Jeez Matt, what the heck is going on. Sorry about the string of bad luck your having. I was never crazy about turnkey. Hope everything works out for ya

that sucks but, most of the machinists I know won't bore a block without the pistons...is this a huge FUBAR on your machinist or do you have to eat it ?

x2 even when I was building Jetski motors the machinist wouldn't bore the cyls without pistons.:rolleyes:

JR took one piston down to the machine shop. He never checked all the pistons, although he wants to now. I asked him for four months to check the pistons and all he did was look at them...

Now he wants the block to look at to see if Total Performance made it to the specs he requested because he "thinks Charlie is the biggest hack in the industry." He will probably say that he doesn't know what the problem is and will tell me to just run a bigger ring.

I'm going to spend two days carrying the block around since I need to give him a chance to look at it (I had to pick it up because he was too busy, then went on vacation).

Somehow I have. Feeling this won't play out well...

Hate reading this stuff. :mad: Good luck going forward. :thumbsup:

That feeling is because it already hasn't.:(

For some reason I missed your post until just now. That 5.3 turned out some impressive numbers for a little motor. I still have my old LS2, and while it probably needs to be freshened up, getting new rings, etc. It still does run. I am kicking myself for not throwing it back in the car in March. I was told it wouldn't take long to get a new motor together, but between peoples' busy schedules, priorities, misinformation, and general idiocy it has become a mess. I cannot blame everyone involved in this process, some people have been great to work with and are honest about how they operate, and I'm sure I will work with them in the future, others... not so much.

Lesson learned today: Just about everyone out there knows the best way to do something, so just pick one person, or group that you feel you can trust, and put stock in what they have to say. Juggling techniques, and information on the best way to build an engine is like having too many cooks in the kitchen, only worse!

Lastly, I went up to RPM today to look at my pistons and block and I'm pleased at how professional and organized they are. They remind me a bit of the BOS crew, but with LS engines and Corvettes. They took the time to physically show me the size of the bores, explain the acceptable range in tolerances, and then pull up the data they had collected on their computer of each piston, and corresponding cylinder bore size.

At the end of the day I decided not to bring the engine block back down to San Diego. New expedited custom pistons from Ross are probably going to run in the $1600 range, if I had to guess, and while I would love to get that money back, I can just imagine what will unfold as two, maybe three parties argue over what is acceptable, and who is in the wrong. There is part of me who really wants to do a credit card dispute chargeback, but I'm not enough of a dick to do that.

Anyway, pistons are going to be ordered Monday, and expedited, and the engine will probably be ready Monday of next week. If all goes wrong it will take two weeks to put it back in, and then all I need is a tune. :lol:

Been there and done that - glad it looks like it's going to come together this week! Shame it has to be the hard way.

Wow, just got caught up on your thread Matt. Sorry to hear about the mess, but thank you for sharing these stories and your feedback on different shops. It definitely helps put things in perspective and gives me a little bit better clarity on how I want my ZL built and who I want building it.

I also just got caught up on your fastback Mustang build. Looks fantastic and I really admire your customizations and the labor you're putting into it yourself. It's going to be a great build also. Look forward to catching up with you soon. :thumbsup:

Chris,

Thanks for the kind words, and no problem about sharing a little information about shops. Recently, I've learned a lot about picking where to take work. I'm glad that my experiences might help others like yourself. What I have learned recently from visiting so many engine builders is that attitude and professionalism are two separate, but still related things that are now two of the most important indicators of where I will send work. Word of mouth and reputation are important, but there is still a certain amount of BS involved in hearing about someone's reputation. After this last fiasco, I would never commit to taking work to a shop I had not visited at least once first.

A lot of guys had recently mentioned having a Socal shop and garage tour since it seems like everyone has been taking their cars apart recently. We figured it would be fun to BS and catch up on what everyone has been up to lately. You interested?

Matt