Was putting an engine together and noticed that the crankshaft appears to have been dropped. It is no good and it is brand new :mad: I plan to just bring the engine back to the machine shop and showing them the damage.
Problem is that I have had the parts for about two weeks and there is no way to prove that I did not do the damage. For the record, nobody touched the crank after I picked it up at the machine shop - Nothing happened to it after I got it - it was treated like a baby.
What makes you think it was dropped? Is it bent? Is it a high performance crank? How much did you spend at the shop and what did you have done? Your name suggests more than just a rebuild. Need more info for an opinion.
It is a high performance part. I spent $2K in parts and labor. It’s a brand new 4340 forged steel crank. The mains in the block were checked, new pistons hung on the old rods, and internally balanced. Block honed to .040 over and new cam bearings installed.
The number one rod journal was definitely hit hard. I discovered it when I went to check side clearance on the big end of the connecting rod to crank. The crank has a ding that protrudes into the rod journal area and the outside radius of the bend has some cracks. On the other end of the crank there is a burr on the edge of another rod journal. My belief is that the crank was dropped on the edge of the number one rod journal and fell over onto some other hard parts that caused the scrape/burr on the back end.
Regardless of what was done, the new crank is damaged and unusable.
Sounds like you had them do the short block. If the rods were mounted and the damage is underneath the rod journal then it only could have occured at the shop. Other indicators of a motor dropped at the shop would be a lack of scraped paint. If the engine was painted after assembly then it would show signs of distress if you dropped it.
Whatever you do, approach the shop owner in a calm manner and explain your case. You are in a bad position if it goes to court because it is your word against his. You also can’t post negative stuff against him unless you can prove it.
That is the problem - they could claim that the crank was fine and how do I prove it - wonder if there is some test that could determine when the damage was done - sounds like a new thread.
My husband is a big gear head and he’s returned tons of stuff. It’s in their best interest to keep you happy. We order 99% of our stuff off the internet from places like Jegs and Summit, and we are continually pleased with the service we get. Make your phone call and see how they handle it. There’s plenty of time for heat-seeking missiles if they earn one.
I’d be surprised if they gave you any crap about it, as long as the shop is reputable. If they just ordered it for you, it’s possible that it was damaged in shipping, and they may want to recover the money from their supplier. If you have done stuff with this shop in the past, I suspect you trust them to do stuff for you, and they know that you’re a stand-up guy who wouldn’t try to screw them over.
I would go in and see what they have to say. I would say odds are 70 percent that you get a new crank with no complaint, 20 percent they give you a new crank after whining about it, and 10 percent that they try to stick you with a screwed up crank.