builder question?
 

when you pickup a pair of alum headed engines from the dyno one engine has coal black exhaust ports, the other appears to never been ran. one has carb and fuel pump rod, the other appears to never been ran, just wondering on you guys thought

Not to be captain obvious, but I would say that one of them was never ran. Were both supposed to be dynoed?

Was the agreement for both motors to be dyno'd ?

Since you know the answer...it's obvious....what are you getting at ?

Yes charged for both, the only reason im asking is the engine that wasnt dynoed didnt make it a hour before it detonated on cyl 5, and guess who is stuck paying the 4500.00 repair bill. Yep yours truly.i have no problem paying for something if i screwed it up, they told me since it wouldnt idle to bump up the timing i set the engine that had came back with all the stuff up to 36 in less than a few minutes, trying to get the other engine engine adjusted was a biittcchh. timing mark jumped all over the place. so after trying it with the light set on 36 ( it would start hard and sound good or crank hard and run like crap) finally i backed it in the water fired it up, adjusted it without a gun started good, ran good. now if it ran good started good, how can the builder tell me i set the timing wrong, and thats what happened. not saying it wasnt dynoed but if it was!!!! then as clean as the ex ports were it was lean and detonated before i ever installed it.

That's why I was standing there when both mine were on the dyno.

Many of us on OSO have also learned the hard way about rebuilds, engine builders and less that great results. My thought is to cut your losses now and find a engine builder where you have gotten input from a multiple of this customers. Even if you were in the dyno shop when both engines were run, it is possible you could have had the same result. There are lot's of things that can go wrong on the installing and rigging of a marine engine. Take your boat to Eddie Young and he will even provide in the water testing.

If I saw someone adjusting timing without a timing gun, I'd pull the distributor and beatch slap'm with it...for a while.

What kind of distributor/ignition system ? Just asking this to see why timing was bouncing all over the place.

im no dumb ass when you pick up 2 motors and one has coal black exhaust ports, carb bolted on,valve covers on, fuel pump rod installed,etc., the other looks like they just put it on a stand and said yes it was dynoed, the carb, valve covers, fuel pump, fp rod,were not on it,intake was taped up just like it was they first put it on. when we first took it out the thing wouldnt idle in gear, i called them he said add some timing to it, the dyno and our boats timing is different? like i said the one engine timed easy, the other would either start easy and sound lazy, or crank hard and sound good, 1 dist i think was locked the other not, so i took it and did it by ear, just like the old days, its got crane ignition boxes with merc dist.

the only thing that comes to mind is one engine the dist was locked the other wasnt. from the first time we picked up the engines i asked him are you sure it was dynoed,i asked his partner why that engine had clean exhaust ports he said as soon as it fires they turn black, and i said then why were these still clean aluminum, he said he really couldnt tell me. im just wondering if it had been dynoed. if it would had broken parts with a repair of 4500.00 at my expense, i have no prob paying for something i screwed up, but if it had timing issues, they should had caught that on the dyno, 600.00 for dyno plus parts, just something sounds wrong at my expense, cause in 2 boating summers ive got to use it 1.3hours at the cost of over 22,000.00 and i supplyed everything except for cams and valvetrain , intake, they machined the heads where corrosion was,and welded the block at the starter.

Not a dumb azz for noticing the one engine wasn't dyno'd. Things should have stopped here. I know, hindsight.

But, IMHO, a dumb azz for doing timing without a gun. Yeh, I'm old, so I know the old days, but you live and learn and thus why shouldn't touch a thing without a gun.

Do you have the Hi-6M crane boxes ?

If so, what timing curve (# on the dial) did you have both of them set at ?