Last Year Jan 2013 I Approached an Engine Builder who I Had met though my Business. I had a need to find an oil leak that had been eluding me for some time I was taking the boat to Florida for the winter and did not want to deal with oil in the Bilge and discharge etc. I pulled the Motor out and gave it to Him to look at , re seal and give me opinion. I only wanted to get into a 2k Bill The motor ran fine when I Pulled it The Boat is a 370 Baja with 502's Built with B & M 420 Blower setup making around 650 Hp only 5LBS boost . I run the boat very Tame. It spends 99% of the time at cruise below 4k RPM I might run the Boat Wide Open Once a Year for 30 seconds. Not into top end speed, more into good cruise speed at a good RPM Number and have only put 15-25 Hrs on a year. The Story - as the builder started getting into the engine of course he started saying he saw problems and we should really look at freshening the motor. This turned into Him recommending going to a hydraulic roller Cam and Changing the Pistons again????. As he kept throwing out numbers I never got a firm estimate just the numbers he told me over the phone. I Expressed to him a dozen times I did not want to get into a big rebuild job, it was not worth it to me. the motors ran fine, But I did agree to do the rebuild out of pressure from him saying how bad the Motors were. ( Its always ****ty work from the guy who built the motors before) peace of mind took over since i was taking the Boat to Florida for the winter to try and get some use out of it) I Only used the boat Once the whole summer on Lake Erie I wanted it to run good. Of Course this turned into him saying to me That he better do the other engine as well so they Both Match, Oh and we should send the Carbs out to get Rebuilt because it has been a while etc etc. HERE WE GO AGAIN Sorry for the Long story, When I went to Pick up the engines I was expecting a Total bill of 12k or less remember I entered the situation prepared to spend 2K, and I was Presented with a 16K+ Bill I gave him the 12K which was in line with the numbers he gave me as the project went along. He expected me to pay the difference at a later date. We did Dyno the Motors and they ran approx 700Hp. I never got the dyno sheets. I put them back in the boat It ran Ok but I lost about 4 MPH in my Cruise and 4-5 MPH of the Top end . I only opened up the motors one time for about 30 seconds after getting about 10 -12 hrs on them. After 14.7 hrs one motor has broke. I was so disgusted with the whole thing I did not use the boat again, Pulled it out of the water in Sept. Put it away for winter storage. Have not looked into what is wrong or what broke. This engine builder left a message about getting additional money from me for what he thinks he is owed still for the job. Thanks for Listening, Now for your opinions as many of you have dealt with engine builders and Bad jobs.. Also This builder does almost all of his work building dirt track engines. Does not specialize any way in Boats, I lost performance and lost a motor after 14Hrs. How am I doing. Of course he says No Warranty Now, I could not give him the motor anyway I would never see it again.
I believe the motor made power but not it the right way for a boat maybe a car.???
One Number that has stood out for me was He charged me $3750 per engine to take apart and reassemble and machine work as needed. Not a single part in that number Labor only. I think that is very high, Any and all opinions are appreciated as I get prepared for the next battle round. Court is around the corner I'm sure.

What broke is a big factor Did he tune in the boat? What was your power before the rebuild? Where did they make power on the Dyno?

I have not taken the time to tear into the Motor yet as its packed into a winter storage building, He did not tune or look at the motors while in the boat, I know my old dyno numbers were around 650 HPat 5600rpm, the problem is that Im only running a 24P 4 Blabe prop and before the rebuild I could not get to 5k RPM, topped out at 4800.But my cruise speed was excellent. I thought after the rebuild , " with the motors Stronger and Better" according to the builder I could easily go past 5k RPM, Tha did not happen even after the rebuild I could not get past 4800RPM WOT. Not sure where the power was on the dyno because he never gave me a copy of the dyno sheets.

It Sounds Like it is up top a loud rapping sound , when I heard it I was just Idling I shut it down.

Sorry to hear about the problems but sounds like he took you to the cleaners. $3750 just to tear down is way out of range. Don't know what you can do, he has been paid but at least since there is no paper trail he may not be able to put a mechanics lean on the boat. No attorney here but since there was no contract neither has something to present to the court. He will say you paid him to rebuild the motors and he did, not very well at all but there is nothing stating a performance requirement or how well the job was done. Now if he has done this for many years very well the court might look as he screwed up, but then again I don't know. Neither party from what I can read has anything in writing that will substantiate the others claim. Sure sorry to here about the issue and hope you can work it out

IMO, if he had to ''send the carbs out for rebuilds'' he had no business rebuilding an engine if he cant rebuild a carb.

Yeah a big X2

$3750 / $100/hr = 37.5hrs
A little under a week to build an engine, is that really out of line? I have no clue, it took me forever, but I was learning at the time.
Measuring components, Fitting rings, mocking up bearings, indicating cam, measuring pushrods, setting lifters, clean, paint and delivering/picking up stuff at the machine shop, heads, blowers setup...

who was it that built them if you cant say we understand. as we all have learned get it in writing!!!!! we have all learned the its going to cost around 3000.00 to have a final bill of 6000.00 its a hard learning experience.

By your own admissions, it looks like you agreed to everything he did.
If you wanted a warranty, you should have discussed that with him before you agreed to have them rebuilt.
The engine problem could have been caused by something other than what he did..

i agree with griff here .you obviously agreed to make arrangements to pay the remaining balace at some point. but here it is according to you a year later and the builder hasen't been paid yet. i am sure there is more to this story than we know .and if the builder knew about this thread he would be here to defend himself .either way he hasen't been paid and know you want warranty now or at least some compensation.i have to say a year later your intentions dont look good about paying him. i would have to say name the builder or delete this thread before it gets ugly as they usually do .only hearing half a story is no good .remember there is 3 sides to a story yours -his and the truth..plus at this point you dont even know whats wrong it shoud have addressed long before now . after all its out and has to come apart anyways