240gtsX

I found member Spencer Dougherty (C.E.O. of Sideways Performance) on nicoclub telling people that he does swaps for cheap in So Cal. My 240 ran good but wanted a little more power. I end up going to him for a RB25 swap and when I met him and told him what I wanted he agreed. The total was a bit more than what I expected because of the other item I told him to install but was not a big deal. So as time goes by, he tells me that he has the engine and transmission and that the only parts he is now missing are the intercooler (custom made) and driveshaft which he had supposedly ordered before he ordered the motor. I then leave my car and he told me it was going to take about two weeks to complete. Two weeks go by and he hasn’t even started on the swap. The third week he calls me telling me that he is about to put the motor in but doesn’t have the intercooler or the driveshaft. He then tells me that he’s going to go order the intercooler when he told me about a month ago that he had already ordered it. Another week goes by and he finally puts the engine in and finally gets the intercooler but still no driveshaft. That same week he also installs the “Nismo LSD” that I had told him to put on. A week and a half goes by before he gets the driveshaft and is finally able to put it on. A 2 week job turned out to be a month and a half of mostly waiting for things he said he ordered before he started working on the car.

So I finally go to the shop to get my car and he then tells me that there is a problem. He turns it off and when he starts it again it makes a high pitch noise. SEE VIDEO BELOW. Then as time goes by I notice my car making some strange noise and notice the O/D (Overdrive for automatic transmissions) light turning on and off along with some other clicking noise. I found out that to make the O/D light stay off I needed to either put the windshield wipers level down or turn on my rear defrosters. As I find myself having to drive on a rainy day, I turn on my windshield wipers and nothing happens. By this time I’m wondering why they’re not turning on and trying to figure out what happened. While I’m in the car my rear windows start to fog up so I turn on my defrosters and come to find out that in order for my windshield wipers to work I need to turn on my defrosters and if I were to turn off the defrosters the wipers will stop immediately. SEE VIDEO BELOW. Other minor things that he could have taken care of could have been to at least calibrate my tach and my speedo which was off by a few mhp. My fuel gauge is not accurate at all, he didn’t put on a shifter boot and trim, broke my hood latch, didn’t even put on an air filter, chipped the paint on my hood in numerous places, left some exposed wires near the starter and left my clutch pedal improperly secured. I could have killed myself!!

Yesterday was an eye opener for me. I took my car to a highly reliable source to change the clutch and flywheel and he noticed a few things. One: the motor mounts he used are garbage! They don’t have the bolt that is supposed to secure the mounts to what I believe is the cross member. Two: There are about 3 out of 4-5 nuts missing from the O2 housing and three, one bolt is missing from the exhaust manifold. This is probably giving me a couple of boost leaks. To make things worse, the steering shaft is rubbing against the O2 housing. This caused for a part of the housing to wear out and at the same time it was wearing down the steering shaft. This has made my power steering a bit stiff. If my engine were to move even a few centimeters it can make my steering lock causing me to kill myself in one other different way -_- On top of all that, my source informed me that instead of properly securing the LSD with the bolts that you can buy from the dealer for a very cheap price he welded the LSD. WTF is that?! Horrible work is what that is!

Conclusion: There is no chance in the world recommend “Sideways Perfomance.” C.E.O. of Sideways Performance Spencer Dougherty does not take the initiative to fix small problems such as exposed wires, doesn’t buy bolts that cost less than $10 and doesn’t secure clutch pedals. More so, he doesn’t take into consideration the safety of the driver and others when he decides to leave the steering shaft rubbing against the O2 housing that is missing most of the nuts and welds the LSD instead of bolting it on. Consequently to his incompetence, I now do not feel comfortable driving my car in the rain as the wipers function improperly and I sure as heck do not feel comfortable taking my car to the track. I hope this helps out those who seek in doing a swap on finding someone who does reliable work, knows what he’s talking about, and will not fuck you over.


Start up problem



Windshield Wipers



Unfortunately I was not able to get pictures of the other things as I need to lift the car but will be updating this thread in the future.


Incompetence and IMO