Wanted to share my experience working with Ron. I had him build and tune a hybrid motor for my 02 wrx. To start Ron is not friendly and is hard to work with. Knows what he's doing but doesn't take time to answer questions. The biggest fault was that there was never a sit down to plan my motor build even though I was paying him thousands of dollars. Because of this everything was poorly planed and caused multiple issues and thousands of dollars lost. Biggest issue being that the 2.0 heads were never machined to fit the 2.5 block. I mentioned to his employee that I wanted this done but it never got done. Many other professionals told me this needs to be done. The motor lasted two weeks making full power. It burnt a valve due to too high compression. Ron did not stand behind his work. After finding that the valve guides had been installed backwards and many other issues Ron refused to even communicate with me saying "why should I help you?" Along with many other unprofessional comments. I tried to keep things civil and be polite the whole time and received extremely rude treatment back. I ended up using db performance to help fix the issues and give me a good tune. They did much better work and far easier to work with. He clearly doesn't care about his customers, acts like he's doing you a favor to work on his car. I spoke with the machine shop that he uses about one of the issues and he said he stopped working with Ron because he has also had issues with him and he is too hard to work with.
When Matt was at RS, it was one of the greats. The customer service, as far as communication went, was pretty much always subpar. But what you had was one of the best Subaru engine builders and one of the best tuners under one roof. Sad to hear about them falling off completely.
Sad other people got taken by this crook but glad to hear it's not just me being hard to work with, its definitely him. I've heard other people say that rs has gone down hill. Seems like he knows what he's doing he just doesn't give a crap about his customers anymore. I think I've seen him on these boards before? His response will be that its my fault for not checking valve clearances. If that was the issue why didn't he check if the valve clearance had worn down and caused the issue when I brought the motor back to diagnosis. He knows he screwed up.
It seems like he is always too busy preparing his evo race car(s) and racing to care at all about customers. But he has always been like that. I went there once like 4+ years ago for something minor and while nothing bad happened I just would never go back. Even back then it was obvious that he didn't give a **** or care about customer service in the least. I have a feeling Matt was the only good thing about that shop ever.
My car is tuned by Ron and I can say his tune has worked well for me. Although the "customer service" is lacking I think they did a great job. Only issue I have had is on cold days it is tough to start, requiring multiple tries. I have been told that being on E85 that this is common, but others of course have said that it should start with no issues. On a previous request to Ron to adjust the tune if possible he said that it is normal to have to attempt to start 2-3 times on E85 cold temp starts.
I've stopped visiting RS Motors years ago because of this same reason. Ron WAS an awesome guy to work with. I've worked with Ron numerous times when I was younger and in the Honda Civic scene. When he was next to Yoom's import auto shop on University in St. Paul he was very cool and humble. I've been through 3 complete engine swaps with him and he was there for any questions or concerns that I had. IMO it was when he moved to Savage and got in the EVO scene that it went downhill for me. I just seemed like he didn't care anymore for "small" project builds and acted like it was beneath him.
I have not gone beyond stage 2 bolt ons but have been going to RS for 4-5?yrs and i think they know what they are doing and do so at reasonable prices. For sure they dont have a "the customer is always right" mentality but i dont mind it personally. Communication has gotten much better over the yrs with prompt replies to e mails. I think when it comes to mechanics personality traits are not as relevant as competence. When screw ups happen though I agree communication=professionalism. I am definitely considering them for a serious engine built but if i see any red flags i think it is fair to shop around at that point since communication is important when you invest so much money.
Any engine build mods your taking a risk and that's why we all do it. If the car manufacture will not warranty mods why would RS or any other mod shop. I can see why Ronnie gives the cold shoulder to some customers but we should know the risks when we do this **** to are cars. Still comunacation is key and lacking here not the work or know how. Shop around and ask all the questions and risk involved.
If I were you I would just buy a staged assembled short block from IAG and be done with it. Buy the stage that fits your goals. They probably build more subaru motors than anyone and they come with some sort of warranty depending on which one you get I believe
