I was on the home stretch to finally finish the HR in time for state title inspection this May and then to go to the Open House in June. Last week I fired up the engine only to find out that it has a major rear main seal leak. The engine is based on a '72 302 block , 2 piece rear main seal. Changed the seal. Still leaks. Engine builder then admits to me that it leaked on the dyno and that he had changed the seal before giving it to me. Now I have to pull the engine /trans and ship the engine to a different shop to have the engine torn down completely and have the block machined for a 1 piece seal. Then reassembled and dynoed. So, not only will this cost me a lot of time but approx. $2-3K.
I can not now trust the original engine builder....this was the "Team Jenny" based engine. I paid a good sum for the shortblock at a charity (CF) event and then to have it built to final form by the builder. It was built by someone who has a good reputation as well. The builder said that he would fix it. But that wasn't his first response.
Olli