I had a PnP engine rebuilt this fall. After 116 miles the engine failed or was about to. I drove it back to the machine shop and the guy torn into the engine and this is what he said.
The torque converter expanded and pushed against the crank and took away the end play and the cranks main bearings at #'s 4 & 1 wore significantly. This spread debris throughout the engine, of course and killed oil pressure. This was the first failure, but he said that the carb was leaking gas past the power valve as well and the rings were failing. He showed me the damage and there was indeed quite a bit of damage to the crank and the cylinders were scored.

He said he would rebuild it if I paid for the new parts ('bout $1200). He did and I have the truck back and it's running, but not really to my satisfaction. I have +200 miles on it now.

I spoke with my mechanic, who installed the engine, and he says that the guy's full of BS. He knows the guy and the owner of the machine shop, who was vacationing unfortunately, and the owner believes that the guy who rebuilt my engine screwed up the end play and that's why the engine failed. So, my mechanic has advised me to wait till 500 miles when I change the oil and see how the engine runs, but in the mean time to call the Burear of Automotive Repair.

Also, I had this transmission installed this spring, by my mechanic, and it performed to my satisfaction. There were no issues with the previous engine and my mechanic knows how to install trans.

So, I'm doing both suggestions, but I want some outside input. You guys are knowledgeable and impartial observers. Please, spread some wisdom, I'm in need.

 

When my rebuilt engine's cam went bad at 1700 miles, the guy who rebuilt it, rebuilt it again, with new parts at his cost. I paid for shipping the engine from Vallejo to Billings, MT and back (about $500 round trip for the engine) and paid half the removal and installation charges ($775).

I think you should talk to the guy who owns the machine shop, not the one who rebuilt it and see what he says. At the very least, he should know the story of what happened and what had to be done.

I will also say that 200 miles on a rebuilt is pretty early in its life. My engine feels different now with about 2000 miles on it than it did at 200.

That is my non-mechanical opinions. Hopefully Mike, Dan, or one of the other mechanic types will have a better idea.

 

"The torque converter expanded and pushed against the crank..." That's a new one on me. Pretty creative line of BS though. Are you still running the same converter? If so, why hasn't it caused the engine to fail again? Talk to the tranny shop that rebuilt it and see what they think of this little scenario...

And if the power valve were leaking so badly that it was dumping enough fuel to wash away the oil from the cylinder walls and score them, the engine would have been stumbling badly and belching black smoke from the exhaust. Was it?

 

What you were told is possible, but highkly unlikely.

99.99% of the time, engine failure on a fresh engine has just one cause, not two. Sorta leads me to think the builder is/was fishing for something to tell you.

Problem I have with the "ballooning TC effect", is with only 116 miles on the engine, I'd assumed you were not beating on it, TC's balloon when they can't handle the torque and high RPMs. Second thing about the TC, you have about a 1/2 of play on the input side of the tranny, once the TC is bolted to the flexplate.

Issue with too much fuel so as to score the cylinders is as Dan mentioned, plus the fact you'd be "making oil". I've known of guys "making oil" to the tune of a quart a week on EFI engines with stuck open injectors or ruptured fuel pressure diaphrams, these guys didn't have any engine failures.

One problem now is you'd probably need an "Automotive Expert" to dispute it, I doubt you'll get any compensation from notifying the BAR, unless the owner of the shop doesn't want a complaint on file and agrees to some resolution.

2nd problem is without the parts or good pics of the parts that failed, a good F/A can't be done.

Personally I think you're hosed since the engine is now re-done and running.

Last comment, is what the heck cost 1200 in parts?

 

PS...might just be bad karma...but at the time of my reply, I notice you are on your 116th post, same number as the miles on your engine failure.

 

I ran your experience past the guy I work with, who's an experienced tech with many years in the auto repair industry. He was as sceptical as I was, and added that fuel wash is pretty much an industry standard cop-out for people who can't admit that they might have made a mistake and refuse to warranty their screw-up. I'd definitely be looking to talk to the owner of the shop when he gets back from his vacation.

 

The guy who rebuilt my engine mentioned fuel wash too, but still tried to back up his warranty. All this makes me wonder if it is just better to buy an engine from Jasper or one of those companies.

 

I think it really depends on the integrity of the engine builder. In your case, the guy went above and beyond the call to try to make it right. It would have been a lot easier for him if you'd still been in the area with the truck, but he did what he could. On the other hand, the guy I work with told me a story about an engine he bought from a reputable remanufacturer several years ago. He installed it with a brand new (not rebuilt) carb and on initial start-up the engine clunked and clanked like it was about to come apart, so he shut it off immediately. He called the company he'd bought the engine from and told the guy what had happened and was told to pull the engine and get it back to them so they could check it out. After they did so, they claimed fuel wash and said they wouldn't warrantee it. He explained it was a brand new carb and the engine hadn't been run long enough to have any dammage caused by excess fuel anyway, but it took a lot of arguing and threats to get them to cover it, and they told him that they wouldn't ever sell him another engine, to which he replied that he'd never buy another from them anyway so that was just fine with him.

 

I agree he did the best he could and I give him kudos for it.
For Bart's sake I hope the owner of the shop will work with him.

 

I do too Fast. Thanks for the feedback guys. My mechanic laughed at the wash claim as well. The engine now has +400 miles on it and is running well. Don't want to talk about it however. Least not yet and jinx it.

Again, thanks guys.

 

Yeah, these days you almost have to check your machine work out yourself. Some stuff you can't check. We just started our 454 motor up last week. But, before we did we had to recheck the valve lash. It was off really bad. The motor builder said he adjusted them and some of them were even missing the locking nuts ... Doh.

Good thing we checked it before we started her up. It also looked like the heads were torque incorrectly.

If we had a machine shop we would do all our own work. Some stuff you just have to watch them on.

After all our checks we ended up with a oil pan leak that we did fix and now the motor runs awesome. I also found that they didn't seat the dipstick properly which caused my buddies to put an extra two quarts of oil in the motor.

I can hardly wait to hit the track in a month or two. 800HP - 675lbs of torque. That's about a 150HP and 100lbs improvement. The motor is running a lot stronger and starts right up now.

Yes, rebuilding motors does require attention to detail. So, if your not building it you need to be there when they are if you can.

Good luck, I hope it all works out well for you.

 

Jeez AJ...with all that, I would have pulled the pan off and checked the torque on the rods and mains as well...I hope the builder didn't forget to tighten any of them or just torqed them to stock specs instead of the higher torque settings specified by the rod bolt and main stud manufacturers (I assume you're running something other than a stock bottom end in that thing...)

I tore down a 454 for a guy a few years back so he could salvage some of the still useable parts from it after it grenaded at something like 500 miles. Turned out that the so-called "Professional" engine builder who put the thing together got so carried away with overuse of silicone on every gasket surface that a big chunk of excess dried silicone broke loose from inside the engine and got sucked into the oil pump, plugging it.

I'll have a machinist do whatever machine work I can't, but I build my own engines. I want to have the final say on quality control.

 

I'm with you Dan.... That's where we have had to go as well. Short Block, then we bold everything to it and torque it to proper specs.

We did torque the rod just to make sure after that view .... we had too. They were OK. While we were at it we installed a better windage tray. Unfortunately, it had to be modded to fit. LOL !!!! Custom motors are like that though.

Most likely the engine builder just got rushed on the button up of the motor and didn't tighten a couple of bolts on the pan or put the stick in right. Then there is the possibility the bracket was bent by tranport. But, highly unlikely as we strap it in the bed of the pick up and it didn't shift as far as I know.

She running really nice now so.... it's all good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63_CuIC5Vco

 

i have a 6.9 5 speed we could put in there