I ordered the FI air gap kit and throttle body from Hughes and after looking over the parts noticed the throttly body had been cracked and rewelded. The weld left somthing to be desired in my opinion. The (work) done to it was not really up to what I was expecting. The "Polished air horns and throttle bores" look to have been hit with a sanding drum on a die grinder and maybe smothed a little after.
The problem I have is when I called today about the throttle body at first the gentelman was like ok well send it back and we will take care of it. When I said I would like to just return it and not recive another he said "well that will be a 20% restocking fee." I asked even though it had been cracked and all the 20% would still apply? He then tells me that there is nothing really wrong with it and it should be ok. He goes on to tell me(with a little more of an attitude now) that these bodys are old and that cores are geting hard to come by etc.. basicly I shouldnt have a problem with the cracked rewelded body.
If I had just not wanted the thing and it had not been cracked I would probably not like the 20% but hey I ordered it. The way it was handled is what I dont like it is only about 40 bucks we are talking about.
Because of this I will not be ordering anything else from Hughes and caution anyone else who is thinking of hughes.
I do think i like the air gap as long as it performes ok. I am polishing it and the throttle body adapter before it goes on.(inside not out)
Am I just being nitpicky or would this bother you too?

 

I had zero issues with hughes engines. That doesnt look to be welded but rather a casting issue to me. In any event they should have sent it out looking like that.

 

I've read many Hughes' customer horror stories. Defective castings and finishes, incomplete/incorrect order fulfillment, and less than professional customer service contacts are the most common complaints.

They've a user account here on the forum but haven't been seen since since May 2010.

If it were my name on the company I'd roll heads for letting something like that out the door, but apparently it's just business as usual at Dave's garage. The place looks like it's being run out of a barn. Check out the customer review on that Google Maps page while you're there.

 

My Hughes pan came in bad shape. Sent me a replacement no problem. The first one should have never left IMHO, but at least they made it right. I too agree that looks like a casting defect, rather than being welded. In any case, If I were you I would just send it back for replacement. My replacement pan looked 50x better which makes me wonder if the replacement was hand Picked and checked before shipped. Wish ya luck

 

I don't blame you for not wanting that, and I'd send it back and demand to talk to somebody else up the food chain.

You should not have to pay restocking on that. and that's junk about cores becoming hard to come by, as they were in Most Rams, Daks, and Vans that had a 3.9, 5.2, and 5.9 engines. Perhaps they've picked their local pick-N-pull clean, but not in my neck of the woods.

I'd order a TB from www.thefastman.com before I'd take a second one from hughes.

 

That looks like porosity. It's a casting defect. You see it all the time in machine shops that machine raw castings. I would send it back.

 

What you see can be epoxied and sanded but what can't you see? You shouldn't pay for quality and get junk!

 

The thread is worded wrong regardless, this is a quality control issue, what they do about it will determine whether or not there is a customer service issue. Which I suspect you won't have any.

 

That is the problem, I decided that i didnt want to get another body and have a chance of it being somthing else wrong so when I talked to them about just returning the item because of a defect i dont expect an attitude and a 20% restocking fee. If I just wanted to return it and there was nothing wrong with it i would eat the fee and be done with it. but still dont expect that kind of treatment from someone who relies on selling products and services to make money.

 

I do tig weld and it is hard to see in the pic but you can see where it diped out beside the weld from the electrode.