Things Got Worse.. Major Setback // '74 Celica V8 Swap 

This is the very reason I work on my own cars.

I work on my own cars for the same reason too. I’ve had shops even screw up oil changes. Plus I’ve saved so much time and money over the years

I used to live off my welding skills, but I didn't want to do the complete floor pan on my 105 series Alfa, simply for time reasons. Gave it to a professional body and restoration shop, together with an excellent replacement floor pan. It's now in my 2 car garage on a straightening bench, built with 2 mates who work in engineering, I was undoing welds and measuring for months on and off. Instead of saving a summer of weekend's welding, I'm twice the time and lots of wire and gas into a job I already paid for.

I have had customers like you!

Same

Bravo @david

Exactly. We come here for the rabbit holes and the details. Otherwise we would be mindlessly watching TikTok as a pool of drool formed on our screens as our brain cells diminished with each should video

This^

@@johnlaw4309 yes, I just noticed that. Got to love auto incorrect.

Exactly.

Agreed - forgiveness and understanding are in short supply, especially in social media land. Well done for role modeling it for the rest of us!

We could all use a second chance from time to time.

Well done Sarah, you handled this issue very well. A great example of doing things the right way. Congratulations :-)

Should refund the money as well even though they're doing the work again .16k isn't chump change.

I agree, but not when $16,000 is involved and promises were kept even worse than Milli Vanilli. What this shop did is borderline unforgivable if they do NOT make it right.@@jgrhoades

I would add that the next person won't have the audience to scare the shop into doing what is right and will have a far less desirable outcome for that person.

They had zero problem in providing shoddy work. Until, it was discovered there was a successful YT channel involved. I would have liked to have seen their response if you were a nobody, like the rest of us.

@@Truth-Machine5000Yep. They’re worried they’ll be named and shamed without dispute because the evidence is for all to see. I’d still be worried about the detail in this engine such as ring gaps etc. Did they or will they even bother to even do that.

It's a guarantee that this shop has done similar to customers who don't have the same leverage against them that you have. I'd be interested to know whether they made those customers right, as well.

Legally you chose the right course of action. You could get sued by releasing that shop’s name.

Absolutely. Our team always went out of way to pass on dip, smokes, redbulls and other bottles to our support staff.

There are very few people I'd trust with my life and as detail oriented as Sarah is, it's a no brainer to trust her 👍 And I hope your family member comes home safe...

That work on the engine was truly awful. 😒

No way would they get a second chance, they're clearly incompetent, sending out an engine in that condition

I agree,..demand a full refund and do it yourself!

The guys who built her engine work full time for Boeing. Same kind of quality control.

I've had heads machined and they never take the plugs out. I had an engine rebuilt and put back in my car with broken pan bolts, same plugs, leaking old fuel lines, broken timing covers leaking quarts of oil through seals. All because the owner had an unskilled apprentice do the work. I found a crecent wrench in the engine bay. I think very poorly of a mechanic that uses a crecent wrench.

Agree, but they deserve a chance to make things right first.

​@@SarahnTunedI hear you, but if rebuilding engines is what the shop specializes in then they clearly produced sub-standard work. They would likely deny any responsibility for damages if it was put back in service. Any other customer would then be out of the initial fee and subsequent additional repair costs. Their re-doing the rebuild properly is the professional expectation. However, considering the magnitude of their poor workmanship, to make the situation right the shop should do it for free or a significant discount.

Sarah, We might or might not be intelligent, but we love our Sarah. Trials and tribulations are the natural habitat of the automotive builder, re-builder and restorer. That you meet and overcome said trials and tribulations is just one of the reasons we are such a loyal bunch of fans. The owner of the machine shop should kiss the ground upon which you walk! So far you have given him anonymity and the opportunity to make an egregiously bad decision right. All at your time and expense. (For nine months and $16,000 that machine shop should have sent you a gold plated, absolutely perfect, blue printed engine!). I hope your inspection when the engine is returned is even more thorough than the one which sent it back. If you find any, and I do mean any, imperfections when your engine is returned; please broadcast the name, address and phone number of that machine shop to the entire internet! They will deserve everything they reap if they sow another bad job. On a brighter note; please remember that in your line of work, a project is finished when it is finished. No amount of plotting, planning, scheming or scheduling will bring it to fruition sooner than the day it is done. 🐧 keep the aspidistra flying 🐧! ❤love ❤, Paul

@@DL-iq5zo that "rebuild" was so fubar that it's not even funny. Sarah is a damn saint for letting them take another whack at it; getting a lawyer involved and demanding a full refund + damages would be the expected course of action. Even more worrying is that this is a supposedly reputable shop.

@@SarahnTuned My question would be, how can you trust their work now, after the unconscionable mess they made. As an engineer myself, I would want to see each and every part laid out before they assembled it again. Actually no, thinking about it. I would have zero trust that they will do it right. I would have stripped it down, videoing every step and everything wrong, demanded my money back and taken the stripped down engine to another shop to be done correctly. Otherwise you are going to have a constant niggle at the back of your mind -"What did they miss this time!"

I would have uncorked - big time. Way cooler head than mine, way.

Agree, unfortunately my shop is in the same building as a bodyshop, so I’m hesitant to have anything torn apart for long in here.

With a viewership/reach this size I have the ability to literally ruin people’s lives by doing that, I’m not a simple yelp review.

@@SarahnTuned with great power comes great responsibility

​@SarahnTuned Hopefully that also keeps them honest second time around!

If they screwed Sarah over, just imagine what they would do to a regular customer with no way of reaching 500,000 people.

@@SarahnTuned Class, always.

I’m not sure a rookie got it. I almost think it was a sunshine job!

How do you know it wasn't their best and most experienced that made that mess?

The shop name will get out. Nothing stays a secret with the introwebs

Yeah.. unfortunately I’m not one of those RU-vidrs that companies do stuff in exchange for advertising. I pay for everything out of pocket, but! In exchange you all don’t get countless products shoved down your throat every video.

@@SarahnTuned you mean the ads we skip through 😉! That is refreshing.

​@SarahnTuned I like the fact that you want to keep yourself unbeholden to sponsors, but I think many of us would have no problem sitting through a plug for "Raid: Shadow Legends" to help you out. Personally I would love to see your humor applied to a "Manscape" sponsor plug!

I think the phrase you're looking for is "parts changer." There's a great book about the trades called Shop Class as Soul Craft that delves into this problem. Most techs now don't have a firm enough grasp of the fundamentals to wrench their way out of a wet paper bag.

Maybe, if it were someone that didn’t have a giant RU-vid audience, I bet the response would have been different.

I just hope it wasn't out of fear of being grilled on the Internet.

@@carsonj4031 for their sake I hope that they had some apprentice work on it, or that it was put together by someone who'd gotten employed on fraudulent merits, or that they'd subcontracted the work to someone unreliable.. because no matter how much in a hurry you are, that level of messed up is just plain not acceptable for any engine rebuilder, full stop.

A mistake is not something done on purpose. If it were just the studs, maybe, but it’s way more than we know.

It’s not my shop, I’m not sinking any money into this place.

Hope you continue to be successful to the point you're able to buy your own shop. You deserve it.@@SarahnTuned

Benches!!

Fruit cake? He's a food cake!

I think it was outsourced possibly, not sure.

@@SarahnTuned jeez maybe! I get like one little mistake, but it’s just full of hack job type issues. I can see the regular consumer without a very popular RU-vid channel, would probably be holding a very broken engine block with no recourse.

I have my coffee too.