Irritaded and Too Patient: Who can recommend a good mechanic?

[plance1]

I left my 89 4x4 suburban in the shop for an engine rebuild. 7 Months ago! Since Im not one to have a lot of money, I told the guy to work on it as time permits to keep the costs down. Since I have another vehicle, I just left it with him and didn't pay much attention to it. And as stupid as I am, I told him I wasn't in a big hurry. What that means is take a couple months with it if need be, but not 7 months. Again, stupid on my part. I'm more irritated at myself then the mechanic, who in spite of my frustration a nice guy who came recommended by a friend and that is the only way I do business most of the time, I go to someone who is recommended.

I went to drive it the other day and it ran extremely rough, Im assuming bad gas in part of the reason why, but the mechanic also told me the headers I bought from LMC did not have the o2 sensors holes in them. (can these put back in and would it help driveability?) I also noticed that the oil breather tube coming out of the top of the valve cover was not connected to anything. Plus, because the transmission hump is blocking the route of the exhaust, it now just has open headers and will require custom exhaust, which I did know all along since I only had single exhaust on it before. When I went to drive the thing, it stalled on me, the check engine light came on, and the transmission didn't kick down, it just ran awful. The mechanic says its the timing but I told him he needs to fix the kickdown on the tranny.

So at this point, I don't want to fight and argue, I just want to get it out of the shop and take it to someone who is trustworthy, reasonably fast, and does good work to tie up some of these loose ends, I don't want to wait another 7 months.

Who would you recommend?????????

[sarge]

there is a whole list of things in this post that are screaming (WRONG) !!!! if this guy is a mech. and you took him a vehicle to rebuild the motor and it doesn't run right ....it's on him . If he doesn't know if O2 sensors are needed I wouldn't let this dumb ass work on daughters bike .

You have to run the O2 sensor , they sell weld on bungs at Jegs and Summit that will work . Start there and see if it helps the running ( It will I promise) . I hope you didn't pay this guy much.

[Stang849]

give Scott - Flxratd a pm on here, he has worked on my cars and does really good work.

[plance1]

well, I paid him too much, but not in full yet so I do have a little leverage. The headers on it are from hedman and thanks to your advice I did look at Summit and Jeggs website, Im leaning toward the collector extensions that come with the 02 sensors, rather than drilling the headers, although that might mean some sort of 02 extensions are necessary.

[sarge]

I drilled my Hedman Headers and welded the bung on at the collector , no extension need , it worked fine . you want it in the collector so you are getting a reading from all four cylinders on each side. Just make sure that yo uhave enough room for the o2 sensors once the headers are installed.

[jamie L]

Call Scott - (CORE President) at Armstrong Automotive

[tjjeepjeep]

Armstrong Automotive -- Shop # is 513.939.3903. Works on all makes and models. Routine maintenance as well as custom work.

[blazerbrad]

If you don't have the O2 sensor hooked up on this engine then it will run pretty bad (usually will run OK when cold and idling, but as soon as warmed up it will start running really bad). You will also get the check engine light.

Drilling the header and welding on a bung is pretty easy to do, or you could even put them on the exhaust pipe as close to the collectors as possible.

One thing to consider is that I *think* that the '89 Suburban only has 1 sensor, so going to a true dual exhaust will effect the reading. Not saying it won't run at least decent, just something to remember. I know of at least two guys that had TBI 350 engine with headers and the sensor just on one side and they ran fine.

[plance1]

Thanks. I just tried talking to the mechanic that has it and all he wanted to do is disagree about the o2 sensors and he told me he didnt have time to take the tank down and put new gas in. Im just wore out.

[sarge]

if your wrench turner ( refuse to call him a mechanic at this point ) is arguing with you over weather or not you need an o2 sensor ...... listen to me very carefully ........ go get your burb and cut your losses and don't pay this ass another dime . from the sound of it he's not smart enough to know how to file a lean on your vehicle anyway.

You have to run at least one O2 . I ran one on my camaro w/ headers and had no problems .

[jeepmanjeff]

Iagree, this person does not seem to know which the closed end of a wrench is. A fuel injected system needs to have an O2 sensor so it can adjust to the Stoichiometric (spelling) mixture needed to make your vehicle run correctly. With out an O2 sensor on it will run in crawl at home mode once the engine reaches temperature. So many sensors are read from the system to get this correct level mentioned above, THE O2 BEING THE MOST IMPORTANT!

Does not sound like timing to me.

See Scott, I HIGHLY RECCOMEND HIM

[blazerbrad]

Agree 100%.

Iagree, this person does not seem to know which the closed end of a wrench is. A fuel injected system needs to have an O2 sensor so it can adjust to the Stoichiometric (spelling) mixture needed to make your vehicle run correctly. With out an O2 sensor on it will run in crawl at home mode once the engine reaches temperature. So many sensors are read from the system to get this correct level mentioned above, THE O2 BEING THE MOST IMPORTANT!

Does not sound like timing to me.

See Scott, I HIGHLY RECCOMEND HIM

[plance1]

These comments are very helpful, I contacted Scott and we just need to work out the timing. I drove it yesterday to the muffler shop (with open headers, which I didn't want to do but did anyway) and its running better than it was. Once I get the exhaust on (and the shop I go to, Midas in South Lebanon area) said they can weld the bung in the headers. They are then going to put on a 2 1/2 inch set of duals on with a crossover pipe then Im going to send it over to Scott to tie up any loose ends and final tuning.