95caliber

Took my boat to mechanic for a ticking noise in engine. Told him to diagnose. He calls and says he checked compression on both motors and numbers are all over the place. He recommends pulling the heads and doing valve job. So i say OK youre the mechanic do it. Well I pick up the boat I give him $2000 cash and he sends me on my way. A couple of days go by before I get the boat in the water to test it and when I do start it, IT IS STILL TICKING !! I am pissed ! I call him from the water and he says to run it a few hours to see if the ticking goes away. Well over the next 2 weekends I run 4 or 5 hours and the ticking fades a little bit, but when I run it wide open the ticking motor will only go 45-4600 and the other motor is at 5000. I checked compression today and got 145-155 on all cylinders. I call him up and he says we have to put lifters in it. I feel like I paid him $2000 and what I brought it in for did not get fixed. Should he put them in for nothing or should I have to pay him to do it?

BY U BOY

Pay For The Parts But Not The Labor.

GOODT

with out hearing it its hard to say exactly what it is but I think I can safely say he shouldn't of pulled the heads unless a stuck valve (would of shown on commp test) or mushroomed stem there's nothing there that would tick....

depending on what motor/exhaust you have it could be as simple as a exhaust flapper with the rubber worn off, or a collapsed lifter

95caliber

Its got 502's and stainless marine exhaust. I think it is open exhaust it is stupid loud, with a nasty cam in it , that is why I can hardly tell if it is missing on 1 cylinder or not. Its not keeping up with the other engine though, its about 4-500 rpms behind it. Is this how mechanics work? I feel like he should do something for me labor wise, I would of course pay for parts.

GOODT

personally I feel he made a bad call and cant imagin why he would of thought it was a head with good commpession all the way around I would of thought it was a bad cam lobe or lifter before pulling heads....

as for helping you out with labor Personally I dont know if Id want him playing with it any more....thats an expencive mistake that should of been a no brainer....

dont get me wrong we all make mistakes but withexperiance and traing we hope we make less as time goes by and we learn to check and double check especially before charging 2000.00 for work

just my 2 cents

offthefront

iTrader: (1)

Joe ... elaborate ? the missing Flapper lets one motor get to 5K before the other? lost me ... (ez)

Craney

iTrader: (2)

Sounds like you paid $2000 for somebody to pull the heads,if he even pulled the heads.

Pure Energy

Who is the mechanic and where do you live? My experience from this type of experience is to tell him what an a$$ he is and move on. Someone here can give you a recomendation to a reputable marina/mechanic.

You can try and get your money back since he didn't fix the problem,.. good luck. I have been "taken" more times then I care to admit so my advise is to find a new mechanic.

GOODT

no missing flapper rubber for the most part will not cause a loss in rpms but alot of times sounds like a lifter/rocker noise


with out hearing it it is very hard to give an acurate diagnosis......but can tell you from the get go cant imagine why he would of thought it was a head problem with the fact that it had good compression

lifter maybe
cam maybe
timing chain slap maybe
wrist pin maybe
conn rod maybe
ect
ect
ect

not a head issue

the last two wont really effect rpms till its to late

the fact that he replaced the heads he would of had to reajust the valves so that would rule out cam for the most part ......

maybe a colasping lifter ????????

dean51267

something is not right, most mechanics do not need a lot of money down unless you are buying a motor or other high dollar item. If you run out on the bill they get to keep your boat in most cases, so this should not be a concern.

Ticking noise could be a whole lot of different things, but with RPM's issue it is likely valve train.

I would look to a different mechanic if this one is not running a reputable shop, if he is, give him another crack at it, no charge of course...