Ladies and Gentlemen, here is the update. The machine shop tells me about a certain oil gallery plug. This plug is apparently close to the gear on the camshaft. Whether this was a replacement screw in plug, or converted to a screw in plug, whichever one, Dave or Revenge Machine put in a plug that was too long. The cam gear ate the softer metal of the screw in plug that was too long, depositing all those metal shavings in the oil until it dug the plug threads out of the way. The machine shops also believes the engine was not assembled in a clean environment. They aren't saying it was assembled out in a dirt field, but they found debris within the engine that indicate due care for cleanliness was not a priority. The damage included needing to replace every bearing in the engine. The crankshaft had to be ground and different sized bearings installed. All cylinders were honed and all rings were replaced with cast ones to solve the problem with sealing. The reassembled short block came home. $1,841.92 to fix the problem for an engine that was guaranteed "against anything but leaks". (The engine did leak, of course). Have I mentioned I have never heard from Dave? Dave, if you are reading this, the address you may send the check to is still the same.
Damn, I hope you get some restitution on this. Unfortunately this seems to be more common these days. I have a friend who had a 350 olds rebuilt by a shop local to him. Long story short the heads were junk after the worked on them and they damaged the new pistons buy installing them wrong. He had to take the engine to another shop and spend another $2500 to fix a $4500 rebuild. He was able to get his CC company to cover the cost of the faulty work and parts.
I'm not generally a proponent of things like this, but that guy needs to be taken to court. You may never get your money, but there will be a public record of him being a deadbeat and you can put a lien on his credit. If he works out of his home, you may even be able to attach a lien to his mortgage that will keep him from selling his house without paying you first. On the plus side, it sounds like you're back on track. When do you expect to get the engine back in?
I R&R'ed a 455 in a 71 this year with the oil galley problem. Pulgs were in too deep, starving the cam of oil....completely destroyed the cam and broke into two pieces.
ALL the front screw in plugs need to be "Thinned" down to fit properly & not block oil passages or be too close to the cam gear. I do this on ALL "Nails". Tom T.
Ladies and Gentlemen, embedded below is the story I told above. Over 14 months, I documented the re-rebuild along with putting Sherman on the dyno! I'm happy to finally have a car that doesn't smoke like a locomotive. All in after incidentals, this little detour cost $3,200... on top of the $6,670 I paid him originally for the rebuild plus upgrades. Thank you to all of those that gave advice and commented along the way.
For those of you following this thread, David Gaines has started posting on the forum again, and offered this statement about the failed rebuild: https://v8buick.com/index.php?threads/buick-401-425-rear-sump-pan-pickup.391625/ "Dave, Good to see you back on V8Buick and HAMB. When will you be addressing the $3,200 I had to spend to re-rebuild the engine you meticulously handcrafted for me and claimed it had a warranty against everything but leaks?" I offered to fix it, got no reply. Check your email. On top of that, any part of that rebuild was caused by you. Carb issues, distributor issues, etc. All at break in. I offered help, but you just threatened me and in the end, didn't respond. $3200 is nothing if I add back in the time and lost money on the cracked blocks issue I guess you forgot about that. I've posed my rebuttal in the other thread.
