Unauthorized work, how to handle?
 

Looking for advice. I have an 01 envision with a 502 mag mpi. Week of 4th of July I was having an issue and boat would not start. Put a starter on it and single click wouldn't turn over. Towed to marina. Marina calls says there is water in a cylinder and it needs exhaust flappers and riser gaskets.. quoted 800 and I authorized. Calls says works done but bad news the works done never started the boat and there is water in the cylinder. He said u have a bad head or a bad headgasket. I asked how much to fix. If it's just a head gasket. He said 3k including what he did already. If there is a cracked head then it would be additional. Fast forward a week engines out we are just going to send it to the machine shop because he can do it faster and milling the heads and everything it will be quicker. Okay no big deal. Week goes by no update. So I call..marina guy I need to talk to is out of town..calls me 5 days later including the weekend. Say what's going on..well he got the heads off and bad news he had to bore the block .010 over the cylinder has pitting it it so he bored the entire block over and ordered new pistons..I said wait who authorized that? Silence...I said you better call that machine shop and get a quote because I never authorized anything beyond a possible head and headgasket..so tonight he says your gonna be rite at 10k. I Said we'll whats lead time he goes a week. Just waiting for the crank to come back..so this machine shop has already done the work..now I work in the automotive industry. In service at that. I would never quote a headgasket job and overhaul an engine with no authorization. A I don't have 10k laying around B) I don't feel I should have to pay for what been done. I'd be okay paying up to 3k because that is what I authorized. I have a buddy with a frsh 496 I would dropped in had I gotten a call but now I feel taken... what would you all do?

Agreed. They should have stopped and contacted you soon as damage to cylinder wall was discovered.

Most likely was not even a bad head gasket that allowed the water intrusion . 99% of the time it’s from a rotted riser or riser gasket between the riser and exhaust manifold. If not that the manifold might be rotted but I’ll take a $100 on bad riser Alex.

Agreed. Sounds like they were low on work and needed to "create" some. Did you ask for the compression results from the bad head gasket diagnosis?

When i asked what the result of the leakdown and compression results were he just looked at me and said that the leakdown is not going to show anything because there is water in there and he knows there is a leak so he just wanted tear down to that point which was headgaskets. Not disassembling the short block. Yesterday when i asked how much longer if i approve. He said it will be done next week..so they are already doing it. I think ny head is here. Pitting in the cylinder wall is not going to cause water in the cylinder. The pitting is from the presence of water in the cylinder. Therefore i was trying to fix the actual water leak. I feel like they over repaired on top without authorization. Ithe boat was for sale and now another 10k i would have just did the head gasket and ran it til i sold it.

pretty sure they have not pressure tested the exhaust manifolds..I'm not a boat mechanic. I am in the auto industry so boat exhaust is not my specialty for sure. The truth is I took it there because I don't have the means to pull a motor out of a boat on a trailer.

I would go to the shop and look at your boat. If they’re this unscrupulous they may have not even pulled the motor . How long did the boat sit from the last time it ran to the time you discovered it wouldn’t start ?

The fact that they started off with exhaust flappers and riser gaskets but somehow jumped directly to head gasket seems off. If you know there is water in the cylinder you immediately get the water out as step 1, then address the rest after because there is no reason in the world to work on external parts if the inside of the engine has issues.

This voat was dropped at the marina same day riser gaskets and flappers replaced, week lager engine is out and the engine builder is going to just pick the engine up and do the work cause he can mil heads if needed and pressure test heads.

We always always always call first. No is always an acceptable answer. These are boats not hearts, lungs, etc. If it isnt in the cards right now, that needs to be ok and your decision.