G-Force

My 502's have finally been put back together....574h.p. and supposedly bullet-proof.
The engine builder had them disassembled for quite some time (I was debating pulling them from his shop because he quoted $4600.00 per engine for upper end work...incl. carb/intake) - with the understanding that I wanted between 550-600h.p. - since I was already into him for $800.00 for the tear down...I left them there.

Weeks into it...I made one of my usual "how are things going" calls. I was told that the engine was on the dyno..and had been for a week. Every combo had been tried..ignition, intake, carb...and they could only get 530h.p. out of the setup...AND 4 of the cylinders were running 300 degrees hotter than the other 4.
SO....the solution was to either do some major head work, or go with different heads. The shop couldn't determine the make of the heads, so they couldn't advise what would be needed to machine them or promise what the results would be - I decided to go with Dart heads.
My quandry: when I quote a customer on a job - I take ALL of the information available to me and determine my pricing. If I make a poor decision and the outcome isn't what I promised...I have to make good on my original quote.
In this case...the engine shop tore my engines apart, looked at what they had to work with, and quoted me a price and a certain h.p. range. In the end, it cost me $4000.00 more than what was quoted because the heads needed more work than they anticipated.

Is that fair? What would YOU have done?

mr_velocity

quote 38,000 paid 38,000

Complete from carb to pan from billet pulleys to cmi tailpipes

dyno

you got hosed!!!

seanclong

Ding, Ding, Ding!!!!!

Your are correct!!!!

Show the man what he's won, Johnny!!!!

Cord

iTrader: (2)

Yes...but no. The shop should have quoted aftermarket heads. They should have known that you wouldn't make the power with out them. So if they had included the heads up front, would you have paid for them? Yes, and you still need to. You didn't add anything to the engine that it didn't need, they just took the scenic route to the conclusion.

neu-rich

Well If They Said 550-600 hp And Couldn't Do It Then They Quoted The Job Wrong, There Fault... I Would Have Only Payed The Quoted Price And Then Sued Them For Not Making The H.P. #s........
You Got Screwed If You Payed Them...

Jeff

G-Force

The original quote from them included porting, 5 angle valve job (i know...i know) and all the other good stuff associated with head work for the heads that were on the engines...my old post regarding the costs has been brought back to life in the Tech Section.
What they did was rebuild the heads, bolt 'em on...and realized they had a problem. They then ordered Dart heads (with my blessings) and swapped out all the good stuff they installed on the "bad" heads into the Dart heads.
So...I do have 2 sets of heads that while they don't work on my engines and I can sell to partially offset the cost of the Dart heads...it still seems to me that the builder screwed up and passed it on to me.
And by the way...I never sell crap....do you guys think those heads are okay to sell? I had the builder write down what was in the heads as far as valves and what-not and he said they were fine...just they wouldn't get me the HP I was looking for.
Formulafastech: I was kinda wondering about the issue with them not being able to figure out whose heads they were as well. However...the ****ING ******* that sold me the engines was a thief, idiot, and liar...so who know what the hell he sold me. He'll get his in the end...they always do.

G-Force

HEY! Where did my swear words go??!! Daaaamn...I didn't know there was a word-catcher here now!!

seanclong

You should visit more frequently, then. All kinds of things go on while you just forget about us. LOL

G-Force

And just so we all remember who the ****ing ******* thief who sold me those engines is...here is just ONE of my unanswered e-mails from several years ago. And yes Rich...I have every single one of them...including the one in which we discussed HP, engine condition and pricing:
----- Original Message -----
From: Craig MacDonald
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2001 12:42 PM
Subject: 2 x 502's


Rich, my mechanic just called me and explained that the 502's I purchased from you don't have roller rocker assemblies. That combined with the dual plane manifold leads me to suspect that when I send these to the dyno next week I'm not going to see 500hp+ like your ad stated. After waiting 3 months for you to deliver those "pullout" engines I'll be extremely upset if what I received is not what I purchased.
I'd certainly like to hear your thoughts on this...and I'd like to hear from you immediately.
(630) 227-****

Regards...Craig Macdonald/Chicago