Got back from mechanic yesterday. drove around 10 miles, car dies we tow it back to mechanic. today he started it and its rattling from the bottom end. gave mechanic 1500 for labor when i took the car. I owed him 350 more that i said ill give him friday. Now today he still wants his money and wont find out the problem untill i agree to pay him. wtf do i do im not paying him anything more. What do u think? he swears he was clean and put everything together right. He said the front cam bearings were in good condition b4.

 

How do you know its a bearing if you haven't even checked anything out yet? Did you hammer on the car? I know you were having trouble with it running. I don't think the bearing would just really spin on start up and normal driving. I'd think you'd have to really starve it for oil for it to spin.

 

i was babying it the whole time. didnt take it above 3000. it seemed like i was getting good oil pressure, 20 at idle, and nothing was seemingly wrong then it just shut off. all i know is my mechanic started it today it was running really rough and rapping from the bottom end.

 

What had just been done to the car?

 

cam afr heads headers, new extreme duty timing chain new opti new lifters new rockers comp cams 305

 

ouch'

Good Grief!

 

Sorry to hear..I hope you get it sorted out.

 

I sympathize with you. The same thing happened to me. Wound up getting a new shortblock and the mechanic didn't stand behind anything. Essentially wound up spending around $8000 + and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it.

My guess is they will either make up a phoney story about what probably happened and they will not claim any responsibility.

Problem is that you hesitate to jump to conclusions and the original mechanic has your block and you're stuck with having them tear it down (which will cost you, and then rebuilding it if necessary, which of course means pulling the motor, etc. etc. etc. And the real pi$$er comes when the same people that probably screwed it up to begin with wind up screwing it ulp again.

I hope this is not your case, but I sense that you may wind up being in between a rock and a hard place and dumping way more money into the car than it is worth.

Good luck...I mean it.

 

I suggest a different mechanic.He screwed you more than one way.

 

thanx alot man, ur right and no other mechanic is gonna want to touch this. Of course hes gonna deny any wrong doing on his part and blame it on mixing new parts with old ones. Which IS possible but ive only had the car for 1 day and 10 miles on a 58,000 mile engine in good condition. that says to me it was never put together right in the first place. yea i dont even know if it IS the bearings yet but i just feel like i dont want this guy to TOUCH my car. he's been sketchy from the beginning. took 5 weeks for him to start on my car so its been sitting there for 2 months. assuring me he'll get to it in a few days, so i continued to leave it. then i go there to find the bottom end of my engine totally uncovered with the hood open. he said dont worry about it theres no way to cover it anyway. hes had the valve covers off the heads sitting for about 3 weeks and crap was building up in there. i told him about it and he said he would blow it all out. he said he flushed out everything with oil and transmission fluid b4 he started the car. and almost 7 grand later on parts and labor i still have no car.

 

OK: If the initial analysis is a spun bearing and the mechanic gives you the impression that they are not going to stand behind their work, that you IMMEDIATELY have the car towed home and think about what you are going to do.

If the bottom end went and has to be rebuilt, I advise that you have the whole thing done by a reputable mechanic who will stand behind their work.
And in doing so, have the engine, as long as it is out, for rebuild or with short block, from the bottom to the top including the valve train, adjustments, spring pressures, geometry, piston to valve clearance (the whole enchilada because if anything is out of whack when they rebuiild the bottom, the top is the next thing to worry about.

Once that engine is out of the car, you are screwed. JMHO

 

yep im screwed. the mechanic i went to worked for my friends dad. and hes backing the mechanic saying there is absolutly nothing he did wrong, since he didnt touch the bottom end it was the new cam and the added HP that caused the spun bearing (still assuming it is a bearing sure sounds like it) i guess im SOL

 

I have spent a lot of time going over my situation (after the fact) and I have come to this conclusion: Anytime you mod an engine, you need to pay great attention to all the details in the combination. Many of us have done things piece meal and when having another mod added, fail to consider how that mod may affected or be affected by the combination.

I sense, however, that in your case it probably was something that was done in error, rather than the above. How cam a just categorically state that whatever happened was not their fault when they don;t even know what happened.

A good mechanic will take into consideration the whole package also, and advise you, or at least make a recommendation for you to consider, when you are having the work performed. I have learned that you should never demand that a mechanic do something without at least getting their opinion, because they will usually just do what you tell them to do and don't give a rats ---if something goes wrong, e.g. installing a cam without changing the springs, or installing new lifters if needed, etc.

I will add this piece of advice: never have a friend do your work, or a friend of a friend or a mech who's boss is your friends dad. If you can, you want to have an arms length transaction so that the relationships don't get in the way. Of course, even with total strangers as the mechanic, you need to have an understanding and good, ongoing communication with the mechanic as they perform the job or else you wind up letting them do whatever they decide to do about something without your input, e.g. using a different spring than you requested, or doing some machine work just because they couldn't get something to fit easily. You know what I mean.

Keep us posted.

 

hOLD ON A MINUTE... aren't you the guy whos mechanic didn't want to install a set of RK Sports and called them junk... because he didn't know how to put them on right?

 

Yea it was me. he called them flimsy and didnt want to use them. to return them because they were defective and would not fit cuz of the steering box. u guys told me to tell him that they do fit and to put them on. well as it turned out they DID fit with some minor adjustments. The collector on the drivers side was turned right into the oil pan, making it just about impossible to attach the y pipe. it was close but about 1/4" off so he took the header to the machine shop and charged me 125$ to make a minor bend at the collector, then he got it to bolt up. And they sounded sweet for the 1 day I got to hear em