My buds a machinist .Before you jump the gun and point fingers find the cause. A builder cannot predict catastrophic failure of a defective part. like Toby said it could be an oil pump shaft. then the burden lies on you because lifters usually start ticking first on a pump failure. I know right now you want to blame someone but figure out where blame is due first. My machinist bud has had several motors come back thru the years and seldom is it his fault. Could he have prevented it ,yes if he made you pay top dollar and built everything with top of the line overkill parts. But then could the average guy like me build a motor,no,i,d have to settle for a crate motor.i really hope it turns out ok for you but investigate first and find out who,s willing to help. my bud usually eats all labor and just charges for parts in these situations which i think is more than fair. jmho
I never blamed the builder for the failure although I wouldn't be surprised if it is their fault. Maybe mine. Here's the story on this build and why I dont go back to this place.
I bought the car with a main seal leak and took it to these guys to fix. They said no way. Didnt want the repair work. I said to them, if I pay you to build my heads would you fix the seal and they said yes.
Once they got into the engine they told me it was trashed and needed a complete rebuild. $10k later I had them build and install a 450 HP stroker to fix all my problems. No chance. That's right 10k. I'm an idiot. Anyway.....
The car still leaked and after repeated tries they couldnt fix it. They even charged me another 600 bucks to replace the oil pan that was supposedly bad. Ridiculous.
Here's where it gets juicy. Remember I spent 10k on this build. No new wires or distributor or carb or anything. Just the short block, head work and install.
The starter made a clicking sound and barely turned over the engine. They caused it and couldnt fix it. Said I had to live with it.
The thing never ran right and I finally took it to a guy that knows how to tune a carb and he couldn't beleive the hack job they did. He fixed the leak, and tuned it better than ever with all new wires, carb and distributor. The car now sits at his shop for diagnose and hopefully just an oil pump......fingers crossed. Stay tuned. I may need help finding a good short block if it's jacked up.
By the way, I have a friend with a 250k shelby built by them with an oil leak. He gave up as well. Some people dont have the time or passion for small claims court and that is why some companies will take advantage of the ding bat like me that just wants to pay for good work.
