As many of you know my car, specifically my engine, suffered from a major
disaster after having been recently rebuilt (900 miles). Welllll, I brought
it to another machinist a few weeks ago to get re-rebuilt and boy was I
surprised by what he said and showed me!!!!!!
What the other machinist didn't do, or what he did do, completely screwed my
engine and furthered my engine's demise and caused more damage.
He cut the very ends of the rod caps but didn't hone them to the correct
size or to any size. The machinist showed me all he did was scuff the
insides on the rods. The new machinist showed me on the back of the bearings
the out-of-roundness of the rod journals which showed up as shiny metal
points. My clearances, which he measured for the hell of it, were also way
off - way too tight. Same with the wrist pins.
The coup de grace however was what this SOB did to my head after the new
machinist performed a leak down test on it and discovered the problems. He
used stones to cut the seats and scored them so badly that they either have
to be replaced or get custom made slightly oversized valves so he can use
another area of the seats that the butcher didn't butcher. The upside of the
custom valves is that they will breath about 25% better than the stock
valves and he can save my valve stems too. Ohhhhh, did I forget to mention
that the SOB didn't put in new valve guide liners like he promised to do
after I showed him the abnormally large clearances, which also didn't help
the seats.
I asked all the right questions of the SOB, saw his vast array of machinery
and was recommended to him by a mechanic. I guess having all the fancy
machinery is still no guide to the crappy machinists and poor quality work
emanating from his shop.
My new machinist will assemble my engine while I look on and help with the
reassembly to show me how to do it correctly.
I wrote this so you will not be snookered by some incompetent machinist
also.
Mike
PS - After I get the carefully written bill I will bring it to the SOB and
demand that he refund my money for the machine work and to pay for the
damage to my head. If he declines I'll meet him in small claims court and I
have never, ever lost there and I won't this time also. FYI, the #1 reason
people go to small claims court in NY is for auto mechanics who screw them.
I have that survey and will show it to him. Courts are not very friendly or
sympathetic to incompetent or dishonest mechanics nor should they be.
/// datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net mailing list
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