go-kart engine

We bought an HPV 100 engine from Kart World in Lemon Grove, Ca owner Ron Borges. We were told it was a test engine only that it was brand new we paid $1,300. It was bought a few days before Christmas. Since we are new to go-karting we do not know much and believed him. He did not have any starters available at that time.

We bought the starter from him yesterday, put it together and started the go-kart apx. 4 times. Today we were actually going to drive the kart we started it and oil/gas squirted out and the clutch froze in the engage position. We called him and left a message.

Since we did not get a call back we found someone else we could go to. This guy and several other professional looked over the engin. We were told that this engine was several years old, the clutch was not brand new, it was not race legal and had been run in durt or burned up and re built. At the most it was worth only a few hundred and brand new engines straight from the factory were $1200.

Ron also put the engine on the kart for us, it was all set up wrong and was illegal to race per guide lines. We were told he is not even allowed in the San Diego Kart Club and he had a very bad reputation.

They also told us that per California Law they believe that we only have 30 days to file a complaint. He does have a sign in his office that sales all sales are final. We were told that no one has been able to get the money back from him yet but we are detemined to do so. We did not have the money to put into it but we trusted him and he "riped us off".

Please e-mail me with any suggestion or questions this may not be totally clear. I have never been in this situation before.