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I found these scammers online. Do not use these CROOKS ! I should have turn around, and driven off when I saw they were in a gang neighborhood, and the place looks like a junkyard. The owner James Escamilla is a liar. There is no Larry ! He uses numerous names, and his wife is listed as the owner. I called them before driving there, and was told my car would be inside, and that they had security. The place looked like a junk yard, but I trusted them, like a fool.
I had them rebuild my 1967 Mustang 200 6 cyl Engine. I went back the next day, and my car was outside in the junkyard, and was being taken apart, not inside as I had been told twice. I was called by James, and told my engine was done a few days later. When I saw my car there was a huge dent in my hood. They had left the hood on, and hit it putting the engine in. They also scratched the bumper, and put a dent from a jack in the body that I did not see until later. These people are slobs who will damage your property. My car was close to mint. When I went for a test drive the car was shaking apart, and James said it was normal. It was not normal ! They had broken the transmission mount, and later I found out one engine mount, and I had to drive it home that way, and fix it myself. James told me where I could go buy one. They break it, and you go buy it . Unbelievable! ### ! I was not able to pay with a check, or credit card as told, I had to be driven to the bank to pay with CASH, and it cost over $1800.00. They held my car hostage. After paying, I had to drive about 45 minutes with a broken transmission, and engine mount to get home. My Insurance denied the claim for the hood as James, and his staff denied damaging the hood, which I had to fix myself. This was an ORDEAL! A NIGHTMARE ! LIARS !
They all lied, the mechanic's can't speak English, but said in Spanish the hood was not done by them, but James said he would have his friend down the street fix it, but I wanted nothing more to do with these thief's or their shoddy work.
This is just the half of it. I got home, and checked the plugs, and there was oil in two cylinders. It was worse than when I took it in to them to have it fixed. They had not even fixed anything. I had to replace the plugs every few days. I filed a complaint with the State of California, and waited about a month, and half. I wanted to go to another shop to get it fixed, but the State said Larry's would fix it. The only way it got fixed was after I brought two of my workers who bench 575 pound to have a talk with James, and they told him to fix it right. It will probably have to be rebuilt again. I never got my hood fixed, or the other scratches, and dent from the jack. THESE PEOPLE LIE, AND SCAM ! DO NOT TRUST A WORD THEY SAY. The place is a dirty junkyard. DO NOT TAKE YOUR VINTAGE CAR TO THEM !
This was a huge mistake ! Yea, they have a good website. BUYER BEWARE OF LARRY'S PERFORMANCE SHOP IN MONTEBELLO, CA THERE IS NO ONE EVEN NAMED LARRY THERE.
How many other people has James Escamilla ripped off?AVOID Larry's Performance in Montebello, CA at all cost...
Dont take your car to Larry's Performance, bought a rebuilt 350 engine with a transmission and immediately had leaking problems with the tranny. After a few months right after warranty expired, months after a valve broke on the engine so I had to get a head job on the rebuilt engine...no good!
Hi there everyone, Date took there was around 10/2010
Well chaulk another one up. I have a 69 F-250 and had the motor ebuilt by another company. But had his cam and ifters in. Well I wanted a bigger cam and took it to his junk yard there in montebello and asked him for a bigger cam. He said yah we can do that. So we agreed on a price and ask him I wanted the engine painted black. It was a blue color. I asked if he wanted me to go buy the paint for him. Well he had it for about 4 days. Oh this one was another good one. When we agreed on the price for a new cam, lifters and heavy duty rods. it was going to be 550.00 I said OK well he looked at me and I said what. He said I need the money up front. I said what you haven't did the work yet. So anys ways went to the bank pulled the money out and brought it back to him and payed him. He said it will be done in 2 days. Well 5 days later he called and said it was done.
I got there and said cool let me see it. Pulled the hood and the motor was still blue. I asked what happen the the black paint job. He said oh the paint wouldn't take I said come on. So I asked for a discount he said oh no. You owe me 175.00 it took a little more then expectected. I said no way. And get this the guys there had a wire coming from the coil to the battery to start the truck. I asked about this. Oww yah you need to fix your ignition. It started and drove going in there. I said this needs to be fixed. He said he don't do the ignitions. I was pissed. I payed him and took off. I told all my friends that I know to pass the word not to go there. Well come to find out two years before this he ripped off my buddy on His Mustang. Also ripped off my step Dad on his 72 Dodge van charged him 700.00 and didn't fix anything. with power shurges.
I go to Long Beach swap meet and have a lot of friends that go and sell there. Well the word got out and he is band from Long Beach swap meet now. This guy has move his shop to another street in Montebello I don't see how he gets his work. This guy ain't no speed shop builder he is a scammer and needs to be put out of business. He buys car parts with defects in them and sell at the swap meet and online.I have all ready reported him to procomp where he buys most of his stuff.
So this is why I am doing this report. I recently had to drive my 69 to the beach for a nice drive. almost home and the truck started to stall out. well the next weekend I did the plugs and wires and tryed the timing. Still the same. OH and the motor has 800 miles on it. So when had the truck towed to get it back on time and tune up. They pulled the valve cover and two push rods bent and screwed up two valves. Jim said there was havey duty race push rods in there. There not just stock ones. This guy is a looser I agree.
Thank's to your guys reviews I am not going to take my 67 el camino to Larry's chump permance shop. Any body have a good shop that they know of?
It happened to me too in 2003, I spent over 3000 in what should have been a great rebuild but wasn't. I was at sea for part of the time US Navy, I sent several performance parts forged rods, pistons, new TCI Torque Convertor etc to him. He couldn't get the heads (World Windsor Juniors) I wanted so he used Windsor seniors. It dropped the compression way down. They were supposed to balance etc. I still get a lot of vibration. When I picked the car up they had damaged the power steering pump because they neglected to elongate the accessory bracket mount holes so the long bolt wasn't even installed. On the alternator side they lost the mounting bracket for the alternator and had used washers and an old cam gear to Jeery rig it. He cracked the headers, and the engine to tranny bolts were loose... I could go on and on. It was a huge mistake going to him. I also should have turned around when I saw the place!
i got my motor built their in 2006 and ive never had a problem wit them or my motor... and it still runns great they may have over charged me but the motor is still good no complains here.. sorry you guys had this problem wit them..
wow sorry to hear of such a big loss in time, money, trust.
yes i too am a victim. i too shoulda reported him to bbb. it also happened a few years back.. i went there back in 2005 got a 496 bbc stroker.. awesome motor till this day 2011.. so around 2008 i went back for another motor the same as the first one.. mr. scumazoid (Jim eSCAMilla) says ill charge u the same price 2, 800 bux.. ok awesome.. a few hours later, scummy calls me and says dude your heads are done, .. dont worry i have a set here for 200 bux.. oki doki.. it took him like 1 day to complete the rebuild.. i was like wow fast service.. i think they painted an engine and gave me one in worse condition than the still good motor i took him! i bought an intake from him.. edlebrook yup thats wat i want scummy i got an austrailan procomp intake.. 200 bux.. i paid for ported an polished heads on BOTH motors didnt happen either...i took the truck to him because it clank clank clanks... he says its normal..what goes around comes around jim do good work thats why i went back ill never ever have u rebuild my engines
I'm sorry I didn't post this a long time ago; Don't let your WORST ENEMY go to Larry's "Performance" shop in Montebello (or any other shop affiliated with these crooks!) I agree with the previous reviewer, but my story took place several years ago when I had just graduated trade school and got a job making some pretty good money working long hours. I took my 72 Chevelle to these clowns on a recommendation from someone who was friends with Jimmy (lets call him the snake), son of the owner. You can't miss the guy, he looks like you nabbed him right out of the grease ball scene of a bad movie. I had some money in my pocket, and I wanted a stump puller of an engine in my Chevelle. I ordered a 350 stroker from Jimmy (maybe we'll call him the Rat). Not knowing much about engines myself I was glad that I was at a "performance" shop. So I talk to this joker and decide on getting a set of Aluminum Edelbrock Performer RPM heads that I tell him I want ported and polished, with a 292 duration cam, and he sells me a solid roller cam that he says, "... You'll have to adjust the valvues a little more, but that's what race cars use.." So I trusted his "expertise"... I ordered a 4bolt main block, and forged pistons telling him that I want it built strong so I can have the option of running Nitrous later down the line. He sells me an Edelbrock 650cfm car, and a performer rpm aluminum intake manifold, and I specifically told him that I wanted the engine painted black. I made sure I told him several times, and insisted he make a note of it.
I was working a lot, so I would call to check up on my car. I added roller rockers, and roller lifters which he used as an excuse to jack the price up on labor, and I went in to pay him in cash in intervals as I got my paychecks. When he asked if it was ok if we used a set of roller rockers he pulled out from under his desk, saying that he had a customer cancel an order on them from out of state, but he assured me that they were quality roller rockers, and that they were normally $300 for the set, but he would sell them to me for $200. So I said that was ok.
Well I finally got a call I was looking forward to! "Your engine is ready, come take a look at it before we drop it in." Oooh, cool! So I went down, and he walked me over to where my engine was, and I saw a bright orange engine, that looked pretty cool from about 30 feet away, but there's a problem. "Jimmy, I wanted it painted black..." "That's Chevy Orange, that's the original color." says the Rat... I told him, "...I specifically asked you to paint it black, because I am going to paint the car Blue, and Orange and blue don't go well together..." he then says that he's going to have to take it all apart to repaint it (not exactly true), so he says that another guy ordered an engine like mine, and wanted to know if he could give him this one, and build me another one... So I naively said, "sure, as long as I get all the parts I paid for." What a mistake, this guy that had already taken me to the cleaners financially, was about to finish raping the crap out of me! By the time my engine was in my car, and the car was pulled up to the office (his mechanics stole my bowtie air cleaner nut), I was scammed for $10, 000 (about a hundred and change over)! Now anybody can tell you that for that price, I could have gotten a sweet engine with a blower and serpentine pulleys! (I recently had a motor built for this car that ran me $2, 600 for a 400 small block with all the goodies)
well the car that got my original engine, and probably made out like a thief too was a canary yellow 72 camaro. 1 day drivig to work at about 70mph ... Pooom! Ratatle tatle tatle tatle ta ta ta... It was like a scene from spy hunter, the 405 fwy was covered with a white smoke screen cloud, and my engine sounded like a bunch of full sized folgers cans in the tumble dry cycle of a dryer. What had happened was that the "quality" roller rockers that this thieviing Rat Jimmy sold me had 1 that broke! So I wrote a similar review, but with much more passion in e-mail form, and sent it to the company e-mail... Ranting about the poor excuse for mechanics, and the rip off of my life time... Word got back to me through the referer that Jimmy was really upset, and I didn't give a flying whatchamacallit! Because after a shop taking $10, 000 of my hard earned money, and my car stalling that night because the rocket scientist that installed it didn't know how to properly crimp a electrical terminal on right (I had a kit in the car and fixed it quickly-on the alternator), then the "quality" roller rockers break on me, I should have been the one that was pissed off! I was 20yrs old, and this was my biggest purchase to date, and wished I had a lawyer! Well get this! Jimmy tells the referer that he offered to get me his shop discount to get a new set of roller rockers where he had bought the old ones! What!? I'm gonna use Larry's "performance" shop's discount at a store to replace the cheap roller rockers that this Rat sold me?! If that's notnadmissionnof guilt, I don't know what is... I figured I'd just do it, get'em replaced and be done with these con-artists. Well I innocently asked if the guy would sell me 1, and He told me hat they discontinued carrying those cheap Japanese rockers, because they would break! Ha! He also told me they used to sell for $80 for the set! $300 discounted to $200 my hiney! Jimmy the Rat! YOU THIEVING LIAR!
I tried to put it behind me, and had the referer replace my roller rockers to which he must have decided to cash in on, because he charged me $1, 000 to do it! With "friends like that, who needs enemies!? Well I wanted to drive my car already, so I went for it, now with a nice set of roller rockers that cost at least $200 for the set.
Well after they were in, I drove the car, and the referer wanted to double check the valvue lash that ended up having to be adjusted 1/week. Well the first set of roller rockers giving out had damaged a valvue, and well... within a few months, that valvue head finally broke off! That is what resulted in the catastrophic failure on the 405... Jimmy with $10k in his fat grubby hands, the referer with $1k eating a steak, and me with my chevelle parked in tthe back yard until last year (10yrs later), lesson of getting an itemized recipt, priceless!
That's not all, I finally took the blown motor out of the car a few years later and found a 2 bolt main, and hypertectic pistons! The engine number didn't match the paperwork, and my Aluminum heads were trashed! THEIF! Boy I was hoping to get on Overhaulin with that story, but the show is cancelled.
I now hope this will help other people not to make the same mistake I made. If you have a similar story, please post it so more people don't get ripped off, and inform the better business beureau, something I wish I had done.
I had many thoughts of painting my car with "Larry's performance shop in Montebello ripped me off!", but when all is said and done, I forgive you theiving Jimmy! I forgive you!
I'm still writing a bad review and calling it how it is, but you're forgiven - nobody buy anything from this creep!