Tore down my 383...
I wonder what makes the op think its "shoddy work", don't you?
How about rings that are not gapped right, dirt that was in the bearings (evidenced by the grooves in them, and the fact they were "new," the mounds of silicone i scraped off of the water pump housing and as much inside the coolant passages, the pile of it on the fuel pump gasket, and stuck inside the mechanical arm of the pump, the frame mount on the driver's side that had the ear lopped off, and drilling the hole for the new position low enough, that the engine, sat 3/4" low on the left. This was not needed, as I reinstalled the engine over the weekend, to mock it up and figure out how I was going to repair the mount, before pulling it out again and disassembling it? How about the header tubes being bashed with a hammer enough to nearly close two of them off? They also beat the hell out of the right inner fender, to help fit the right side header in.Better yet- how about the original manifolds I found in the trunk, with 6 inches of pipe and then chrome exhaust tips attached? Wonder what led to the burning and sinking of the exhaust valves. How about the fact, they put the flex plate on with regular bolts and lock washers under them, along with not seating the torque converter, locking it up, such that I could not turn the engine with a 24" breaker bar? Let's see, so far, in the car, the seats were put in, using weight lift set collars, as spacers. Ok, I'll give them credit for not using twenty washers stacked in between the seat bracket and floor. Much of this I could not see, since the car was in a dark warehouse, when I bought it; and I bought it knowing I would have work to do, just didn't figure on everything I found (and what I haven't found yet) being this rough. By the way, some of my questions may seem noobish; I have never owned nor did much work on A bodies, or big blocks-but I can assure you, my 30 plus years as a professional tech, dealing with many vehicle makes and models, more than qualifies me to spot "shoddy" work.
