So, I got my engine back the other day. Builder had it for 6 months! It was supposed to be a freshen up, new pistons to bring compression up, port the heads, match the heads to a new intake, a Victor. Well, it seems that there was always a problem with something. About a month into it, he calls me and said that there is a crack in one of the heads but he can get me a set of eddy rpm’s for cheap. Then, he gets the heads and said that they were flowing like crap and wanted to know what I wanted to do. In the meanwhile he orders up a set of 440-source heads "just because" and tells me that he has a Forged crank, forged rods, and forged pistons that he can install for 1100 more. Sounds good and I say go ahead, you know what you are doing-what is it going to be now and he said a 493. Great! Well he gets the heads (Stealth) in and flows them and said that they were crap. He tells me what cam he wants to run, no brand name, only that it was about .509 lift with 1.5 rockers. I tell him that I want it around a .540 with the 1.6 so around a .525ish would be better. I order up a set of Indy EZ's with the info that he gave me, and get the heads, with valley plate, valves, and pushrods. He changes the springs and put some new keepers in (finally something decent) and tells me that they were set up wrong and he was having a problem with the push rods. I remind him that he put 1.6 rockers in there and that the holes may or may not need to be elongated. Mind you, this was in June and he got my engine at the end of March. So, I keep trying to get a hold of him and it is one excuse after another. Then he finally calls me and says that he is having problems with the block as there is something "screwy" there that the previous builder did and this is why he is taking so long to get back to me. I am trying to be patient so that I do not get a pos. Well, the time finally comes that I get my engine and I did not care if it was ready or not! So, he drops it off at my house and after we have unloaded it, i notice that there is no Victor intake, instead a Performer RPM. He said it would be a "dog" with that intake. Whatever, I think as I am just happy to have my engine back. Then I notice that there is JB weld on the rear freeze plug to hold it in??? He said that they are notorious for popping out. Have you ever heard of this??? I have not! Then he tells me that one push rod is the wrong length and can he come by some time so that he can change it? ? Can you believe that, or any of this so far? On top of that I notice the block was never hot tanked and I could almost swear that he told me that he did this. And, I received absolutely 0 paperwork on this engine. What the hell is in it??? I don't know! Did I mention that the cam box with my old cam shows a .464 lift on it? I hope that the cam is something close to what I wanted? Then said that he had a problem with all the stroker kit and it ended up being closer to .520". Can you believe that he gave me back all my old parts? LOL!
I was referred to this guy by a guy I have known for a while and him and his buddies use him all the time. He lives about 2+ hours from me and I should have just made the trip months ago to get it, but.......
I am scared to death right now as this is just way too close to being a horror story. So now the engine is going to my Dads long time mechanic whom I was originally going to use, but decided to give this other a try. I want to know what is in it, get everything checked out, and just make sure that all is well. I just thought that I would vent a little and let you all know that it really is simple to check someone out before using them, not just by looking at their website. My buddy could not believe that this was going on and said that he has never had an engine take longer than 5 weeks. Anyway, hope to get this thing back soon and that all is well with it!
