Customer threatens us with court over machining error claims!

As far as the court threat is concerned, it might be time to go on the offensive. Get your solicitor to draft a letter to the individual that is threatening court action and spell out the clause in the invoice that states you do not warrant non recommended machining. Don’t let this guy have his way with you and nip this in the bud ASAP.

Hi, Isaac. I'd calm down on the coil-over and wheels idea until you've got some kilometers under your belt and decide then, if a big change is in order. Many will go with tall wheels, short sidewalls and then discover the ride is crap. I was young once and spent money like I had it, but now I'm old, I appreciate $$ more than ever.

The only "manufactuer approved procedure" on those blocks is "new block" ... if he wanted a new block, he should have bought a new block. You should warrant agaisnt bad workmanship, nothing else. As always, if he has an issue with smoke, he needs to get the block back to you, as per your terms, his ONLY recourse is you to inspect and correct ... if he hasn't even brought the block back, he doesn't have a leg to stand on.

I love how comfortable Lee is with jumping back and forth between quoting dimensions in metric and SAE. Knowing both well and working with both in my machine shop I can follow what it's talking about. When he says 'bore point 5' he's talking metric. When he's talking about increments on the machines he's usually talking in thousandths or even ten thousandths. I can see why viewers who are not comfortable or familiar get annoyed and ask that everything be quoted in metric. Lee says no. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

It's very good to point out that rubber, belts etc. have a shelf life. The minute they were manufactured they begin to age and degrade. Rubber off-gasses and become dried out and brittle over time and there's a lot of tension on a timing belt. Don't buy new old stock when it comes to rubber / plastics.. Check the manufacturing dates. Buy fresh.

My opinion/ some advice. I'm from Vancouver Canada. I own Cosworths. Sometimes less is more. I would like to see more videos on engine combinations for the street engine combinations, for competition. For example discussions about different kinds of turbos which are better suited for the street, different methods of mapping the engine, setting up the engine in the car once the engine is finished etc.

Everyone who has used a milling machine has motored the workpiece into the cutter! As you say, you just hope the workpiece is recoverable after!!!! The fear is real!!!

Lee, I worked for RR aero engines. I once asked a stress engineer about bolts. He told me thread depth should be 1 and a half times the bolts diameter. Any deeper makes no difference to the strength or the amount of force / torque you can put on that bolt. Less than 1.5 you’re likely to strip the thread. At 1.5 it all depends on bolt strength and materials you’re bolting into. If the bolts weaker it will shear if it’s stronger than the thread it will strip. If that makes sense.

I can't believe you mentioned the word cheap when on about Isaac's Subaru

Does a torque plate have to be used when boring the liners in that Honda engine ? If so did you use one? Haven't seen you use a torque plate on any engine boring.

I remember many years back the machine shop I worked for had a BMW N42 block in that was damaged so they resleeved it with cast iron reborer Sleeves, I told them from the start it would not work, the sleeves they chose didn't allow enough aluminium between the sleeves, and the fact that they used excessive heat on the block and then dropped the liquid nitrogen cooled sleeves in didn't help block strength......... They then bored it to size, skimmed the deck, assembled it and it ran for a few hours then it came back blown gasket, I watched them do this four times expecting a different result..... Eventually the owner of the company had to buy the car from the customer or go to court..........

Old stock would have to be very very very old for a timing belt to deteriorate in a box

Great video, love the look of the Cosworth with the big turbo and red pump you done a fabulous job on that. Have a good weekend.

BMW must think it’s odd they are selling a lot of oil jets.

On the head with the oil gallery blocked, is worth showing what comes out? as ive built engines, (for myself mainly) and the crap that comes out is quite unbelievable, ive had large swarf, shredded rags, and all probably from manufacture

re drilling studs and staying on centre - you can make up a hardened centring bush threaded on the outside per the block pilot hole down the middle put that in the block and the run down with a carbide drill or end mill same id as the hole

He’s seen you pay out with that other guy and thought I will have some of that.

I love the tech talk: "It doesn't feel too lippy"

Lee,from your comments regarding the hard spots in the ford blocks, is this due to the casting technique employed at the time. Presumably they were sand casted with pourers and risers in uniform positions and thicknesses would be fairly std throughout. I imagine that ford themselves would have cast these so possibly check with them. I'm sure that problems with machining would have become evident at some time during their initial manufacture.

Cheers Lee. Make it clear to these people you do not warranty anything out of normal use and be specific where you think the likely problem areas will be.