LFSADRG

iTrader: (1)

I feel your pain and currently going through the same experience.

The past three years has been a string of bad luck due to incompetent local 'shoppes' who should quit and go sell used cars since they are better liars.

I have a laundry list of places that suck around WA.

TrickyTransAm

Don't get me wrong. Scoggin Dickey's might be a great place to buy a crate motor.
(I have never purchased anything from them, so I wouldnt know)

But like I cited earlier "I've got a better part to sell you".
Plus...the motor that broke the camels back wasn't a race motor.
It was an every day daily driver, that should have been a piece of cake.
Take the parts to a machinist...Pay him to machine it...bring it home, put it together, and drive it to work the next day.
And keep in mind...I spent big bucks on good parts. Not some cheapo crap. High Quality expensive components.
I had 2 pair of eyes on my work, to make sure it was good to go. Clean environment, expensive break in lube, etc etc..you get the drift.
I guess my main frustration is people's incompetence, and lack of owning up to the job. Moreso - not being able to do anything about it.

ghardester - your nominated. Oh... where's my buzzer.
I'd bet later in life you'll say the same "Thank god I dont have to wrench on that POS again".

NW94Z

Welcome to the United States in the year 2008. Take responsibility for ones actions? Why should anyone do that when it's not their fault or problem. Hell just hire an attorney they'll blame someone else and get you off scott free. It's where our society is going these days. Kids aren't being taught accountability for their actions. They're being taught to point fingers. It's what happens when morals and ethics fall by the wayside.

Gran Sport

I've gone through something similar. From 2000 - 2002 I had my GS455 and lived 10 minutes from Pacific and about 30 from Bremerton. I raced quite a bit and got pretty good with that car. I did one round of upgrades that dropped me about .6 (to mid 13's) and would drive the car into the garage with the numbers on it and drive it out with them still there, the next time I'd go to the track. I had some pretty good success for those years.

Then life got busy, I got married, moved further away from the track, sold the GS since I was never going to get around restoring it and it was too rare to risk blowing up after 300+ passes on the numbers motor/trans. After moving into my house in 2003, I bought a $300 72 Skylark body. I was going to rebuild the 455 I'd had in storage for a few years, but my daily driver needed a motor. We decided to throw a set of good heads and intake on the motor, with a mild cam and put it into the Skylark. With the original open 2.56 rear I took it to opening day at PR on Feb 13, 2005 (after two years). My first pass was a 13.51 @ 106 in 2nd gear! I knew once the rest of the car was figured out, it would be at least a second quicker. The second pass I spun a rod bearing. Here I am 3 years later and a year ago the car was dropped off at my house with the motor in it, but needing some tuning. It also needed everything that it did back in 05 still too. I've got most of the parts for the fuel system, someone I can get a good rear from, and someone to build the TH400 on my bench (the same person who did the TH350 that is still behind the motor now). Yet I haven't found myself out in the garage doing anything other than putting a curve into the distributor and firing it up now and again.

There's part of me that wants to get it on the track right away, and part of me that's afraid that something will go wrong again. And if it does - I'm done with it. I can't start this project over again, knowing that it will likely be years before I get my garage space back.

Hopefully I'll have T10 back out for Team NW again this year though...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=z8mty8suFsI

NWDragRacer

Here, here!

When I suck, and I do, it's a challenge to overcome. How many motors do you think John Force blew sky high before he won his first championship? 100 ... 200 ... 1000 - who knows besides John.

The point is, don't blame someone else. It's your **** and only you are responsible. If you think it's someone elses fault, vote for Hillary and we'll see ya!

davidadavila

im young and what ive noticed from lots of enthusiast these days is that they all want to do everything themselves, they want to build engines, due all these swaps and fixes themselves with no experience and by reading threads and posts, etc...wrenching is like being a doctor you have to have the proper experience and knowledge to acomplish things the right way, people should concentrate on getting a good price on well know products as opposed to buying cheap things that wont last............i know how to change the heads and the cam in my car in theory but i wont do it .....

give it another try bud, hobbies keep you alive and give you a reason to work 40 hours a week......I just got married too and bought a house last year, its really hard bro but you got to have something to look foward after you leave work

NWDragRacer

Back in the day................


.....before the Internet, us old guys made everything. You couldn't go buy a "crate" engine. You couldn't even buy a "race ready" anything. I sometimes bought two of the same parts because I was sure I was going to "learn" on the first one.

We drank beer. We broke parts. We wrenched 'till our fingers bled. We had fun.

This hobby is not about who can shop the best, it's about creating things that did not exist before. It's about giving a machine a soul and making it an extention of your persona.

There is always someone who can spend more than you can. Don't measure your self worth against others. You can create, you can be fast and you can fail. It's all part of life.


See you on the streets!

The Manalishi

iTrader: (3)

Very well said and very true. I like the internet but in some ways I hate it. I remember a time when if I wanted to tell someone something I had to see them or talk to them on the phone. Life seemed so much more simple and things happened. Now I send an email or PM and I hope I get a response and even when I get a response it doesn't mean something will happen. Face to face its harder to go back on your word I think with email it is easy.

Scoggin Dickey

iTrader: (34)

Easily the best post I have ever read. <---that's a period