Just took a motor apart (455) that was built by a BB Chevy dragster guy. He had the oil holes in the cam bearings (non grooved) at 6 o'clock. NO oil was getting to the cam bearings!!! He said he was never going to build another POS Buick motor. GOOD THING!!!! :blast: :moonu: This was just one of his screw-ups!
Don't these guys do any research before putting a engine together or do they just read the chevy bible and apply it to all engines. when I went to the shop that did my motor, there were finished chevy engines all over the place and a few generous amount of some other brands but no buicks. Believe me if I had of been as knowledgeable about buicks back then or even had this board to read back then I would have been more cautious or at least sat down and gone over specs with the builder who was highly recommended. I guess he must have done his own homework and wanted to protect his reputation as I had over ten years of trouble free experience with the engine and it was quite an animal if I must say so. He actually did two buicks for me and one olds and he was picky on certain matters like refusing to put hypereuthetic pistons in the engine. Whatever minor problems I had he always had a solution that worked out right. I know one of his employees (got my replacement block from him) had a gs with aluminum stage 2 heads but he was just a machinist. The owner of the place, the one I was formally speaking about did all of the assembly and dyno runs. So far Scotty G hasn't said anything bad about how the motor was formally put together. If Scotty wasn't doing the motor this time then I probably would have gone back but this time with spec sheets for how everything needs to be done even though things looked right the first time, just peace of mind for myself. Allen allioop108@aol.com
Some of these "machinists" think picking up a book is a sign of weakness. :Smarty: ou: Pretty sad......
The guy that built my 464 was mainly a Chev guy. But with some persistance and alot of research to back up my requests everything worked out. Thankfully he was open-minded enough to work with me. I'm sure there were days I left his shop, and I was called a few names that I can't repeat here. :laugh: I'm sure it's pretty tough for an engine builder/machinest who has 25-30 years experience building mainly Chev motors to have someone come in to his shop and start telling him how to build a motor. I think understanding that is half the battle.
Years ago I used to work in an automotive repair shop, they were mainly tires, brakes, oil changes, things like that but they also rebuilt motors if you want to call it that. What they called rebuilding a motor consisted of taking the motor apart, washing the block, pistons, crank, etc in the parts washer. No overboring or machining. Then the motor was put back together with the same parts that came out of it. I never saw these guys use a torque wrench let alone plastigage. I once asked the guy how do you know how tight to torque the rod caps and main caps and he told me that with enough experience you can feel the proper torque. One time the other guy (there were two that did these rebuilds) was doing a high performance motor and you know the marks that distinguish the front of the piston, well he had some going to the fron as they should and others going to the back, all on the same bank of cylinders. And can you believe the shop was charging 3 grand for these rebuilds, ohh yeah the only thing new were the gaskets. Plus the shop was a pigstye, dirt and garbage all on the floor so you know the motor was not in a clean environment. Then you had to see it in the car. no new paint and just how clean do you think a parts washer is going to make the block. They eventually stopped rebuilding cause customers were suing the shop or complaining when the motor blew up 3 months later. Hell I got sent to court one time to have to defend the shop as an expert eyewitness, don't even want to discuss that. So everyone, be carefull out there, at least most of us gearheads have some smarts to know what to expect but imagine the average person who plunks down 3 grand for that kind of rebuild. Allen allioop108@aol.com
