[blykins]

Ok, I tried to find a post that I made about this guy on another forum but I couldn't find it.

So...

A couple of years ago, I was getting ready to build a 428FE. I saw his advertisement and noticed that he was fairly close to me, so I contacted him and told him that I wanted to find a 390 block that would go to a 4.130" bore and I wanted all the machine work done to it. I laid out in detail how I wanted everything prepped (sonic tested, magged, cleaned) machined, bored, align honed, square decked, paint, freeze plugs, etc.

Time comes to pick the block up. I pick it up, take it home, get it out of the truck and take a close look at it. There is no crosshatch in the cylinders. I immediately call him and tell him what's going on. He said, "I wouldn't worry about it, just go ahead and run it." I told him that there was no way that I would a block that hadn't been honed correctly and I was either going to bring it back to him and get my money back, or he would pay to have it honed. He agreed to send me money to have it honed.

I then drive about 2 hours to a machine shop that I used where I previously lived. As we were getting it out of the truck again, the sun just happened to hit the right way on the block and I saw a nice crack by a freeze plug hole. To give him the benefit of the doubt, I left the block there and let them magnaflux it. It was indeed cracked.

So I picked the block back up, called him again and told him that I was bringing the block back to him. Not only was it improperly machined, but it was cracked...and it should have been magnafluxed as I had asked. When I get there, he apologized and asked if I wanted another block. I said yes, but I don't want you to touch it. Just sonic test it, make sure it's thick, and I'll take it from there. He didn't have one ready, so I left and came back a few days later to pick the new block up. While I was there, I noticed what he had for shop equipment. His cylinder boring machine was a stand alone unit that sat in the floor over top the block. There was no way you could get a truly accurate bore with what he was using.

So I get the block, he said he had sonic tested it and everything looked good. We settled up and away I went.

I took it back to the machine shop that I had used before and dropped it off. A week later, the machinist called and told me that as he was making the first pass to bore, he cut through a cylinder wall. *sigh*

So I drive back, get the block, and at this point, I'm getting ready to just throw it through the guy's window. I called him, told him what had happened (again) and he said to just bring it back and he'd give me my money back. I got my money back and I haven't done business with him since.

I can't imagine what kind of assembly techniques are used when he builds a complete engine.

This has been a couple years ago, so I don't know if his shop equipment has improved or his knowledge has increased, but I wouldn't buy from him again.