Hopefully this time it will continue...... engine rebuild

[mopar thunder]

WELL!!!!.... it finally happened  the engine was fired up last night! My builder was very pleased, says the video doesn't do it justice. I think it sounds great. No leaks, good pressure, fluids flowing, temp was great. Next step installing her. I have to plan sometime to go help install it. That is one milestone out of the way. Not sure about the dog biting the exhaust but.... It's not a great video but hey, I'm not complaining. Once it i sinstalled I will take it to the dyno and get some #'s.

[Cudajason]

Hey that's AWESOME !!!!

hope the install goes well!

[Brads70]

Fantastic news! Sounds "snotty" ! So many of us have been waiting to see/hear this! 

[JS29]

  Salute! I had a German Shepard that would bite the exhaust tip's! Drove me nut's. 

[7E-Bodies]

I can't wait to hear that. Mine hasn't been running in twenty years. It's been sitting in a heated space since the 90s.

[WCC]

WELL!!!!.... it finally happened  the engine was fired up last night! My builder was very pleased, says the video doesn't do it justice. I think it sounds great. No leaks, good pressure, fluids flowing, temp was great. Next step installing her. I have to plan sometime to go help install it. That is one milestone out of the way. Not sure about the dog biting the exhaust but.... It's not a great video but hey, I'm not complaining. Once iti sinstalled I will take it to the dyno and get some #'s.

Awesome and well done for hanging in there. Things are looking up for sure.

[RUNCHARGER]

Great news, that must feel good after all that. The dog wasn't too scared of it though.

[Chryco Psycho]

That is fantastic , Congrats ... sound great too 

[mopar thunder]

Thanks everyone. Yes, it does feel really good I have to admit. I have played that video over and over. Sometimes I have to remind myself that it is mine and it is finally running. Now on to the next step.... 

[mopar thunder]

Well the saga continues.... you really can't make all this stuff up. Communication stopped with the installer for awhile and I was wondering what happened. Well in short, trouble with his partner, trouble at home, and then he said he was going to do it himself. I just told him the drop dead date for me was mid October then I was getting it no matter the shape it is in. Well then I find out he had to go into the hospital for a triple by-pass this past weekend.  Now that's no joke and I really hope he is doing well. Now enter the twist. He told me before that he was picking up the engine and not to call the shop which I found a bit strange. Then I found out he was in the hospital and I wasn't sure where the engine actually was. Did he have it or where was it....... It got worked out this morning. I wasn't aware but he dropped the engine off at the shop before he went into the hospital knowing what the outcome was. But they lost a week or so of time. I spoke to the other shop owner and said well sorry for the confusion but I am coming up to get the car Oct 17th so what ever shape it is in I am taking it back. I just hope they can get it installed and running with a pull or two on the dyno to make sure the air/fuel mixture and digital box are set correctly. If not I guess I will find a shop down here to put it on the dyno when ready.  I still need an exhaust repair, a larger upper rad hose, and a few misc. items. I'll just be glad to have it home. If I can get a dyno pull on video I will post it. If not once it is back home and running I'll take a video of it then.

[Chryco Psycho]

Crazy 

[WCC]

I think you made the right call. They have the deadline so just get it back if they can't deliver. You are a very patient person indeed.

With a recent build of a '50s Chevy truck it took the guy two years and I just about lost all my patience with him. The first few months went great and he did some amazing metal work including some one off fabrications of the front end and grill, which makes it unique.
But then progress started getting slower and slower. I don't think much of anything happened this past year and I ended up giving him a hard deadline. Unfortunately, he does do good metalwork so I also gave him another project at the end of last year, being a '41 Harley flathead - I shouldn't have done that as he could not finish the truck in time, let alone the bike.
So after a hard deadline that was up last week he phoned me a day before shipping telling me he could'nt quite get everything done and also wasn't happy with some stuff he already completed...like paint.  He also told me that his shop went under two months ago and that he has been working a day job while working on my truck some weekday evenings and weekends. So you can imagine the quality of work I got with late evenings and a dead tired restorer that had to let all his help go.
I got the truck back on Friday and there are a lot of issues. Mainly small cosmetic but still they added up quickly and made me so disappointed to see what I have been dreaming about for the last two years. It looks good on pics but once you get up close you start seeing the swirl marks, paint chips and the other imperfections. He also messed up my warranty claim on a brand new Holley Sniper by opening it up - so now I don't know if it was a product issue or not but basically I'm out a few grand just on that.
Fortunately, I managed to get my bike stuff from him as well, not that he would steal it but you never know when somebody has their back up against the wall.
I did meet the owners of a great shop close to me and they have already started making progress on my truck - if only I had known about them two years ago, it would have spared me the agony.
One thing I have learned is don't let delays progress beyond a certain point - it never gets better, only worse.

But such is life and it is not always smooth sailing. I would rather be fishing right now than dealing with all this shit, but we are car guys and that's part of the game.

[YellowThumper]

Apparently I had to wait until you got your fire up before reading this entire thread.
WOW you have been thru a lot. Glad you stuck that thru till fire up. Sounds like it will be a monster...
Enjoyable monster!

"But such is life and it is not always smooth sailing. I would rather be fishing right now than dealing with all this shit, but we are car guys and that's part of the game."

This is the absolute true statement of the car guys.
My tale with a Mustang. 3 years of frustration. Set a deadline  he got close but missed it and I took it back to finish.
Sometimes the lines have to be drawn.

Look forward to following the rest of this build.

Mike

[nsmall]

Sounds like lots of horse power and fun to me.

[mopar thunder]

I think you made the right call. They have the deadline so just get it back if they can't deliver. You are a very patient person indeed.

With a recent build of a '50s Chevy truck it took the guy two years and I just about lost all my patience with him. The first few months went great and he did some amazing metal work including some one off fabrications of the front end and grill, which makes it unique.
But then progress started getting slower and slower. I don't think much of anything happened this past year and I ended up giving him a hard deadline. Unfortunately, he does do good metalwork so I also gave him another project at the end of last year, being a '41 Harley flathead - I shouldn't have done that as he could not finish the truck in time, let alone the bike.
So after a hard deadline that was up last week he phoned me a day before shipping telling me he could'nt quite get everything done and also wasn't happy with some stuff he already completed...like paint.  He also told me that his shop went under two months ago and that he has been working a day job while working on my truck some weekday evenings and weekends. So you can imagine the quality of work I got with late evenings and a dead tired restorer that had to let all his help go.
I got the truck back on Friday and there are a lot of issues. Mainly small cosmetic but still they added up quickly and made me so disappointed to see what I have been dreaming about for the last two years. It looks good on pics but once you get up close you start seeing the swirl marks, paint chips and the other imperfections. He also messed up my warranty claim on a brand new Holley Sniper by opening it up - so now I don't know if it was a product issue or not but basically I'm out a few grand just on that.
Fortunately, I managed to get my bike stuff from him as well, not that he would steal it but you never know when somebody has their back up against the wall.
I did meet the owners of a great shop close to me and they have already started making progress on my truck - if only I had known about them two years ago, it would have spared me the agony.
One thing I have learned is don't let delays progress beyond a certain point - it never gets better, only worse.

But such is life and it is not always smooth sailing. I would rather be fishing right now than dealing with all this shit, but we are car guys and that's part of the game.

These types of stories keep coming. You are so right that it is just part of the car guy life. I wouldn't have been so patient, I believe, if I hadn't had other obstacles that took presedence. My fingers are crossed that in the end all is good. I might be at the end of my ropes if something goes wrong with it soon after all is completed. This thread is pretty long and not sure if I ever said this but I went through this 6 months prior to starting this one. We rebuilt the engine to a certain spec and found out soon after the engine was bored WAY too much and the hole project was a flop so there went $$$ out the window. I thought it was bad then when it took 11 months. That was nothing compared to this time. I just double checked and saw this thread was started Jan 2018. I dropped the car off on Aug 30, 2016..........