Ok, so this is sort of a rant. I cannot tell you how long this has been building up inside of me, and a few events have finally pushed me over the edge.
My friend just bought a 94 hatch with an LS-VTEC turbo in it. It has forged pistons and rods, arp head studs, and a b16a1 head. The turbo is a garrett t3, with an ebay manifold, intercooler, and a home depot piping kit. The oil lines are earl's cut to length. Its tuned on crome. White, lowered, and on some ugly ass 17's with some sort of spoiler and ricey tail lights.
So I figured hey, hes been looking for a nice car for awhile, maybe this is the one. My first suspicion was the asking price. The guy asked for 4k obo. Seemed a little low, but I was still hopeful. So we went to check it out. We get to this guys house, and the hatch appears to be pretty clean. He starts it, and it runs fine. Then he tells me something that should have turned me off but it didnt, it has an overheating problem. We asked him what was wrong with it and he just said it overheats under boost and needs a new headgasket and water pump.
Well, jeff (my buddy) makes the decision to buy it. Soon after it is parked in my shop. We tear the head off and take a look. The head gasket appears to be in good works but we replaced it anyway, and then had the head checked to make sure it wasn't warped. It was fine.
While taking the water pump off, one of the bolts snapped inside the block because the fucktard that assembled it before didn't use anti seize. Hmm. We get the water pump off and get the bolt out. We then replace the water pump, and clean up the threads for the bolt (drill and retap). Strike one.
We then bolt everything back up expecting everything to go back together just fine. We go to tork the head studs down and all is going well. We get to one of the studs and it just wont torque down. It gets to a point and loosens up. I look at jeff and just kind of shake my head. Turns out the guy put a heli-coil in 3 of the holes for the head studs and NONE of them are down far enough in the hole or installed properly. Strike two.
Now, I have another problem. Another friend of mine assembled an all motor GSR, and when doing the rebuild decided he would skip replacing the main bearings because "they aren't that important." I tried telling him several times that he should just do it because the engine had a little over 95k on it when he was doing this.
Not even two months down the road, it seizes up. Reason: 3 of the main bearings had severe scoring and I think one of them even got wedged in between a couple places in the block. Rods and crank are trash, possibly block as well. BOOM. Waste of 1k in all motor parts. Strike three.
Let both of these instances be a lesson to all you out there who are wondering if its worth the extra time and money to go the extra mile and make things right the first time. If you pull the engine apart, replace seals and bearings while you're in there.
Its really dumb of people to skip simple steps such as using anti seize and proper lubrication when re-assembling. It pisses me off to see engines that could be well running machines end up back in my shop because people didnt take the extra two days and $60 to replace those main bearings.
I know, long post, but it really has been eating away at me.
My friend just bought a 94 hatch with an LS-VTEC turbo in it. It has forged pistons and rods, arp head studs, and a b16a1 head. The turbo is a garrett t3, with an ebay manifold, intercooler, and a home depot piping kit. The oil lines are earl's cut to length. Its tuned on crome. White, lowered, and on some ugly ass 17's with some sort of spoiler and ricey tail lights.
So I figured hey, hes been looking for a nice car for awhile, maybe this is the one. My first suspicion was the asking price. The guy asked for 4k obo. Seemed a little low, but I was still hopeful. So we went to check it out. We get to this guys house, and the hatch appears to be pretty clean. He starts it, and it runs fine. Then he tells me something that should have turned me off but it didnt, it has an overheating problem. We asked him what was wrong with it and he just said it overheats under boost and needs a new headgasket and water pump.
Well, jeff (my buddy) makes the decision to buy it. Soon after it is parked in my shop. We tear the head off and take a look. The head gasket appears to be in good works but we replaced it anyway, and then had the head checked to make sure it wasn't warped. It was fine.
While taking the water pump off, one of the bolts snapped inside the block because the fucktard that assembled it before didn't use anti seize. Hmm. We get the water pump off and get the bolt out. We then replace the water pump, and clean up the threads for the bolt (drill and retap). Strike one.
We then bolt everything back up expecting everything to go back together just fine. We go to tork the head studs down and all is going well. We get to one of the studs and it just wont torque down. It gets to a point and loosens up. I look at jeff and just kind of shake my head. Turns out the guy put a heli-coil in 3 of the holes for the head studs and NONE of them are down far enough in the hole or installed properly. Strike two.
Now, I have another problem. Another friend of mine assembled an all motor GSR, and when doing the rebuild decided he would skip replacing the main bearings because "they aren't that important." I tried telling him several times that he should just do it because the engine had a little over 95k on it when he was doing this.
Not even two months down the road, it seizes up. Reason: 3 of the main bearings had severe scoring and I think one of them even got wedged in between a couple places in the block. Rods and crank are trash, possibly block as well. BOOM. Waste of 1k in all motor parts. Strike three.
Let both of these instances be a lesson to all you out there who are wondering if its worth the extra time and money to go the extra mile and make things right the first time. If you pull the engine apart, replace seals and bearings while you're in there.
Its really dumb of people to skip simple steps such as using anti seize and proper lubrication when re-assembling. It pisses me off to see engines that could be well running machines end up back in my shop because people didnt take the extra two days and $60 to replace those main bearings.
I know, long post, but it really has been eating away at me.
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