Back in the 90's, I had broken a bunch of bones and couldn't move that well. I was putting together a Challenger and decided to 'let' Richardson Auto Machine put the engine together to keep my project on track. He was a PITA to deal with but eventually I got the engine. It was a mint 66 Street Hemi block and heads with all the usual work, and I ordered a Crower lightweight 4.125" crank and matching Crower rods, JE Pistons, etc.
Bill Richardson - Fat Fool (FF) for the sake of brevity - was adamant that he half-fill the block, so I gave in on that. He also painted the lifter valley, against my preference.
So anyway, I first found out FF ordered the crank with a Top Fuel flange and I couldn't mate it to an auto trans. I had to make a special adapter. I had a mysterious oil leak, too, which only would leak at higher RPM. turns out FF had used a gasket and an o-ring on the oil pump-to-block fit and it would squirt out at high PRM. Then, after about 700 mile, a big blob of the orange silicone FF used dislodged and ate two rods, bearings, and galled the crank journal.
On pulling it all apart, I found a crack about 9" long right along the Hard Block line on the passenger side of the block. The oil was deep red due to all of FF's lifter valley paint coming off, too.
Oh, by the way, prior to my getting the engine, when Fat Fool was running the engine on his dyno, he had dropped a valve which heavily dinged up the chamber and required a new piston, too.
Never again.
