Big Block Billy

Repowered an old 25' 77 Cruisers last season. Motor was a Jasper rebuild with 20 hours on it, it was from another boat with a rotted transom that was blowing couplers. I had pan off and heads off and totally examined and refreshed, resealed motor. 150 psi Compression on all cyls. Also 30lbs oil pressure @ idle. No problems with the motor last year.
Customer calls first time this season after taking boat out and breaks down and towed in. I assume water in fuel and bad carb, (this is an ongoing problem) and order a carb from Guaranteed carburetors in Florida, and in the process I get the motor running and it's knocking and stalls and motor locks up, most likely due to spun bearings.
I pull the dipstick and to my surprise, it appears that there is 6 extra qts of oil in the motor !
No evidence of emulsion or water just oil !
The customer and I confront the marina and they state they did not change the oil, just checked it . And according to their documents they even claim they checked the trim fluid in the trim pump as well. Then I dropped the bomb on them when I told them I had to add a half a quart of fluid to the trim reservoir ! And the owner of the boat stated that the trim fluid needs to be checked because I installed new trim rams and hoses in the off season while the marina had the drives and batteries.

So the marina does not want to accept blame for the motor. I cannot keep dealing with morons and boatyards that only care about the dollar sign. A perfectly installed motor, no shortcuts, no expenses spared, only do be ruined in the hands of A-holes !
The customer is a good friend of Joe Peppitone, Retired NY Yankee(1958-74) I worked on Joe's Yacht too !
Shouldn't the customer check the oil too ! what do you guys think ? Thanks , BBB

Airpacker

That falls under abuse if you ask me.
Warranties do not cover abuse.

Dave_N

Are you sure the six extra quarts of oil was not actually gas in the oil? You did mention history of carb problems.

Dave

Big Block Billy

God forbid it was gas, the oil level was fine last year and I have been checking it everytime I went out for a test run. Do I have to hold everyone's hand and be there on every boat for every ride or does common sense on their part(or the boat yard) play a role ? Thanks guy's I need to document this with info from other experienced marine mechanics to cover my A$$. Thanks again, BBB

Big Block Billy

I would rather be peaceable and even eat a motor instead of arguing and being bitter ! And I know that I am doing what's right and am being fair with all and still maintain a good conscience as well ! " He that is walking with wise persons will become wise , but he that is having dealings with the stupid ones will fair badly " Proverbs 13 - 20 BBB

SB

iTrader: (1)

Unfortunately, this is a nature of the beast. Really suggs when it happens and it happens all to often.

There is no real answer to your issue from an outsider. You have a customer-prof relationship we can't know.

BTW: Don't count out the customer !!! I've had (over the years) 3 or 4 motor issues from too full oil level that the customer thought that they should see the oil level in the valve covers. A fluid tank if you will. Didn't know about dipsticks and how to read them. Things like this really make you feel like you have to hold everyone's hands but you can't. Just plain old can't.

LAKESIDE RESTORATIONS

Ditto.. Not all customers are bad, but some are unintenntionally thier own worst enemies. Usually it results in the shop or shop owner getting wrongfully accused.. But not always.. Some customers will be honest & admit what they did out of lack of knowledge.. Jamie

David Stotz

BBB, I would say friend or not good customer or not he should understand it's not your fault. It's even more obvious if the motor lasted one season. He should take his issues up with the marina or himself. I would think the very most you should do is try to help him in any way with his fight against the marina if he has one. You know the situation and people involved, who would you guess put too much oil in the motor.
Good luck, Dave

GOODT

In my eyes bbb you are right the owner should be checking his oil, have you torn the mtr down....

its hard to belive that the marina checked the oil and it was fine and now 6 qt over..........wish I had a Oil gremlin that did the same with gas for my trucks


I know what you are going through I thought this would be a good year till yesterday tried to help a customer out far beyond what I needed to do and got screwed for it anyway long storie.........

as dave n said Id make sure its not gas added to fuel because oil did magicly apper.....

then tear down mtr and find what damage is there then deturman who will pay for the repairs

Its ovious its not a warr issue so id discount the work inorder to make the customer happier unfourtuatly nomatter what he will not be happy and what everyou tell him hes going to take with a grain of salt so to say

sorry to hear about this,

kind of like building a drive for someone and a week later they bring it back locked up but dont bring the prop with it

And dont think youll ask to see it before it goes to the prop shop

Reed Jensen

I have found with my customers that they have a vested interest in lying to me about what happened. Their logic, " he does this for a living and can afford to repair it for free". It's the old adage, " My money has value, your TIME has NO value". I've had customers tell me they have NEVER overheated their car's engine. When I remove the cam covers and see the nylon from the nyloc nuts has melted, it's a pretty good indication that someone is lying. As soon as I see that a customer has lied to me, I just push their car into the street and tell them I can't fix it..... "sorry".
My guess about your customer, BBB, is he ran the engine out of oil, it started knocking, he added oil, it still was knocking, he added more oil hoping the knock would go away,still knocking, added even more oil hoping the engine would "heal" itself. I had one customer refuse to replace some crappy pistons in an Aston, his reasoning, " I'm not going to spend a thousand dollars just because you don't like the brand of pistons". I told him they were bad by design and bad by manufacture,and he still refused to replace them. But when one scattered into a million pieces, his memory was blank about me telling him to replace the pistons. He wanted me to remove the engine and repair it for free... Nuh-uh. no doing. I told him he either pays for all of it or he can take his car somewhere else. HE PAID.