Need serious advice.....
12-09-2005, 02:23 AM
#1
Need serious advice..... Need advice on what to do....
about a month ago i had all of my crank/rod bearings go bad in the bottom of my ls1..... so i had a VERY reputable shop in my area rebuild the bottom end....resulting in them replacing the crank and 3 of my connecting rods.
well i picked the motor back up from them friday. just finished re-installing it tonight..... now they had to pull my heads to take all of my pistons and such out to do the work obviously.... and they put it all back on..... i made sure i did everything right when i putting the timing chain back on and lined the dot on the crank and the dot on the cam sprocket.... like im supposed to.... I only had to put the oil pump, windage tray, pickup tube and oilpan on the engine. and all accessories yada yada yada...
well we finish the install tonight about 9 and turn the motor over both by hand and just by cranking the starter (to prime the oil pump).... everything seems fine no unusual noises... plug all the injectors back in and the coils back....... fire the motor..... for all of 3 seconds it sounds like hell has broken loose in the engine
i pulled the spark plugs to find that 2 of 7 (cyl 5 and 7) plugs are destroyed (crushed or broken) pulled my valvecovers and undid all of the rockers to find all of my intake valves are now either bent or broken off (two springs are decrompressed and the others are bent compressing the spring).....
i decide to pull the timing cover and MAKE SURE for piece of mind that I had the timing marks dot to dot and they were..... i did notice something wrong on the crank sprocket.... I have the Rollmaster Double roller chain set up and to explain what i noticed the keyway on the crank and the dot are both lined up at the 12'oclock position.... (rollmaster you can adjust timing with the crank sprocket using 1 of 9 keyways)..... on the stock crankshaft i have laying around that still has the orginal sprocket on it if you have the dot to 12'oclock the keyway is supposed to be at 2 o'clock..... the shop put the Crank sprocket back in the wrong timing position....
resulting in the catastrophie that i had. I have not torn the motor down any further than my timing cover. so i have no idea of the extent of the damage to my heads/pistons/connecting rods/pushrods/lifter/cam etc.
I am going to call them tomorrow i just hope this doesnt turn into a very big ordeal i dont want to have to go through any kinds of court or anything legal unless i have to..... i have been without the TA for over two months now because of modding and i am missing driving her....i wont name the shop until i know if they will do me right. if they replace all of the damaged parts. which will be a pretty penny, between the forged bottom end and the heads and possibly the cam as well pushrods....yada yada.....
does anyone have any advice for me as to what they hell to say to them? or maybe how i should go about this? i have never had anything like this happen to me before...
about a month ago i had all of my crank/rod bearings go bad in the bottom of my ls1..... so i had a VERY reputable shop in my area rebuild the bottom end....resulting in them replacing the crank and 3 of my connecting rods.
well i picked the motor back up from them friday. just finished re-installing it tonight..... now they had to pull my heads to take all of my pistons and such out to do the work obviously.... and they put it all back on..... i made sure i did everything right when i putting the timing chain back on and lined the dot on the crank and the dot on the cam sprocket.... like im supposed to.... I only had to put the oil pump, windage tray, pickup tube and oilpan on the engine. and all accessories yada yada yada...
well we finish the install tonight about 9 and turn the motor over both by hand and just by cranking the starter (to prime the oil pump).... everything seems fine no unusual noises... plug all the injectors back in and the coils back....... fire the motor..... for all of 3 seconds it sounds like hell has broken loose in the engine
i pulled the spark plugs to find that 2 of 7 (cyl 5 and 7) plugs are destroyed (crushed or broken) pulled my valvecovers and undid all of the rockers to find all of my intake valves are now either bent or broken off (two springs are decrompressed and the others are bent compressing the spring).....
i decide to pull the timing cover and MAKE SURE for piece of mind that I had the timing marks dot to dot and they were..... i did notice something wrong on the crank sprocket.... I have the Rollmaster Double roller chain set up and to explain what i noticed the keyway on the crank and the dot are both lined up at the 12'oclock position.... (rollmaster you can adjust timing with the crank sprocket using 1 of 9 keyways)..... on the stock crankshaft i have laying around that still has the orginal sprocket on it if you have the dot to 12'oclock the keyway is supposed to be at 2 o'clock..... the shop put the Crank sprocket back in the wrong timing position....
resulting in the catastrophie that i had. I have not torn the motor down any further than my timing cover. so i have no idea of the extent of the damage to my heads/pistons/connecting rods/pushrods/lifter/cam etc.
I am going to call them tomorrow i just hope this doesnt turn into a very big ordeal i dont want to have to go through any kinds of court or anything legal unless i have to..... i have been without the TA for over two months now because of modding and i am missing driving her....i wont name the shop until i know if they will do me right. if they replace all of the damaged parts. which will be a pretty penny, between the forged bottom end and the heads and possibly the cam as well pushrods....yada yada.....
does anyone have any advice for me as to what they hell to say to them? or maybe how i should go about this? i have never had anything like this happen to me before...
Last edited by Raven02TA; 12-09-2005 at 02:36 AM.
12-09-2005, 06:35 AM
#2
TECH Apprentice
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that sucks ***** man, im sad just reading about it. if this were me, Id tell that that they installed the crank pulley off center and didnt tell me, and the resulting damage occured. If they dont want to fix it, call a lawyer. I had a friend with a mustang, had the heads done and they milled the crap out of em, never told him to get smaller rods. it messed his crap up. they paid for it. hopefully you have as good of luck. as a professional shop, they are respinsible for their work. obviously they threw that sprocket on without any concern for the keyways, it should be interesting to see what happens. let us know. is it a sponsor??? if so, you should prob be able to use that to your advantage...
12-09-2005, 12:01 PM
#3
ok to keep everyone updated I called the shop this morning at 11am and alked with the same man i was dealing with initially and he is the manager of the shop as well... I told him step by step evrything we did to re-install the engine and all parts and in detail. I told him how long the engine was on what broke and why they broke and the moment i explained aboutt he crank sprocket he said well obviously we made a big mistake and it shouldnt have happen and asked me if i can bring him the engine either tomorrow or monday. He said without any hesitation or me asking him to that he would replace or repair ALL damaged parts. Since we dont have the heads off we dont know the extent of the damage yet. it seems they will do me right and i will refrain from posting their name on here. I will say that if everything goes right I will still push how well they are taking care of me and how well the work was done.
want to thank everyone for their input and listening to me rant at 3 am i couldnt sleep cuz i was so upset about it.... and the worry that things wouldnt get taken care of right. it seems these guys care a great deal of their reputation and i wont do anything to smear their name wrong. I will still help to promote their work as long as things come out ok.
want to thank everyone for their input and listening to me rant at 3 am i couldnt sleep cuz i was so upset about it.... and the worry that things wouldnt get taken care of right. it seems these guys care a great deal of their reputation and i wont do anything to smear their name wrong. I will still help to promote their work as long as things come out ok.
12-11-2005, 10:28 AM
#7
On The Tree
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Cincinnati, OH
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A friend of mne always says, "Don't judge someone when they make a mistake. Judge them based on what they do to fix the mistake."
If it isn't against the rules, post the name of the engine builder you are dealing with.
If it isn't against the rules, post the name of the engine builder you are dealing with.
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12-14-2005, 10:17 AM
#8
Here is a a link to the pics of the damage. http://community.webshots.com/album/464811725LkNSSM
welp, we went to the shop and i had them pull the heads off while i took pictures of the damage that was caused..... two intake valves completely broken off cyl 5 and 7 and all of the others are bend. with little damage to the heads which can be repaired. pistons 5 and 7 are going to be replaced. there is no damage to the cyl walls thankfully.... i will be able to post pics tomorrow sometime. there are holes punched in the two pistons which cannot be recovered. the other pistons that were hit had no damage to them. it seems things werent as bad as initially thought. tomorrow they will begin the tear down and order me two new Mahle pistons and rings and fix the heads and put it all back together. I am happy about the way things are going and when the transaction is complete i will release their name not because something bad happened but to praise how well they are taking care of it..... my thought is they are going to put it in on their insurance.
I am definately satisfied with the way im being treated and the guys i have been dealing with are pretty stand up guys unlike a few shops i have been to where they talk down to you like you know nothing of the business..... as it is everything wont be that expensive for them to fix since they do everything in house.... all they really are purchasing is valves and two forged pistons... which im sure they will claim on insurance.
welp, we went to the shop and i had them pull the heads off while i took pictures of the damage that was caused..... two intake valves completely broken off cyl 5 and 7 and all of the others are bend. with little damage to the heads which can be repaired. pistons 5 and 7 are going to be replaced. there is no damage to the cyl walls thankfully.... i will be able to post pics tomorrow sometime. there are holes punched in the two pistons which cannot be recovered. the other pistons that were hit had no damage to them. it seems things werent as bad as initially thought. tomorrow they will begin the tear down and order me two new Mahle pistons and rings and fix the heads and put it all back together. I am happy about the way things are going and when the transaction is complete i will release their name not because something bad happened but to praise how well they are taking care of it..... my thought is they are going to put it in on their insurance.
I am definately satisfied with the way im being treated and the guys i have been dealing with are pretty stand up guys unlike a few shops i have been to where they talk down to you like you know nothing of the business..... as it is everything wont be that expensive for them to fix since they do everything in house.... all they really are purchasing is valves and two forged pistons... which im sure they will claim on insurance.
