Not my fault the motor blew! Machine shop messed up!

I worked at a Towing Company, being the only mechanic I did small odd Jobs.
One Day another Towing Company, send there freshly re-build flatbed in with a f@cked motor.
The guy who owned the truck was a mechanic, aswell as the guy who drove it daily. Both agreed on it was a "airgun on, and just blow it apart"-job, that shouldent take more then 2hour job.
So I blew it apart, taking half a day. So owner got pissed, cause it took to long time.
Second problem; I found the big sprocket between the crank and the cam, the bolt ran loose. Breaking the complet gear assembly. I then found they turned the clutch hub (flipped), so it grinded slightly on the center.

Now the sh1t hits the fan, the owner got this crazy ideer that because the clutch had these small marks on the hub, it made the motor vibrate, till the gear assembly broke! That means he would take the machine shop and the mechanic, who installed the motor, to court.
That is very unusual in Denmark, the shop makes there shop insurence take care of it. But going to court is rare!!!

But the clutch was'nt that bad, so in my opinion the marks on the clutch hub was so small, that it stopped making noise, before the motor got Oil pressure!
And I think, the machine shop forgot to put lock-tite on the center bolt in the gear assy. And this caused the engine to fail, but everything when completly out of proportions, when they went to court!!

The driver told me after two hours of driving the
M@therfucker engine start to "Shake, Rattle and Roll", and what did he do? Looked ad his watch, took a deep breath and hauled as for the rest of the day. Until the bolt wore through the casting, and the drive assy went around on its own, and finaly split the house it was in.
What a retard, and what a waste of a rebuild motor!!

 

Lots of reasons to buy Crate Motor's. Way too many rebuild horror stories.

 

Had a roller cam put into my 377 sbc. At the same time I had the shop go through the heads. I was advised the springs I suppled were not adequate so I had them order new ones (and billed for them).

When I built my blower motor this year I had the heads transfered over. The new engine guy checked them out and found a ton of things wrong. 3 of the valve guides were so oose he doubts they were even sbc. 3 valve seats were ground wrong and others not cleaned up. But the kicker was the valve srpings, Not only were they not new... but 3 of them were failing and one had collapsed completely. Best guess was I was leaving at least 30hp on the table...probably more. Not to mention out of pocket a good chunk of change.

 

Ill admit it. I blew an engine on my own. Before i realized what happened i was ready to lynch my engine builder. I crushed my oil pan never realized it and wasted some bearings. Who knew they needed oil? Live and learn


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Stock 351-W bore is 4.00" and the stroke is 3.500".... Do the math...

 

bore x bore x stroke x .7854 x number of cylinders (8) = cubic inches

 

Like I said never have tech kids involved lolololol
Jay

 

One of the places I worked for bought a SBC short block from a local machine shop. I was supposed to install the heads on it and I found the pop up pistons were turned the wrong way so they would hit the head instead of going into the combustion chamber.

 

My personal practice is to break out my torque wrench, and go over everything, before the pan goes on. Never found anything loose, but have heard some "war stories".

4TTRUK

 

If my engine builder messes up, I will withhold his allowance.



short block done.



All done.



Runs great.



-Abone.

 

That's funny, and great parenting :]

 

since my last build 5 years ago both of my regular machinists ( and good friends)have passed away. I am gathering parts for my next build and just found a new machinists. sounds crazy but I basicly Interviewed him to make sure we were on the same page. also the balance shop I will use is owned by a friend who not only builds race inline ford sixes but has been doing this for 35 years. Even though I use people I trust that will stand behind their work I am up front about what I want and expect and I check and measure all clearances before assembly. my only bad expirience was I took a crank to a good size local speed and machine shop to be turned to the next size which would have been a .010 cut. when I picked it up I was only charged for a polish and told all I needed was a .001 bearing. I asked if they thought that a crank with .001 wear was still round, I just got the deer in the headlights look then said why do'nt you just do what I ask and take my money. that was the last time I used them, they went out of business a few years later.