57 356 A mild resto

[merbesfield]

An update. I ended up getting totally screwed by the one and only master of deceit, Jack Lewis. He said he would build my engine for a fixed price, which I agreed to. I got a phone call telling me to come pickup my engine and bring cash or I would not get it back! WTF! Out of the blue. Apparently, he decided he was going to retire and didn’t want to do any more work on anyone’s cars or engines. When I showed up, he was hostile and it was all I could do to get out of there and get my engine. Once I started looking, he had not used any of the parts that we had discussed. He was supposed to be using Shasta cylinders and JE Pistons and a Neutek cam. There were a lot of telltale signs that made me very skeptical of what he had done Least of which the cylinders were cast-iron AA units, not the Shasta I paid for. I took it to another mechanic and after he inspected, he agreed we needed to tear it down and start over. Not only did he not use the Shasta cylinders, but the pistons were JE units that he had probably laying on the shelf that were 11 to one compression ratio that he machined down to supposedly 10 to one compression ratio. The cam was something we could not identify and definitely not a Neutek cam. I bought all new parts myself and we redid everything. Needless to say thousands of dollars stolen from me. My engine is now back together and I’m happy, but disgusted with how he treated me, his last customer supposedly.

[JTR70]

I sympathize with you Mark. I went through a similar situation with my Honda
I let myself get intimidated by the V-tec logo on the valve cover so I thought I needed a Honda "expert" to rebuild my motor. This is how it looked after its rebuild and 2,500 bucks later. The head and block went to a machine shop and my expert did the reassembly. Other than the residual dirt I was getting old black oil running out as I rolled it over to install the accessories, I was screwed.
All the old oil and grime was there along with pet hair and Debrie from sitting on his floor for month. Nothing was cleaned just reinstalled.
I found oil galley's on the cam caps plugged with Honda bond.
After watching several really good reassembly videos on youtube I had all knowledge and confidence I needed to handle it myself. Back down it came for a proper prep, cleaning and reassembly.
Leak tested all the chambers and found three valves that needed further lapping. Back to the machine shop that performed the work it went.

[merbesfield]

Sadly, I think we all seem to have at least one "bad experience" with engine rebuilds. My 912 had what looked like caulk oozing out of joints, the end play on the crank was excessive, and that was enough to tell me to look further. What I found was disgusting. But, it is all good now, other than my restoration funds are now $16K less than when I started because it was all wasted.

[roy mawbey]

Mark / Justin, I think its such a shame when you get caught especially when it involves the loss of so much cash and its so evident of the lack of care, for them to not even clean the item properly before starting the work involved When the job is done really well as for example with my starter motor a few years ago and you cannot find fault with any aspect of their work and presentation of the item its just so pleasing when it all works so well.
Like yourselves, I always try to repair everything myself on my car but there are always exceptions to that when for example, you don't have the correct equipement to check the faulty itrem as with my startermotor.

You both do such a great job in restoration that is so evident in all your photo's !!

Roy

[merbesfield]

Mark / Justin, I think its such a shame when you get caught especially when it involves the loss of so much cash and its so evident of the lack of care, for them to not even clean the item properly before starting the work involved When the job is done really well as for example with my starter motor a few years ago and you cannot find fault with any aspect of their work and presentation of the item its just so pleasing when it all works so well.
Like yourselves, I always try to repair everything myself on my car but there are always exceptions to that when for example, you don't have the correct equipement to check the faulty itrem as with my startermotor.

You both do such a great job in restoration that is so evident in all your photo's !!

Roy

Thanks Roy.