Engine Machinists - You have to be careful
Well this thread is dedicated to the bad experience I have had with an engine machine shop I used.
As most of you know, I rebuilt my engine with some of the finest parts on the market. I took all my parts over to "*ECU-MAN Edit*" to have them machined to spec.
My car only has about 6-7000km on it since the work was carried out.
My car had a huge oil consumption problem (over 1ltr per 1000km's) pretty much since it was build, according to ""*ECU-MAN Edit*" " this was “acceptable” usage.
Just remember everyone that these guys are meant to be "Professionals" at what they do.
Well here are the problems that I have experienced with them:
Head:
New valve guides were put in as the valves were replaced, but due to poor workmanship, most of the guides are worn or had too much clearance to begin with. You can rock the valve from side to side in the guide.
The head was machined square, only problem was that when they were machining the head, the head was not left smooth, it had the appearance and texture of an old record. This resulted in the head leaking oil past the head gasket.
Block
The block was machined square. Again, it had the same finish as the head and helped leak oil out passed the head gasket.
Signs were showing that the oil consumption was caused by worn rings. Oil was found over the back of the bumper and you could see oily smoke coming out from the tail pipe even under normal driving conditions and smoke was there all the time when driving hard.
When pulling the pistons out, you could straight away see that the bores were glazed up. Ring gaps were then checked and they were very worn and out of spec.
The engine shop recommended me getting the block posted for added strength, this I thought was a good idea (stronger is generally better), and again, them being professionals knew what they were doing, I went ahead and got the block posted, this involves putting short rods in between the bores and block to stop the bores from moving or flexing. One thing that I didn’t think about at the time was that different materials heat up at different rates, as previously mentioned, the pistons looked like they were on the verge of seizing in the areas that the posts were in, this probably occurred when the engine heated up, the posted expand and the bores become smaller in these areas...
Once the pistons were removed, I measured all the bores. No two bores had the same clearance, they were all different. The bores had an egg shape to them.
This post is to warn people of such places like ""*ECU-MAN Edit*" ". If you are going to put your engine in the hands of someone, make sure you know their background and have a good reputation in the industry. Even better if you know someone that has had experience with them.
I have since taken my parts to Advan @ Silverwater and I am going to use their machinist this time around, as Advan are well know for their workmanship and their professionalism as many of you are well aware of.
All comment are welcome, good or bad.
