GM Forum - Buick, Cadillac, Olds, GMC & Pontiac chat - DING DING DING bout to drive me nuts

I think it was started all the way back when we were trying to get oil pressure. Get this show if ignorance. We were trying to get oil pressure and although the book says to start the engine and wait 10seconds for oil pressure (which I brought to his attention) him and his infinite engine knowledge says we should turn it over until the gauge reads proper pressure and we can see oil comming from the rockers. Well I argued that I'm not 100% sure (seeing as I've never really built an engine) but it doesn't seem like a good idea to turn a pretty much dry engine over for extended periods without oil pressure. He hushed those concerns and told me he "knows what he is doing and has done it for 24yrs with no problems". So I went along and began turning the engine over. 15seconds of turning and no pressure so we try a few things and turn it over again. Three battery recharges and countless arguements from me later there is still no oil pressure so he finally says "Hey I have a preluber in the shop, lets use it." I looked at him like he was a fool. So we prelube the engine at 80+psi (on his strong suggestion again) and oil begins comming out of the rockers, but not all of them. So we turn the engine and nothing. Prelube again and turn again, nothing. Prelube and turn over while prelubing and nothing. Finally he says to start it and see if we can get pressure. Started it and ran for 10seconds, nothing. Checked a few things and started it again and again nothing. At this point its had probably a good 3-4min of turning over + starting with no oil pressure. All the time I'm telling him that I don't think this is right and "isn't this bad for the engine?" and all along he's hushing my worries with his "professional engine building experience". He finally retires to his desk to read over the schematics and I hear him from outside "Hey Jason! Did the oil pressure spring look like this when you took it apart." I went in and looked at a blowup he's had since almost day 1 of the rebuild and said "Uhh...yeah it looked JUST like how it shows in the dealership schematic! Why, that isn't how you put it together?!" He says "Well I couldn't figure out how it went so I put it how it seemed to go" HOLY SHI#! I yelled and cursed and pulled the oil filter assembly and sure enough the oil pressure spring was in backwards. I corrected it and started it up, BOOM 40psi of oil pressure. If I would have known this guys ignorance would shine like that in the beginning I would have never gone to him but for the most part the boring of the block and porting of the heads and other machining work like that I had never seen before so I had no real way of telling right from wrong. It wasen't until we're about to put the engine in and trying to start it that I started to question things and by then its really too late to tell him to refund my money because I'm going somewhere else without having a real problem yet. I dunno. I talked to a laywer in the family and he says this'll be an open-shut case because he sent me a "warranty" with 100's of escape routes 2 days AFTER the engine is already running and asked me to sign it. Because he sent it after work was completed it falls under a special category in which state law and basically "assumed professional workmanship" applies. He promised a fully functional engine and did not deliver on that so reguarless of what he sent me after the fact he is resposable with the costs involved with making the engine function as originally promised. SO basically he will have to pay for a different shop to pull the engine, fix everything properly, and reinstall the engine. Its just annoying that I have to go through this. Oh get a load of some of the "warranty" he is trying to pass off on me. Remember he has "CUSTOM ENGINE AND MACHINE" in his name title and brags about "Hi-Peferformance engine fabrication". (I'll leave his name out for now)

"???'s Machine shop will not be responsible or liable for any of the following:
1. loss of time
2. loss of income or revenue
3. loss of transportation or vehicle rental
4. equipment rental
5. any towing charges
6. crankshaft thrust damage
7. broken cranks after 90 days
8. diagnostic time, fluids, filters, or shop supplies
9. oil starvation for ANY REASON
10. piston scuffing or bearing damage
11. over heating, removing or melting of heat tab
12. vdetonation, precognition of pistons (melting or broken)
13. lifter rattle at cold start
14. burnt valves after 30days of installation
15. head gasket with burned fire ring
16. abnormal wear from contaminated oil or fuel wash
17. an engine used in a contest of speed or off road agility
18. engine damage due to performance parts added by customer following new engine installation
19. damage caused by fauilty fuel components even if originally installed by ??? Machine shop

and the winner "Also, any engine modified beyond original factory specifications, either by ??? Machine shop on the customers request, or by the customer, shall relieve ??? Machine shop of any responsibility or warranty" HOLY CRAP THATS WHAT HE DOES! He CUSTOM builds engines! Thats his whole deal. WTF. "Come to me to custom build your engine but if I custom build it I'm not responsible for it" Its ok though because the lawyer says this think is good as toilet paper. I just can't believe he would do something like that. There are so many different ways out. Like even if he admits responsability and by some fluke it IS covered in the warranty he only refunds $35/hr of the $65/hr he charges at a total of $400 on an "authorized defective engine"!!! I would never have gone to this guy if this was what he was going to do. I just can't believe it. I've gone and pissed myself off again..ahhh