vettereddie

Had to get this off my chest, really frustrated at the moment. Had a head gasket leak on the original motor and was already planning on going turbo with a built motor, so decided to just finish the build and do a straight swap rather than repair the stock one.

I had two spare heads from other motors, so I sent one over to a high school friend to be ported / polished. He has a flow bench at his shop and had been doing race motors for a few years now, so I thought he would do a good job. The problem comes in that he ended up grinding too much on the intake side and put holes in all four chambers, some right where the fuel injector seats. Rather then weld them or use a different head, he repairs the holes with metallized epoxy that he claims will stand up to 20 psi. At home, I checked the heads for leaks by putting them on the side and pouring denatured alcohol in each chamber, then looking for leakange. They held, and he swore the repair was good.

Based on this I finish engine assembly, paint it, and do the engine install. I start it up and everything sounds good for the first five minutes. I had checked the bearing clearances and rehoned the cylinders so was worried if the clearances were good. No codes, but soon the engine started running rough, and I heard a pssshhh sound, like an air compressor leaking. I grabbed a hose and used it as a stethescope to troubleshoot where the noise was coming from, and found it was on the #4 injector. To confirm, I wiggled the injector and actually changed the pitch of the air. When I pulled the injector and poked the patch material in the hole, it actually moved. What happened is that under vacuum at idle, the engine was sucking the repair off of the wall.

So now I'm really mad at my friend and his botched repair job, but more than that his recommendation to still use the head. I have a second head, completely rebuilt and just lapped, that I could have used just as easily, only it's not ported. Now I have to spend another two days removing the engine, cleaning the timing cover seals, replacing the head, and on top of that spending money for oil, coolant, filter, o-ring gaskets, head gasket, and new head bolts, after just installing this motor last weekend and running the engine for 5 minutes. He did this job for me as a favor and didn't charge, but had 7 months to do it and if he said the head wasn't repairable, I would have been ok with it, and even told him that.

Not going to stop talking to the dude over 2 extra days of labor and $100 in parts, just really frustrated at the moment and wondering if it's partly my fault since I had the oppurtunity not to use it and went against my better judgement by relying on someone else's advise. Ok, I'm done ranting, thanks for following along.

For those curious about the build, I'm using the following:
- Crower rods (required notching the block to fit)
- Toga HP bearings
- Wiseco pistons (10:1 c/r, ceramic face, dry-lube skirt coatings)
- Garrett GT2252 turbo with 8 psi spring
- Dezod vertical front-mount intercooler

STlTCHES

You have every right to be extremely frustrated. Lucky you didn't damage anything do to his shotty workmanship and excuse for a repair to something that shouldn't have been damaged in the first place.

vettereddie

Thanks. Wanted to make sure I wasn't just whining. Fortunately I have access to a garage where I can work at my own pace, and since it's all my own work, labor is free. Even bought an engine lift last year so getting the motor in and out isn't really that bad and can be done as a one person job.

Sucks that I couldn't get this done last weekend though because I'm on travel through the first week of August, so it will be another 3 weeks before I can work on it again.

brainneeded_

when it comes to these kinds of things, when in doubt, don't. lesson learned. gl with this build!

johnny_vitz

Totally agree. A lot worse could have happened, glad it didn't.
Show us the pics when she's all back together...Will you be heading for the dyno?

frogbox

Try and remember, You only get what you pay for.
Your friend didn't charge did he?
If you are upset some of the blame for the work should lay on your shoulders as well , you chose to install it, don't take it ALL out on him.

Lesson learned I think , When in doubt , Don't.

Most times things are not for free , you pay one way or another.

vettereddie

True, I went against my instinct and had the final call on whether or not to use it. However, when a guy owns a flow bench and builds motors for 10 years, you would think he know's what he's doing. As I said, I wasn't upset at the job itself, only that he still recommended using it instead of admitting it was messed up and might not hold. Every decision is based on risk, and in this case I differed to someone with more experience, and it bit me.

And yeah, I did get lucky in that it started opening before I got it off the jack stands and didn't let go completely. if it happened during a test drive, a tow would suck, but nothing would have been as bad is a chunk breaking free and getting sucked in the combustion chamber. Scored sleeves and stuck valves would have been a whole lot more work.

As you said, lesson learned, and it's only costing me 4 days and $100 to put the new one in (this head I rebuilt personally). this is whay I don't do car or computer work for other people, I have the skillset but if something goes wrong, I don't need the headache of being responsible for fixing it.

frogbox

[quote=vettereddie;3631055]True, I went against my instinct and had the final call on whether or not to use it. However, when a guy owns a flow bench and builds motors for 10 years, you would think he know's what he's doing. ]

Just cause a guy has a car doesn't mean he can drive.
How many people use a screw driver to pry with?

Hope it works better for you this time around.

vettereddie

Wow Frog, a little harsh. No, a guy with a car doesn't mean he can drive. If a guy has a racing business though, that assumption would be reasonable. Probably forgot to mention my friend owns his own engine building business, M&T Engines and uses the flow bench mainly when doing PAID head work for 302 / 351 pushrod V-8's used for 1/4 mile drag and dirt track racing. This isn't a hobby for him, it's a valid income stream, and based on that I made the decision to trust his judgement since this was my first build and he had been doing it for 10 years.

Then again, the old joke rings true, "What do you call the guy who was last place in med school? Doctor." I admitted it was against my better judgement, I'm not charging my friend for any repair / replacement parts, and will be doing the teardown and rebuild myself. I believe based on the circumstances my frustration was justified, guess I'm done with this thread. Thanks for reading.

VIP_CAMO

Im with you id be a little ____ed as well ,as you stated all he had to do was tell you hey i messed up, i would not put it on.But he did not he told you it would be ok.I dont know about you but if i did work for my friend im going to make sure it's done at 100% quality and if it's not im going to let him know.Otherwise id feel like i could not be trusted anymore with something as simple as a hey sorry.Honesty is allway's the best policy!!