called him to ask him how much would it be to install my ka-t and the ka is out of an s14..he told me that he needs to pull all the internals out of the s14 ka and put in my m s13 ka ( i have arias pistons in it ) i clearly told him it was converted to s13 already and he just went on how it wont work...

Yeah man. He's just trying to milk you of your money.

[karl wasabi]

This is how the engine was wired up. All the positive power wires all routed into one. I don't think that's a good idea...



Does something look wrong in this picture? That is where Otis cut off all of the KA engine harness plugs. Twisting them together seems to be safe measure.


The ECU wires he claims that I cut...

When I brought him the engine harness, it most certainly did not look like that. I guess that's how he redoes wiring harnesses.

More random splicing...


Check out how the electric fans are wired up. I just love how the relay is mounted. More BUTT CONNECTORS were used.


More butt connectors and random splicing.


I asked him to PROPERLY INSTALL my air filter...so far so good...


I didn't know you use wood screws to hold on air filters. Look at all those holes that can allow dirty air to get into the engine.




I wish I had pictures of how he mounted the electric fans. He used ZIPTIES looped around the radiator fins to hold the electric fans to the radiator. Now I have messed up radiator fins...

[usdm180sx]

From what i have seen, rb performance = ghetto. I met him once at the autobacs meet. He didn't make a good impression. So, I would NEVER take my car there. But that's just me.

[karl wasabi]

One of Otis's workers trying to back up the shop...

Originally Posted by Steve-O-Laggins

Uh no when a car leaves our shop running and then the customer decideds to do somthing that should of been left alone. THAT IS NOT OUR PROBLEM. We looked at it and found his problems due to changing a harness which didnt need to be changed We got it to run but not properly, we could of fixed it but he didnt want to pay for his mistakes.
If it was a newer car and it was repaired at the dealer do you think the dealer would warranty the work if it was tampered with? NO

Hmm...that's funny, cause after I changed the harness, all my lights and other accessories started working. So I guess it did need to be changed. Oh yeah, Otis also told me that he would back it up...

Originally Posted by Steve-O-Laggins

We got it to run but not properly

This should be the quote of the year...

[karl wasabi]

Originally Posted by Yellow4g63

Wow thats crazy. Wiring up a RB20 to a S13 is way too easy IDK how he messed it up. Sorry to hear about your problems.

That is exactly what I have been told. When I'm told that, it's like IDK how to explain how horrible this situation is going...

[karl wasabi]

Originally Posted by Steve-O-Laggins

Yea the car was hacked before he brought us the car. I bet he doesnt have a before picture of the first entire harness before we repaired it. Either way his car ran perfectly unitl Karl messed with the harness. I drove the car it hauled ass but now it wont rev due to wire tampering. Like I said we got it to run with his newer harness and he wouldnt pay to have it wired in corretly instead of temporary wiring we used to get it to run. If he wanted he could copy the wiring of the old harness and save him this frustration. Hopefully he can do wiring better than he can weld his engine bay. Maybe he should post up some pictures of his handy work and youll see why he brought the car to us.

Now who wants to take their car to a shop that insults your work or you knowledge? I don't have a before picture of my harness, but I do have the after picture above, and it's worse than before.

Me "messing" with the harness involved cutting 3 wires that were directly wired into the chassis harness that shouldn't have been. This worker obviously doesn't understand the situation and made RB Performance look even worse.

[karl wasabi]

Originally Posted by Steve-O-Laggins

Any person trying to contact Otis can contact me here through zilvia only if you cant contact Otis. This way things will get handled properly. Sorry for thread jacking about Karls car. And we'll figure out that alternator issue.

The second after I read this post, I contacted this Steve-O-Laggins. I also contacted Otis. Funny thing is that I never got a response back from them. So in other words, things were not handled properly.

[karl wasabi]

Otis's response in a previous thread to something I didn't even start.

Originally Posted by Otis Performance

We got it to run but not properly. ok let me finsh this. steve is trying to say is that when you took me you car the second time( i saw everything cut out because you put in a new body harness) ernie ask me to get you car running so i said ok because he asked me. so when you dropped of your car i got it running in less then 1 min.
after that u askin me what else am i going to do for free and i said thats it so u you told it home. there was no way i was going to get you car running right. i am not a fucking slave

I never said he was a slave. I just want what was promised. For my car to run properly and function properly.

Originally Posted by Otis Performance

karl wasabi

First- you fucked up when you pm me tried ton threaten/Blackmail me with this (If I can't get this partial refund, which I think is completely and absolutely fair, I'm going to have to write a separate bad review thread on Zilvia, and all the other 240sx forums.

My paypal address is... I'll be looking forward in seeing that money soon. If not, I have the pictures and people to prove that you guys should not be running a


Maybe you should talk to some of your older buddy's before you even thanking about doing anything.

I don't think that is black mailing. I just wanted what was promised. If I couldn't get what was promised, why wouldn't a partial refund be fair?

Originally Posted by Otis Performance

Second. you paid me a week and a half after i fixed your car.

you test drove your car in front of my shop with everything working and it was running great, other then your wheel almost falling off because you did a half as job putting it on( just like the timing belt)

It was more like a week. And I had to wait to get paid to paid for the ridiculous amount of labor he charged me. After paying him to fix my timing belt, it's still messed up...

Originally Posted by Otis Performance

he said when he got his car back it was fucked up. but he still paid me a week and a half later.
No one on this forum would pay me a week and a half later after getting there car back fucked up.

You came down to my shop asking me to fixed your car without you having money so i told you ill fix it and you could pay me when you had the money. i only did that because some goods friends told me to take care of you. no one would have did that! now your trying to fuck me.

No, when I got my car back it wasn't fucked. The accessories were not working and I therefore put in a new chassis harness to fix it. He would then not repair what was supposed to be repaired the first time around. ie. tach, speedo, cluster.

Originally Posted by Otis Performance

well guess what. You just fucked it up for yourself and everyone. SO EVERYONE THANK KARL
all the people that where looking to buy parts or looking to get your car fix we don't do it anymore. rb performance is no longer doing swaps. So all the rb guys needing parts "sorry"


I had a lot of New Parts that you have never seen in the us for rb20det and at a price that no one could ever beat. i am not going to spend the money now to get them made. (lets hope someone buys the company and keep supporting RB engines if that happens I am pretty sure the price isn't going to be the same)

I will await the thanks from everyone. RB Peformance not doing anymore swaps will be a service to the whole community. People that do good work will get paid for their quality work and will not have their business stolen by shops that claim to do proper motor swaps and wiring conversions at a cheaper price.

I'm sure these "new parts" would have been thrown together and have poor quality and only cause problems down the line.

Originally Posted by Otis Performance

RB performance is now only working on there own cars and running drift events from west to East coast starting at the top of next year ( Sorry for all the company's that are going to take a hurt because of Karl)


For all my customers that have warranty's of any kind. Don't worry RB performance is moving into a better shop in Huntington beach top of next year. Even if i am out of town there will always be someone that can help you out.

I don't see how RB Performance no longer doing motor swaps will hurt any companies. I can only see it as helping other companies thrive.

That's strange...I had a warranty from RB Performance. It was never honored.

Originally Posted by Otis Performance

bardabe

1. reputable Nissan specialist Over night. (first you got to get a nissan)

2. anything you have/had did i already did had it.

3.fuck, my Track wheels for my s14 cost more car/parts you have ever own.

4.i started everything without any money there's no mom/daddy money here.. i moved from the east coast to here with no fucking money at all and every month iam doing something new. "Bigger and better aways" you been doing the same shit for as long as i can remember.



Everyone talking shit. i know who all of you are! your all running or have ran my parts. Thank you. ( if you have any personal problems I am local and you know where to find me)


There will be no more post from me.
i have said all iam going to say for along as time.

More shit talking to other Zilvia members and shops...

I just want everyone out there to know how horrible a shop this guy is running. I don't want anyone else to go through the same situation that I am going through. This is why I am writing this extensive review. I don't expect anything back from Otis anymore. It's too far gone. I just want to inform everyone now.

[karl wasabi]

My new mechanics, Bardabe, take on this whole situation.

Originally Posted by bardabe

Hey, I can honestly put my word here, I'm not taking sides but this is my honest Professional opinion of what i saw and inspected on Karl's car. When I first showed up and saw his car, it was depressing at the very least to say.

he had the car "wired up" as the way it left RB-performance.
The Tachometer didn't work
The Speedo Did not work
didn't wanna wait and find it out if the temperature needle would function properly. since it didn't move after a minute.

the wiring harness itself "looked" Clean but as i got further into the wiring on "omg the instruments don't work" situation that's where things turned... for the worst. by then i had to go and take care of personal stuff so i left karl and really thought about the quality of work that was on the car. the way it looked so far. it was already mediocre

I came back to see Karl's car a few days later to keep digging into this mess, and was amazed even more. speechless i was at the very least but i found multiple things that where done like i've never seen done before. let me tell you what i saw;

For starters, The Dash plug by the ECU wasn't there... hmm wonder why the cluster didn't work *sarcasm*
- it also explain why the car was hard to start due to no start signal

lets keep moving along, lets see how he wired up the KA engine harness plugs in to the RB, looked for them for about 10 minutes, nowhere to be found, pretty odd if you ask me, so i look into his fender harness "Ahhh there they are" but something looked off, they had nothing attached. that definitely got me thinking. i really didn't want to look at the lower harness but shit it really couldn't be much worse. so i looked at it and eh messy is the nice way to put it.

I talked to karl that day, we sat down on the curb looked at his car ate some chilly and looked at his options. from what Karl had told me these where the reasons those weren't hooked up is because his chassis harness was messed up and that was the cleanest way to do it. That i can say right there and then is just a bullshit excuse because his harness in fact was a little messed up but not fubar and they could have charged him maby an extra 100$ 150$ tops to get some salvaged plugs, and wire it up properly.

This is the way i saw them wire it up. (unwrapped the harness)
all the power wires, got cut up and crimped into one huge Green power wire, close to the ECU then ran out of the fender well into the Engine bay,
the Fuel pump relay wire coming out of the ECU was completely cut and the other wire was nowhere to be found, the Temperature gauge sensor was cut and crimped another separate wire and taped along the side of the stock harness, and crimped into the stock chassis harness on the wrong wire at that. the ECU tach signal was tapped into with the cheap vatozone wire taps and as well tapped into the stock wiring harness again on the wrong pin. the lower harness was monkey rigged beyond belief, the alternator charge signal (white wire red stripe) instead of being soldered hell even crimped on the proper plug, it was extended and crimped on to the big green wire that came off the ECU, the charge wire was just clamped to the battery terminal, speed signal, neutral switch and reverse switch weren't even hooked up. Only thing they did right was the starter wire. Now the big green wire, and the alternator charge signal, where going to a relay in the front of the engine bay.... followed by a big black wire. they are going to a relay, great an oem nissan relay with blade type connectors

1 Power feed with no Fuse
3 power outputs from 1 pin to 2 fat wires (ECU, aternator, and Fans)
1 Ground
1 signal wire

COMPLETE FUCKIN HACK JOB! i stand amazed, karl is just speech less...

either way we come to a conclusion I told Karl to get another chassis harness with plugs to use for the RB swap the proper way and talk to otis and see what he would say. From what I was told Otis agreed to fix his wiring he just had to tow the car back there because he uses "his own secret way to wire it up so nobody can mess with it", no big deal.

Karl tows the car, Otis refuses to repair the hack job, instead he reconnects the signal wire to the relay, so it powers the ecu, and fans again and tells Karl that's all he can do for free That it would cost him money to have his work fixed.

I am now going to unleash myself uppon the task of attempting to repair this wiring harness, and figure out the all mighty secret ways of the wiring. worse case scenario his engine harness will cost more to be repaired than a new OEM nissan harness.

I'm going to check the Timing belt job, since the car wont even idle right. since apparently it was done real fast to get the car out of the shop last minute. Karl has pictures of the wiring which i will leave up to him to post or not.

as the reputable Nissan specialist that i am, i really don't know what's going on in that shop, but they gotta get their shit straight before the BAR get's involved with all this bad business. Their bad Jobs are giving me good business though I'll give them that much.

Thank You RB Performance, for all the half ass job's you have done that i have to repair and send one more satisfied customer on it's way.

-Juan

[karl wasabi]

As of now, I am finished with this review. I want everyone to know what kind of hack job I had done to my car. I don't want this to happen to anyone else. Otis says that he will no longer do motor swaps because of this situation, and all I can say to this is THANK GOD!

I hope that this has informed everyone of the horrible work that is done at RB-Performance and of the quality of persons working there. All I asked for was a partial refund of my money to get this repaired somewhere else. This resulted to an outburst in a different thread that I didn't even start.

I was told to contact RB-Performance to fix this problem, and I did. I haven't received and kind of response or any attempt to try and resolve this situation. At this point I really don't expect anything anymore, but if I do get something back, I will be sure to inform everyone that this problem was resolved.

As of right now, if anyone was considering going to this shop to buy parts or to get a swap done, look somewhere else. Chances are you'll run into this same situation.

Thanks everyone for taking some time to read all this. I know it was a lot.

-Karl

[karl wasabi]

My take on this whole situation can be found in the business review thread. The link can be found in my sig.

[Om1kron]

I'm glad that you got in contact with Juan to fix your harness Karl, I've been searching extensively on the boards concerning wiring and stuff before I dove into my harness and when I saw that this little kid build his own custom harness for an rb into an s13 chassis to replace a fucked up chassis harness and engine harness I knew that this kid could help you out.

His work I've followed through what he's posted and still shows up on photo bucket and it has inspired me to take on my own work. So all I can say is good luck at this point and happy motoring when it's all done.

This is what i'm talking about when the community gets together granted it's going to be costing some coin, it's going to get done right. Shops are sometimes and not all the times tuners who have lost their soul and inspiration for quality work and have a get er done mentality to put food on the table, and while I cant fault anyone for that.

It's the main reason why you will never see a shops stickers running on my car telling you "go here for their work" because I don't trust anyone enough to work on my car. Even if it was running perfectly, my heart would break if I tore it down one day to see what you have in your engine bay. That is just godamned ridiculous man, and for Otis to insult you and anyone else who puts bad on his name or tries to bust out with the whole "see if I hook you up anymore" type of mentality...

I don't need your hook ups, I just want to deal with someone honest, and I would rather pay a higher price to get things done right and my way from the start, then twice in the end.

[karl wasabi]

Originally Posted by rb25_s13*CHUKI

Or stop being gay and or lazy and do It your self.. It works right? does your car run? Then who gives a fuck.. Thats How I see It.. Have a friend of yours clean It up..

I'd hate to see your car's wiring or work with that kind of attitude. I know I could have done the wiring myself if I WANTED to, but I just wanted someone who has done it before to do it. I wanted it done right. I got no where with that.

Originally Posted by killswitch

That sucks man. I had this happen to me with "sleepermotorsports" AKA dynoworks, the shop owner Dave was just as shady. I lost 1300.00 or so in labor, got the runaround , my car died about 3 miles from my house and had it towed the rest of the way. The owner at the time (Dave) said that as soon as I drove the car out of his shop my warranty was no good.

I hope you get all of your money back , and do contact the BBB they may be able to do something for you.

That sucks to hear man. Did you ever get your money back?

Originally Posted by adrians_s13

Damn Karl, I just spent the last few minutes reading this whole thread. Sucks man. To tell you the truth, of the cars I've seen swapped at RB performance (pics wise on the forums), I am not the least bit surprised.

Hope things work out for you man.

Thanks for taking the time to read my review. I hope I do get things worked out.

[Huffydmbcs42388]

woah woah woah.. this is crazy ive been buying parts from otis for a long time.. and i had problems wiring my rb25 and ca into a s13 and s14 here and he flew up all the way to jersey and wired it up perfectly, and had no problems since.. ac works etc. ANy problems ive had with my twin turbo supra mkiv and non turbo supra mkiv hes told me what the problem was and how to fix it over the phone. never seen him do anything but the right way of doing things when it comes to wiring only shrink wrap and soldering. keeps it super clean also. plus otis is the more honest dude i know he wouldnt hack things just to get it done.

[homeslice]

^ Same here! I got my wirring done by Otis (red top into s14) everything work's good, car still running & look's clean,I still buy part's and go for him for any service i need. If i recall i belive i was there when you took your car to him. He found the problem and started your car, i remmeber you saying "you" put some anti-theft wires and other junk. and after that the car didnt start. Idk dude sounds like your taking this a lil to far than you should, and from what i witnessed its not to legit what your saying on here.
here's the work he did on my car. Tell me that dosent look legit??

[majuljo]

im sry to hear this man and from your pictures it seems you have reason but im here just to post what i know about otis. he has always helped me with my car. never once has he done what you say he has done(not saying he did or didnt do what your saying). my wiring harness was poop when i bought it from a guy who did it himself. it actually caught on fire from the battery.

i only heard good things about otis so i gave him a call and he actually came to my house which i live about an hour and a half away from his shop. it took him about 3-4 hours to fix my wiring harness and it was back to normal. i also bought my radiator off his website and again it works great. havent had a problem.

i know what happened to sucks huge giant elephant balls man and im sure a lot of us know the feeling and im not here to bad mouth you and call you a liar because obviouslly something is wrong. im just here to tell you my case with otis and my personal opinion is that i trust otis with my car.

[SR20DET_RPS13]

IDK about this I've know otis for a while and he has been worked on my car. I haven't had a bad job from him, infacthe fixed some problems vildini din't fix on my car. I've Been buying parts from him and have been getting good pricves one them. This doesn't sound likle Otis.


I dont know hwat happen to your car bro, you probably got a bad rb20 because i havent had problems with him nor my car. Good luck, hope you get it fix

[carlosncdi]

Originally Posted by homeslice

^ Same here! I got my wirring done by Otis (red top into s14) everything work's good, car still running & look's clean,I still buy part's and go for him for any service i need. If i recall i belive i was there when you took your car to him. He found the problem and started your car, i remmeber you saying "you" put some anti-theft wires and other junk. and after that the car didnt start. Idk dude sounds like your taking this a lil to far than you should, and from what i witnessed its not to legit what your saying on here.
here's the work he did on my car. Tell me that dosent look legit??

i was also there the day you took your car in. and he cant warranty something he didn't put in, correct me if i am wrong but you put in your own body harness in, and at other shop that i know of don't warranty something that they didn't do. i have had a lot of work done by Otis and never had a problem. every shop has there goods and bad, but its not cool how everyone is talk shit and most of the people talking shit have never got work done by Otis or his shop.

[PacificDrift_Nick]

before i post i just want to say i have meet Karl and he is a cool dude.

I know Otis and he is a cool dude as well.

Otis did my RB20 swap and it is clean and runs very well, i have had problems with my car that have nothing to do with the swap and he has gone out of his way to fix my car!

My car kept dying after about a week after my swap and i had no clue why and looked at all the main stuff and no luck. Otis drove to eagle rock from the OC at like 9 at night and found out that my fuel pump plug was truing on and off when it was not in some perfect place. he fixed it right there.




This is my car.

I buy my parts from Otis and I bring my car him all the time.


I'm sorry to hear about the fighting and all the shiz that is going down between you two cause you both are sick guys!

if you want me help you guys talk or get in communication LMK!

damn 240 and there electricity problems



Nick

[karl wasabi]

Thanks for all your posts guys. As far as his wiring being super clean and all, not once did he have a soldering iron or shrink wrap near the car. Just butt connectors and black tape.

If he is such a legit person and business man, why won't he fix my car or gaurantee his wiring?

I had a bad CHASSIS harness. In order to get the chassis harness out I had to cut exactly 3 wires...3. If the harness was done correctly the first time, there wouldn't have been any engine problems when I brought the car back for him to fix the wiring. He re-spliced the engine harness into the chassis harness and the car started. Mind you it BARELY started. It required so much work to get it running. If the engine wiring was done correctly the first time, the motor would have ran perfectly when the harness was re-spliced.

The fact is that it didn't. I asked Otis to get the car running properly, but he wouldn't do it because I cut those 3 wires to get that old chassis harness out after Otis told me before that I could bring the car back once I got the chassis harness fixed.

Otis didn't gaurantee the wiring. How can a CHASSIS harness affect the way a motor runs???


Do you guys see my point? And I have tried to resolve this problem, but he just ignores all my PM's and calls.

[khmerguy618]

I met otis before he seemed aite. He does lag on txt msgs and fone calls tho.

I think it was posted that he did take it to the source and was denied the service they agreed on. And the op stated that the person in question has been avoiding his fone calls and pm's.

It would be nice to see a amicable resolution to this.

[racepar1]

Otis is not someone I would trust. He has had a somewhat bad reputation for a long time. A customer of mine bought what was supposed to be a s-14 KA 5-speed trans off him, you know the one with the hole for the crank sensor on the bellhousing. Well it was actually a singlecam trans, which doesn't have the crank sensor, and my customer didn't know any better. The trans was also noisy and generally shitty, I KNOW, I INSTALLED it. Otis charged top dollar for it and was un-willing to do anything to remedy the situation. Now the poor guy is driving around with a noisy ass trans and a check engine light for the crank sensor that we couldn't re-install.

[HillaBean13]

Otis did my full build. My car runs absolutely amazing. he got me a hook up on a full kit and body work and paint he went out of his way numerous amounts of time to help me get my car up and running. Honestly everyone can talk all the crap they want on how terrible he is. but if he is really as terrible as you say he is and his work sucks as bad as you guys say it does then why is the drift alliance doing business with him huh??

[socal_kouki]

^ Real Sh*t. It made me laugh out loud when Otis called me a kid in my thread.

I was never around for the days of unity. Back when I thought my uncle was whack for driving a Cressida. He laughed and told me I was too late back in '05. He was right now I'm being called a kid by skaters in peach fuzz, getting jacked for my money and picked on in forums.

Karl, I hope Otis takes SOME responsibility for the harness issue and redeems himself as a businessman and platform enthusiast..

Best of luck.

[boogerlovers]

Good prices and has never done me wrong.

[Dirt Nasty]

My friend bought a s14 starter for his DOHC, Otis gave him a s13 starter... said they were the same. They ARE the same starter but not the same size!

I installed it for him and realized wtf this is a s13 starter. So he drove all the way back from los angeles to Anaheim(whever disneyland is near) and Otis exhanged it.

He could of been a total ass and just said naw, sales a sale. But still he gave him the wrong starter in the first place.. So I dunno

Id rather just do the work myself, and if its something I dont know, Id ask Bardabe.

[DataXUnknown]

This is such a confusing thread. First of all...Otis has an official SHOP now?? I haven't seen/spoken to him in awhile, but last time I checked he had a buncha engines and cars at his HOUSE and in his backyard. Which, looking from the work at his house, the stuff that he had finished and was working on looked decent. The prices he charged weren't super crazy or anything, I would say average.

Although I heard he fired all his "workers" and now it's just Otis Performance. From the looks of it, I can say that I am more on the "he's professional when he wants to be and gets into it, and at other times he is lazy and half-ass" side. Which I understand because I am the same way, but only because it's my own car. With other peoples cars you can't be half ass. I mean, even I know not to use butt connectors and wood screws like that.

Although I do have to point out that comment that somone quoted "We got it running, just not properly" my god that is one of the funniest lines I've ever heard. You shouldn't get paid for something you didn't do right. I think Otis should have gotten everything running right and working then made him pay. I totally understand the situation of being 19 and not having any money.

Good luck Karl, and I really hope Otis comes around and sorts things out. Don't let it get you too fired up, keep your head up and things will come around and your car will be running right.

[Charlie]

I tried to do business with Otis a while back but he ignored my messages and such and that just left a bad impression to me.