Car is getting a turbo and the engine was rebuilt, new bearings, gaskets, rods, pistons, rings and whatever else. Before my engine was taken apart I spun a rod bearing.

Currently my car has been in the shop...for a while...9 weeks to be exact and today I call getting an update on what's going on with my car.

Shop tells me to call this morning, should be ready. Well I call and they say there's a slight problem, they're not getting compression on one of the cylinders. So they're telling me it might be a bent valve from the cylinder with the bad rod bearing.

They ask me to call them tonight, but I'll call tomorrow, give them more time.

What I'm not understanding is, if they took the engine apart, took the block to a machine shop, wouldn't they have noticed any bad valves before putting everything back together and finding out there's no compression in one cylinder?

Some delays, or so they say at least, involved delays dealing with other cars before mine, needing to order a new crankshaft, "we currently have all the parts, except the rods", waiting for block to come back from machine shop, and some of their guys not being there(not sure exactly the details, either quit, fired, or vacation).

I was told 2 weeks for the time to get car back the day I took it in, so I'm thinking 3 weeks max. I called every other day or so asking for updates starting week 3 and they tell me, "day to day, or call back the next day or later this time, or should be done by a certain day next week."

I'm past the point of being mad, I just want my car back.

So back to my question, when you tear apart the engine, how does a bent valve get by all these trained eyes who do this type of work pretty much every day? And would a spun rod bearing cause a cylinder to have no compression?

BTW There's 3 shops here in my area that specialize in doing work on imports, they even take their own cars to a local track for certain events so I was limited, but I've been to these guys before and they seemed to take care of my car before in a timely manner. Now they're just dragging.

 

I would be pissed also. If the block and head were taken to a shop to be checked out and rebuilt they should of seen a bent valve.
The spun Rod bearing should not cause a bent valve. Now if the timing belt broke or you broke a rod i could see it causing a bent valve. Sounds like they didnt check the head out before putting everything back together.

 

a spun rod bearing will NOT cause low or no compression in a cyl. it will make a knock
now as for the ""Rebuilt" did they install new valve seals? it comes with the head gasket kit and if so they should have tested the valves for leaks and would have noticed a bent valve cause it wouldnt close flush. and when i say bent i dont mean 90 degrees, it can be just a hair bent and cause a compression leak.
i would talk to the "boss" and see about a discount on the job for the incovience because 9 weeks is a long time.

 

after not calling for a few days I called today and they said they had to order 2 new valves, should be here tomorrow, and I should be getting car around Thursday.

we'll see....

 

Any update on your car?

 

Boy that is a tough place to be. I applaud you. I would be fit to be tied. What they are saying would scare the hell out of me. If they rebuilt this engine & didn't do the head. What else didn't they do? Why are they dragging their feet on completion. They better comp you when they hand you a bill.
I feel for you. But your in a way stuck & have to let them finish.
Personally, After a couple of weeks after they told you it would be finished & might of pulled it out of their shop. But now your really stuck & almost have to let them finish it.

 

I called today, said they had all the parts, will put everything in car tomorrow(saturday) and to call back monday morning, should get it back then.

And I've already called one of the other shops asking how much it would cost to just put everything together seeing how my current shop has all the parts on hand. This is simply a last resort.

If the guy I talked to at the other shop knows anyone over at the place that has my car, maybe he passed the word to get them to speed things up. Only reason I didn't go there at first because they were asking $9-$12k for an all out engine build/turbo setup and all the fancy things to go with it. In my mind I said "F that".

I'll call Monday after I get off work and get a "new" update.

 

well still haven't gotten it back yet, however there is some good news. I stopped by a couple days ago, and they showed me the car...and it happened to be in the shop OMG. lol

usually I see it parked out front, but they showed it to me and they had just put the engine all back together. They showed me what was causing some delays, the head gasket they were using was defective...apparently.



you see the little copper washers or whatever they around around the corners, well they showed me the brand gasket they were using and those were basically pressure points, not allowing the engine to seal completely after tightening everything down. They said they went through 3 of those before going with a different brand.

Called again yesterday, said engine and some other stuff in the car, doing final touches should be done this morning.