I have bought two VVT Hemi conversion from Dan at Burnsville off-road, neither one of them will pass state inspection. My jeep is currently set up with 392 VVT Hemi with a manual transmission.
I met Dan three years ago at Moab. He had Ensure me and a couple of his friends from Chrysler that he was the only one out there with the correct programming on manual transmissions with no problem. So I paid Dan $21,000 to do the 5.7VVT Hemi. He had my jeep for three and half months to do this work. When I did get my jeep home the engine light was on. Dan told me not to worry about it that they were working on the problem would have it fixed shortly. A year and a half went by before they finally fixed the problem. To be fair to Burnsville off-road the conversion was a beautiful job. The jeep runs great I have no complaints there. Even though the engine light is off now, the jeep will not pass Inspection they are still programming issues. I was out hundreds of dollars going to the local dealership to have the program check ,which was not covered under warranty.
I have been working with Dan for almost 3 years now on this problem, he suggested last year at Moab that I go to the 6.4 VVT motor and that they wouldn't have any issues. So I pay Dan another $12,000 to change out the motor. Only to get it home and I still have the same programming issues. None of these problems are covered by Warranty at Chrysler and the only thing covered on the motors are parts only. Any labor costs will come out of your pocket. I'm sure Dan will warranty at his shop, but you have to drive several thousand miles across country to take it to him, will not pick it up.
I'm not here to put anybody down. Only what the truth told, I am out thousands of dollars on a jeep that won't pass inspection.
If I learned anything from this, is don't believe everything you read on the Internet, don't have work like this done a cross country and always have a contract agreement written up.

 

daaaaaamn , over 30k in engines .......... and its just a conversation piece. that sux so now it cant be registered ? we dont have emissions testing where i am just asking

 

Do you have any relatives, in a better state than Texas, that you can register your jeep with?

Emissions testing is just a scam between government and business to force a person to spend thousands of dollars at the dealership shutting off a check engine light mystery. Plus it keeps poor people riding busses because they can't afford to have a check engine light mystery solved on their piece of crap. At least your jeep is nice.

Sorry about BOR. It's pathetic when you spend a fortune hiring someone to complete a task that they say is no problem and YOU'RE the one who ends up doing all the work.

 

im assuming you are in a major city area, thus the emissions testing. where i live (not out in the "sticks" by any means) the guy that does my inspection pretty much just gives my jeep the once over, logs it in the computer, then slaps a sticker on the windshield and says "have a good one."

 

I'd register the Jeep at a different address. I assume you have relatives in other parts of Texas.
We do not have emissions testing in San Antonio, but eventually we will have that here as well.

And like Damon mentioned, plenty of inspection stations will just slap on a sticker, you just got to ask around which ones will do that.
Good luck, and if you can't get it past inspection, I'll gladly swap you my very well build Rubicon for your rig.

 

To update my ongoing jeep conversion, the 6.4 VVT motor was pulled out by Dan at Burnsville because it would not pass inspection. After talking with Dan we came to the agreement that he would take a brand new truck motor from in his shop still sitting in the crate and an automatic transmission and he would put this in the Jeep and that this would pass inspection, he guarenteed it. We agreed that he would put this motor and the transmission in and instead of giving me back my 12,000 on the 6.4 engine, he would put a pro rock 60 rear axle and manual locking hubs on my pro rock 44 front axle, and paint my fenders to match my jeep. I met his son half way to Kansas to bring the Jeep to him to get him to do the work the last week in October. I did not get my Jeep back until he brought the Jeep to me at Moab on March 23 (5 MONTHS HE KEPT MY JEEP). He delivered the Jeep to me, and half the work he promised had not been done. The motor and the transmission were USED not new, the transmission was a rebuilt one, there were no front locking hubs, he did put a pro rock rear 60 axle in, but the fenders had not been painted.

I do not know what to say about the situation other than after all this time had passed, all the troubles I had already had with him, and still he failed to do what we agreed upon AND PUT USED PARTS on my jeep. Dan has a tendency to remove parts from one customer jeep and move it to another. He took my Hutchinson Bead Lock wheels to use on someone else's Jeep, my Bead Locks were powder coated silver, now I have a pair that are powder coated black that have been PAINTED silver. All I can say is that this is not a man of his word, he is a theif, a part's switcher, and worst of all, the man is a liar. I've ended up spending 33,000 to have a used motor and a used transmission in my Jeep. I am not the only one having trouble with Dan at Burnsville. I have heard of two other Jeeps in Texas that I am aware of 6.4 VVT motors that will not pass inspection. There is a man on the east coast that asked Dan for a truck Hemi conversion only to end up with a car Hemi conversion. The man asked him why he didn't use a truck Hemi conversion in his truck and Dan's reply was that a truck conversion was not available, yet Dan did not tell the customer before, just did the car conversion to the truck without the customer's consent.

These articles you read in magazines about how great Dan and Burnsville Offroad is are bought and bartered for by Dan. Phil Howe from Offroad Adventures is writing an article about how great his work is and in trade, Dan is building him a Jeep. The front bumper on Phil's Jeep came off of my Jeep, because Dan needed it for a photo shoot. I ended up with Howe's old bumper which was not anything like my original bumper. I don't know what you call this anywhere else, but in Texas, we call this stealing.

All I can tell you is that BUYER BEWARE. Many of these conversions will not pass inspection, and before you do business with Burnsville make certain it will pass inspection. If I had to do it all over again, I would do it with AEV because they run their company like a real business, and everything is tested to make certain it will pass inspection before it is brought to market.

 

I'm truly sorry that this happened to you. I can't imagine the frustration and anger that I would feel if I had paid that much and experienced the time delays, parts theft, and lack of proper functionality. I'm going to do the Hemi swap in the next two years, and I had considered Burnsville after Chrysler selected the Burnsville kit for the Mopar Hemi conversion kit. But after reading this, I will definitely be using the AEV kit!

 

And you continue to throw money at this guy why?

 

Sorry to hear of the trouble. Sounds like you have every right to be PO'd.

I am not one to recommend an attorney; however, you have a great case to pursue. If files in Texas, which I think you can establish jurisdiction, DTPA would net you treble damages. Your $30,000 turns into a $90,000 award + attorneys fees. It will settle, probably around $45~$55k.

An attorney should take it on contingency.

Sent from my iPhone using JK-Forum

 

X2 exactly what I was thinking