Problems with fresh 455 rebuild, machine shop

It's all out of your hands now, as I said earlier, be done with it. If someone else personally ask about that plsce, tell them. If you go.pushing too hard it could be seen as your ting so hard to make things right someone could almost ask why would he be ting so hard if he didn't have anything to hide.


I don't get that feeling, by the way, but this is a lose lose for you. The more you push the worse it's going to get for you. It's going to also eat at you heart, mind, and soul. That's not good either.

Your getting the short end of the stick for sure, sounds like the only thing you can control is just how far up the @$$ do you want to push it here?


The your assuming here they are even a BBB member or that they will even care about that, yelp, or FB

 

I would back away from the whole scenario.
The shop made it clear they wont talk to you.
The owner said he wants you to back off.
Its his car, his engine, his money, his decision.
Walk away, you tried
Sit back and await the outcome

 

Mine are screw in also, will also be screw in on my new build.
I had the right cup plug pop out on me years ago.
The only upside is the cam gear got GREAT oiling when it popped out

 

Someone told me once when I was working hard early on in my shop, something went wrong and was ting to go over a beyond to fix it. He asked why I willing to take so bad a beating on something I was sure I didn't do wrong.

I told him I was hew to business and I didn't want this to hurt my reputation.

He told me that reputation is just some ones thought, and there is no way to control other ppl's thoughts. They already think what they think, even if I bend over backwards and fix it, they won't change their minds about what happened.

I remember thus clear as day and can't tell you what the problem even was now. It's been 25 years ago. Guess it didn't hurt my reputation bad enough to put me out if business

 

You've done what you could, let it lie. Over thinking this and getting too involved emotionally and mentally is not good......

 

Flaming bag o dawg poop at the front door of machine shop. Ring doorbell, go home. Closure achieved, Rottie-style.....Jim

 

Yep, walk away. What if the shop does everything right this time, uses a ‘friendly’ and competent installer, and makes the owner very happy? You end up looking like a squeaky wheel at best, maybe worse. There’s always someone with a loud negative opinion of any topic, and a bystander can’t seperate the informed from the a$$hole. In the future, IF someone asks your opinion, share it. Those who choose something expensive and inportant by using anything other than first hand referrals are asking for trouble.
Patrick

 

I feel there is a difference between your case of today and mine of 30 years ago when I filed the complaint with the BBB against the West Allis Machine shop. I was actually the "End Consumer". I had taken the engine apart myself and documented the failure with pictures (Polaroid) which I still have today. Sad to say that at this juncture because you have no actual proof of what or who caused the failure(s), ...... I would have to agree with the others to "Cut Bait" and move on with doing what you feel you are good at. I'm no lawyer but defamation of character would be a real drag on top of everything else. So as I stated in an earlier post, ..... I would use this unfortunate situation as a catalyst to start your own engine measuring, mock-up, and building. I feel in the long run you may be happier and you will never be in this same situation again.



Larry

 

x5 or whatever on the run away. You've done what you can. You aren't being given the opportunity to correct the problem and being in the problem solving business, you need to move on to the next customers problem.
keep moving forward.

 

I have to say, I'm a little surprised at the overwhelming sentiment to just let it be and walk away. I have seen so damn much dishonesty, incompetence and blame put on the wrong people in this business, yet all too often the screwed party just bends over and takes it without putting up a fight. I've never understood that, and I think it's a big part of the problem, because incompetent, dishonest and outright deceitful people and businesses aren't held accountable for their actions. I'm a fighter about this stuff, and in situations where someone has tried to take advantage of me personally, there's never been any question that I would fight back against it and never just roll over to take the punches.

However, you make a compelling argument, being that I haven't actually been given the chance to see or confirm/deny anything, I don't know definitively what happened with that engine. I know in my mind that whatever screwup was on their end, but thinking about it in the context of the law and such, no, I don't have any proof of it, just very strong suspicion.

I've been accumulating the tools for this for years, and with each engine that I've built I've usually taken the opportunity to either add to what I have to fill a need or improve upon what I already had. Not to mention, expand my base of knowledge. I've spent many a long hour at night reading through tech articles, studying shop manuals, putting in a lot of effort to learn all the background science and theories and everything regarding engines and their operation and such. I'm at a point where I'm pretty confident about building any engine for myself, and the only major failure that I've experienced was with the second engine that I built - a 2.3L turbo Ford for a friend that I did as a favor when I was 19, and we cut corners on it and I knew we were taking our chances with it, but he had almost no money and just needed to get the car on the road, so eh.. It developed some rod knock after a few thousand miles, though admittedly he was beating the absolute piss out of it. But nevertheless, I'd consider that a failure,and needless to say, that's not how I do things today.

The one engine I built prior to that - a basically stock 390 FE - ran fine for the few thousand miles I put on it before I sold the car. I've built several engines since, and all ran well for the relatively short periods of time I owned them before I sold the vehicles they were in. I did build a 350 Olds some years ago, and sold the car to someone I'm still in contact with, and he's since put almost 30k on it without any trouble, so that's certainly a good sign.

The funny thing is, I've always resisted the idea of building engines for other people, as I don't want to take on the extra liability of such a large, expensive piece. If I build an engine for someone, they have several thousand invested into it, and things go drastically wrong, I'd be in a position where I'd potentially have to eat several grand, and I don't want that liability. What I've got going for me though is that I am very meticulous, methodical, I'm not in any kind of rush when doing sensitive work like engine building, and I know that every engine is different, with its own little quirks and nuances and such that I need to research and learn ahead of time.

But this whole situation is making me rethink that, and I may very well decide to get into it more seriously for customers as well. I just recently started a major restoration project on a '79 F150, keeping it all stock and original for someone who is going to be babying it and never using it as a real truck ever again. The original engine was totally rusted and seized to hell, but the 400 replacing it needs a mild refresh. I'm starting to think that might just be the perfect opportunity to build my first customer engine, as I now no longer trust any machine shop local to me.

Thanks again to everyone for your thoughts and insight on all this. I'll keep the thread updated if/when I get updates myself.

 

And if you ever have questions about a BBB build, ask here. Lots of smart people here (just not me...)!

 

I understand the desire for perfection but ever situation isn't going to fit into that mold and get the results you desire. Life is way to short to be spending your time on things that are out of your control. You have the same twenty four hours in the day and sixty minutes in your hour as everyone else and I don't know about you but I don't have near enough hours in my day to accomplish the things I WANT to accomplish to spend on ancillary things that don't get me to my goals.
if the customer shows back up and requests help then you are introducing that into the goal column. Other wise I'm betting you have way more important things to do with your time.

Keep moving forward.

 

For whatever it is worth, here is one more vote for walk away and mind your own business. You have done your part.

 

I feel pretty sure the second attempt will yield the same result, and maybe then the customer will realize it wasn't you, but the other factor in the equation

 

Agreed, the second go-round may be worse than the first. They rush rebuild again, drop it in car, (not a run stand ), find low oil pressure , band-aid it with 20/50 and send the uneducated out the door. When it starts knocking , I bet they cease any communication with him and slam the door in his face. Stuff like this can ruin the customers whole classic car experience and cause him to walk away. And that's a shame.......Jim

 

I wonder what ever happened here? Did the second rebuild attempt fail or succeed??

 

Hasn't been on here since April 28, 2018.