Before I worked at TA I was only involved in one engine build and that was a nightmare. I had a shop in California build a short block 350 for me. They were supposed to do the bottom end and put in the cam. I was supposed to put it back together from lifters up. Well the very first thing I find is the lifters don't go in. So I call TA to see if I got the wrong size, of course not. Mike tells me they probably shot peened the block and never deburred the lifter bores. (In the 4-1/2 years I've worked at TA I have never gotten a tech call like that, so it was definitely negligence on the shops part) So I de-bur the bores and put it together. Get the engine together and it's F*** up. Call TA again with a possible rod knock problem, again Mike tells me how to check. I pull the pan and there is "stuff" in it. I am extremely naive and intimidated about engine stuff at this time in my life. I'm doing all this work at the Pt. Mugu Naval Airstation hobby shop. I take the pan with the stuff in it to the guy who works there, a real fruit cake, he tells me he doesn't know what it is and it must be bearing material. So I clean it out real good. I check the rods and two of them beat out the bearings. I pull it out and take it back, they tear it down and they tell me it is due to lack of oil and they have this little chart that shows different damage on bearings and their cause. They told me my adjustable oil pressure regulator was the cause. I told them it had plenty of oil pressure the whole time. They would not cover it because they say they never saw an adjustable regulator before. Of course not because a CHEVY doesn't have them. Being that I was under the impression the stuff in the pan was bearing material I never pursued it further. Later talking to other people and showing Mike at TA the bearings, we found the true identity of the stuff: Shot peen!!! The worst thing about this is, you know they had to find traces of shot in the engine when they took it back apart. Boy was my ass sore when I got done with those guys. If I knew then what I know now!!!!!!!

Ok, I vowed to black list the shop till the day I die. They are called Faines Auto Parts in the Ventura, CA area.

Dave

 

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Dave
TA Performance

`73 LeSabre Custom455 2dr hdtp
`65 Electra Coupe
`69 Riv's x2
2000 Z-28

 

 

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