Racear,
I hear you. The main reason I insist on dynoing any performance engine, is, for the simple fact I want to see it run, break it in propperly, make sure there is no leaks, etc etc. That way, they can;t take it home and wreck it. At least if you do have a problem on the dyno, you can fix it, before its totaly ruined, and, its usualy not a big deal. But, let them take it home, with the buddy factor, it usualy seems like there is an "expert" buddy involved, thats calling the shots, and, that scenerio is usualy a nightmare waiting to happen, as, they know just enough to be dangerous. That way, too, if there is a problem later, its pretty hard to point the finger at me, and the engine will usualy "tell" you what happened.
I have head of a few stories from other shops, where they forgot to put oil in the engine, and ran it, and torched it, then bring it back, flipping out, to try and scam the shop to fix it for free.Thankfully, I have very little problems, and don;t have to deal with a whole lot, but one story, where we did some heads, and machining for a budget circle track racer, low end class, that not to stereotype, but, wanted it for free, dropped it off today, but wants it yesterday types. THey put it together, this is mid season, so, we rushed it thru for them, they are happy, run the rest of the season, 5 or 6 weekends, did well. Then, in the spring, they show up, absolutely borderline psychotic, screaming, yelling, freaking out, causing a big scene, accusing us of "craking" there engine. Its like "What??" You cracked our engine, and built us a piece of junk. on and on. Turns out, they drained the water, for winter, and, when they pulled it out in spring, they fired it up, got it running, and, when it was SMOKING hot, they remembered that no one put water in it. So, out came the garden hose, while it was running, and, they fill the radiator with nice, 58 degree city water, in a 270 degree engine, lol. Lets just say, it didn't like that to well, and it cracked the block like an egg, in a few spots. Well, they forgot to mention the part about forgetting the water. A buddy of ours, who was there, helping them get in running, in a conversation 2 days later, was not aware of them coming down, and causing the scene, and didn;t know, that they came down and pulled that. When the stories collaborated, he flipped out, chewed out his buddy, and, we got an appology, and the typical cry me a river story, of no money, etc etc. At that point, its like, go pound sand pall.
But yah, its to bad we have to deal with stuff like that. And like me or not for being vocal, its total BS. Not to say we aren;t all human, and do make mistakes from time to time, although, I really can;t think of any I have made, lol. Seriously though, I double and tripple check stuff, because to be quite Frank, no pun intended, I can;t afford to. But, this is a good post, to give us shops some insight, on how other guys handle these situations, and, for the guy getting work done.
Frank
Advanced Performance
www.get-ap.com