[Arsonism]

There is a ton of information in here and it's all very delicate, especially in this particular situation. It seems that nothing has gone to 'normally' through the entire process.

Originally Posted by LangRacingDevelopment

Your new block, I imagine, now won't carry that wonderful and expensive 2 year warranty from BMW so I would expect, since the shop made some mistakes leading to its damage, that they should offer you a complete 2 year warranty on this new rebuilt engine similar to what you would have gotten for the block you paid big money for.

So your brand new block now is so damaged it cannot be used?

That's what I've been told but this hasn't been confirmed and I think it would cost the shop more money to investigate the new (or purchased) block to verify that this is in fact true. I do not know what to do about this particular scenario, as they do not want to replace to this part due to the it's expensive nature that you had mentioned above.

Originally Posted by LangRacingDevelopment

If you are using a 60k mile block now it should not be used with the brand new pistons you received with your other block, a hone on a 60k mile block is not the same as a bore and hone to the next oversize. I wouldn't let them do this, they are just trying to avoid buying another set of pistons.

You paid a lot to have 87mm BMW Mahle pistons in a BMW bored and honed block and now you aren't getting that, I'd be pretty upset about that. But, you're being nice and not forcing them to buy you a new BMW block. If it were me I would probably consider using an aftermarket piston at 87.5mm and boring and honing either your new BMW block or this used one they are providing to 87.5mm so you have a guaranteed straight and clean cylinder.

Could the purchased block (even with assumed damages) still be a candidate for the 87.5mm pistons? Do you believe that this would void the warranty on the block from BMW? Would you expect there to still be wear complications or increased oil consumption?

Originally Posted by LangRacingDevelopment

Maybe I missed the reason why they needed to get a whole new donor engine rather than try to rebuild the same engine a 2nd time.

They simply had an M3 around for spare parts that they could conveniently pull from. The vehicle seemed to be in decent shape. The motor was said to have a knock in it when they purchased it (I believe from auction). The vehicle had been salvaged if I recall correctly.

Originally Posted by LangRacingDevelopment

You asked them for a data sheet from the machine shop and I can understand them not having that, my machine shop doesn't usually give me any numbers, just a pass or fail. That being said, it's the engine assemblers job to double check everything the machine shop does. That means checking main bearing and rod bearing clearances. It sounds like if they had done this they would have seen that they had a journal that was damaged (if that was the case). I suppose they could have also had a bent crankshaft, but they should have noticed that during assembly, the crank doesn't spin well if its bent. On I-6 engines we always have these cranks straightened, they usually have slight bend to them.

If the rod was bent that would make sense considering you probably had lots of water in that first engine with the cracked cylinder wall and that will usually bend a rod, but that is once again something the machine shop should have been able to see pretty easily.

Sounds to me like it just wasn't a thorough enough job at bottom end assembly.

That's what I've discerned and the biggest question is how much damage would reoccur with a similar failure? Basically the pistons and the block were changed out, is it conclusive just by the nature of how the motor failed the 2nd time that everything should just be scrapped from that project/procedure? They also want to use a different head as mine had been resurfaced previously.

Originally Posted by LangRacingDevelopment

What would be more of a shame is spending 16k to end up with an engine you could have bought for much less than that.

I'm sure I missed some things so correct me if I'm wrong. Perhaps have them test drive the car for a day or two before picking it up next time, that is usually enough time for assembly mistakes to show up. Glad to see they are standing behind their work and getting you another engine.

They were wanting to continue test driving the car after they had it done for about a week or so and I reached a position where I simply couldn't wait for the vehicle (it was my only mode of transportation at the time) and I had to make it up to my duty station for military duty. When I picked it up there were still some concerns, he said to just keep an eye on it and go from there, we addressed a check engine light that was on when I was there but he tried to reassure me that it was nothing and the sensor had just gone weird on him. We worked with Epic to get the tune flashed on there and even test drove it several times with a new tune to ensure that everything was working properly. By the end it seemed things were going to be ok and we would come back to the one check engine light. Obviously, that's not what the actual state of things were on pickup.

You really haven't missed a whole lot through the thread, but if you do have questions please feel free to ask them and I'll do my best to answer them. I really am looking for the right course of action that is fair for both parties here and I'm scared that if I don't take the time to find the right questions to specific scenarios I wont end up with the product or services that I paid for. I just hope that this engine is what they claim it to be, and if I need to work up something for the right piston sizing, I'd rather do it now than after the car has been put back together.

Thanks again for lending me all this time Andrew, I sincerely appreciate you taking interest in the matter.