well, not quite fubared, but he ****ed it up.
i get a call today. "Hi Eric, we got a problem here again."
long story short, he accidentally bored out one of my cylinders .002 to far.
so now my 81.5mm bore is no more, so i need another set of pistons.
just my luck the next size that rs machine pistons are 82mm, service limit on a b-series block. now he said he would buy them for me, but he still ****ed up my block. the next time something happens, the block needs sleeved. not only that, but now i will prob. need a new head gasket. i mic'ed mine and it measures 81.75. so, there is gonna be a lil hanger over with my head gasket and i really dont want that. on top[ off all this, it has taken him 2 months longer than he said it would
what should i do?

a.)tell the machinest f^ck you, your fixin it and makin me a huge discount on all the work

b.)let it slide, and ask if he can maybe take a lil off the bill or compensate by getting me another head gasket or

c.)suck it up, run the gasket i have or buy another one.

i am thinking b. he is a nice guy, and i have had him do other things for me and he has gone out of his way a few times to help me out. i am not big enough of a dick to demand a new block or anything along those lines, i am just wondering what people think is fair and also if using an OEM head gasket for an 82mm bore and having the combustion chambers untouched with a larger diameter bore. i would think having a head gasket hang over the bore and the combustion chamber would just be horrible and lead to problems.

 

at least he told you...another place would have said **** it.
i would go for plan B. ask for pistons and a headgasket. do it right the 1st time.

 

he told me he would buy me another set of pistons so that wasnt that big of a deal, the head gasket is the only concern now...that and down the line if i need to re-bore it i will have to sleeve the block

 

why can't you just have him pay for another block?

 

Machinists are people too. They make mistakes. The important part is how they make it up to you. If they just hand you back your ruined block ad send ou on your way then they are bad business people. If they make it up to you by buying you new pistons and a HG then at least they tried to make it right.

Go with plan B and if that doesn't work then go with C.

82mm works on stock B-sleeves. More displacement makes more power...

 

Have him pay for the pistons and head gasket.

 

I wish I would have gone 82mm on my B18C1 build. Also, consider yourself lucky he told you! Who cares if it needs a sleeve next time? If it does, sleeve it and do a 2.2L instead. Do it big or don't do it.

 

He owes you a block. Like you said, if something happens you have to sleeve or buy another block with your own money. Him buying new pistons and head gasket seems like a easy way out. 82mm is nice though too.
BTW: your post says the guy called and said "got a problem again"...... AGAIN?? What happend before?
I would want a new block and it machined to what I asked for. He is a business and everyone makes mistakes but, you are the customer and what YOU want is what he should do. Not what is easiest for him (and cheaper) I would also not go back there....

 

i am gonna ask for a discount and for him to buy the HG as well. i do not plan on going back to him in the future. i would just like to get my motor back in a way that it can be made operable. being at the service limit sucks, but what am i gonna do.
i dont know if it constitutes him buying a new block. maybe it does, but i dont ever see it happening. even if a got a lawyer, blah, blah, blah, it would be a long drawn out process and its just not worth it to me over a block that cost 150 bux. in all reality, ill have under a grand into this motor so its not like i spent thousands on it.

 

This happen to me when I took my block to get work on. The guy did .30 over instead of .25 he called and told me about it and he resolved it by putting in a new sleeve free. Also discounted the totaled labor but after this I would not bring it back to them it just show me that they don't really pay attention.

 

i would just ask for a discount. im a machinest and .002 isnt much lol but when it comes to a engine thats too much. if you dont give him to much of a hard time he will remember this next time you need something done

 

It seems like he is honest. I would be honest back and express your concerns about your block.

I would ask for the new pistons and HG to be paid for, and a steep discount on the *future* sleeving that may or may not happen, ontop of whatever discount he will offer you for his mistake on this machine operation. If and when you decide to sleeve in the future, you will know it won't cost an arm and a leg.

I think you will probably come out on top in this situation. Think about it this way, you went in willing to pay regular price for a machined 81.5mm block. You will come away with free 82mm pistons, HG, a larger displacement motor, and potential heavy discounts on future sleeving/machine work. Sounds like a deal to me.

 

Use this event to establish a relationship with the machinist to get discounts in the future.

If he screws up again then **** him

 

When the machine shop did this to me 3 years ago, I didn't find out from them. I found out on my own. When I picked up my block from machining, I looked at the pistons, and they were not marked for which cylinder they went into. I asked which was which, and they said "it doesn't matter" """Warning Will Rogers, Warning Will Rogers"""! I said "what do you mean?" They re-stated that it didn't matter, and they had bored all the holes the same size. We discussed/argued about it for about 15 minutes, and I walked out stating that I had asked for .0026 piston to wall clearance when I dropped off the work, and they said "no problem, we can do that".

To make a long story short, they refunded me the cost of the block machining and other block work they did, and they bought my block from me. I have never, and will never go back there.

 

i went and spoke with him today. he offered to pay for both the pistons and the cometic HG. he actually also offered to give me future discounts for other work. i bring stuff too him about twice a season for other friends and my own stuff.
i was nice and calm and never lost my temper. he was very professional and was very up standing when it came to making it right. so really i cant be mad. i told him i wasnt mad and i understood that **** happens sometimes. i was just a lil upset about the whole thing.
i will probably take stuff to him again. he made it right and did the best he could to make me happy so i cant complain. he could of just as easily said **** it and tried to screw me.

 

good deal .. if you don't be an *** this time and just like it be, since he is buying you new piston and head gasket. im pretty sure in the long run its gonna pay out ... like you said you use the machine shop a few times a year ...

 

These are the exact reasons we are looking for a new machinist, thats local. I have one guy I use, and he's 1 mile from my house, awesome work, but he's 30 minutes from the shop. The guy we used to use was literally next door, but he overbored a sleeved GSR motor, made us buy new pistons. And we saw him accidentally mill 1/4" off an aftermarket aluiminum V8 head. after that, we pulled out our parts, and havent found a decent shop thets closer to us. May just end up with the 30min drive

 

everyone makes mistakes, its easy to set a gauge wrong and not realize it or just plain do something stupid.

to the douche who wanted .026 piston to wall clearence, your pistons should be sent back cause all the pistons should be the same size hence why bores would all be the same size. its easier to machine a piston to a certain size instead of honing out a block. and how did you know the size of the pistons since you dropped it off at the machine shop?? why didnt you number the rods, that would tell ya where they went??

 

I think Jaker made a typo, 0.026" clearance would be huge!! Should be 0.0026" I figure. Actually it's pretty much standard practice to match the individual bore size to the piston going in it.

 

oh, FYI, he matches each piston to each cylinder. he told me with newer stuff very rarely do you ever see pistons severely out of spec. with each other, but it is still good practice to do so.
he said if he were putting together an old 350 for example with an new OE piston, then he would be more concerned with differences between each individual piston.

 

wow still sucks that he messed up on it.

 

mistakes happen.. he was honest.

and going 82mm is fine. Stock blocks are fine until around 83mm on stock HG's.. for sealent purposes..

82mm on my itr was going to be my rebuild.. Then DonF and I put our heads together..

 

Thanks Stumpy, you were correct. I did make a typo. I've now corrected it.

Am I still a douche punkrockkiel? How many Honda engines have you built?

 

If he's man enough to admit his mistake(s) then he should be man enough to fix the problem. Either by getting you another block or getting you new pistons. His reputation is on the line. It's not 80s, the internet is way more deadlier then word of mouth.

 

^