One Upset Boat Owner

[nwcove]

Re: One Upset Boat Owner

Ha! I love it!:laugh: Cove, if you're gonna invoke the name of the store what Sam built please say it correctly; Wal-Mark's.:facepalm:

Sorry coop!! Next time i will include the other "L".:laugh:

 

[aspeck]

Re: One Upset Boat Owner

I'm beginning to think something is up. The boat owner came by today to drop off the outdrive and we looked over his engine again. I've got it mostly together already. He told me the name of the mechanic that did the work and he has been turning wrenches on boats for better than twenty years. He would have known better. So I'm now wondering if something else is going on like someone needing an a good 5.0 MPI.

Was going to post something about this earlier ... When we were in the car business and someone would come in with "shoddy" work from another dealer or mechanic and be vehemently complaining, we would tread carefully in taking the job. Reason being, there are always 2 sides to every story and if they are talking smack about that mechanic, dealer, whatever, they would turn around and do the same about us.

with that said, be careful, Capt Ken .... Make sure you're i's are dotted and t's crossed.

(Same principle now applies as a pastor ... Someone comes to church and tells me how bad their old pastor and church were, they probably won't be around long and will have not to flowery things to say about me.)

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: One Upset Boat Owner

Was going to post something about this earlier ... When we were in the car business and someone would come in with "shoddy" work from another dealer or mechanic and be vehemently complaining, we would tread carefully in taking the job. Reason being, there are always 2 sides to every story and if they are talking smack about that mechanic, dealer, whatever, they would turn around and do the same about us.

with that said, be careful, Capt Ken .... Make sure you're i's are dotted and t's crossed.

(Same principle now applies as a pastor ... Someone comes to church and tells me how bad their old pastor and church were, they probably won't be around long and will have not to flowery things to say about me.)

Why not just talk to the Mech seeing as he has his name and all..

I dunno about you guys .. but my goto mechanic can put an engine/outdrive install together in a few days at most ( If he didnt have anything else to do but wait for parts ) ..

Again .. get a good tech mech and your golden. He has access to the latest merc/volvo etc. bullets/tools to do the job quickly and properly.

I asked My goto tech to join the Iboats forum .. he for some reason will not do it.

But I will say that he is in his late 20's to early 30's and was born out of Bondos Avatar . This guy is Good.. Very Good.

YD.

 

[lncoop]

Re: One Upset Boat Owner

I have a very good shop here. Nice guys, very capable, reasonably priced and honest. They do a BUNCH of work for Bombardier and have a big shop, but they're never too busy to work on my Mercs and get them back to me quickly.

 

[lexer440]

Re: One Upset Boat Owner

Its not new, years ago a friend of mine needed a new tranny. The mechanic tried to drive the car and confirmed it would not shift, bad tranny was his diagnosis. He found out a week later after he sold it cheap that all it needed was a shift link replacement that cost around $15.

 

[Capt Ken]

Re: One Upset Boat Owner

Did the OP say how much they charged him to take his engine apart? If they got paid to take it apart I think they were suppose to put it back as it was before if they made a bad diagnosis...Surely they didnt just take it apart and then leave him holding the bag.

They got him for $600 for removial and disassembly of engine. He actually came in expecting to get a new engine. I just found out the boat owner is the owner of the restaurant on the marina property.
This engine is as clean as a button but due to the age of the risers, and them being in salt water, I'm replacing them. I still hate reassembling something someone else disassembled.

 

[mnypitboat]

Re: One Upset Boat Owner

Been there done that. I was told by 3 differant shops that my bottom end had a knock. After buying an engine that turned out to have low compression on some cylinders, I picked up a remanned shortblock. Pulled the heads off the old engine and found 2 tuliped valves. Pulled the shortblock out and found absolutely nothing wrong. So I wasted a ton of money on stuff I didnt need only to find out I needed heads. Then had to buy or rebuild the heads and the shortblock I bought was non-returnable because I bought it from a private owner. So I found a set of already finished heads and installed all the new stuff. I sold the old shortblock to a buddy for his pickup truck and he has been running it in there for about 4 years now without issue.

It really pisses me off that these people get away with this stuff. I had no recourse because I didnt have any of them do the work. I blame myself for not trying to diagnose it myself before I let some yayhoos touch it, and being in a hurry to get it back up and running. I bought all the parts before I pulled the old stuff out.

Moral of the story, dont let others do things for you that you can do yourself. From the beginning I wasnt convinced it was bottom end, but after 3 differant shops told me that it was, I figured it had to be. Makes you wonder how many times doctors do the same thing to our bodies?

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: One Upset Boat Owner

Sounds like....

 

[puddle jumper]

Re: One Upset Boat Owner

Just some thing to add is there is more money in selling parts than fixing the problem. That is one of the biggest motivators in retail business. This is one reason I got out of retail repair and into a fleet operation. Shops with alignment machines have a license to print money because its all gravy work and don't follow manufacture specks on allowable wear.

This sounds along the similar

 

[littlerayray]

Re: One Upset Boat Owner

well i am just glad that my mechanic is an old highschool friend and wont let me spend money on stupid stuff
for the boat.
i trust him and he knows i do my research

 

[Hoosmatroos]

Re: One Upset Boat Owner

Diagnose, diagnose, diagnose. Don't replace parts until u absolutely sure that they are broke. Today's mechanics just replace parts till the motor runs again. They let you pay for all the parts that were good in the swapping process. That's why I do things myself.

 

[nwcove]

Re: One Upset Boat Owner

Its not new, years ago a friend of mine needed a new tranny. The mechanic tried to drive the car and confirmed it would not shift, bad tranny was his diagnosis. He found out a week later after he sold it cheap that all it needed was a shift link replacement that cost around $15.

you are referring to the transmission when you say "tranny"???...as i dont feel that a mechanic is the right professional to diagnose a bad tranny.

 

[lexer440]

Re: One Upset Boat Owner

you are referring to the transmission when you say "tranny"???...as i dont feel that a mechanic is the right professional to diagnose a bad tranny.

sorry, bad choice of words. gearbox i guess. sometimes us english get confused with this foreign language of yours . Most vehicles in england are manual shift and that is where the story comes from. And yes, over there the mechanic does it all, "trannies" included.

 

[IES99]

Re: One Upset Boat Owner

Been there done that. I was told by 3 differant shops that my bottom end had a knock. After buying an engine that turned out to have low compression on some cylinders, I picked up a remanned shortblock. Pulled the heads off the old engine and found 2 tuliped valves. Pulled the shortblock out and found absolutely nothing wrong. So I wasted a ton of money on stuff I didnt need only to find out I needed heads. Then had to buy or rebuild the heads and the shortblock I bought was non-returnable because I bought it from a private owner. So I found a set of already finished heads and installed all the new stuff. I sold the old shortblock to a buddy for his pickup truck and he has been running it in there for about 4 years now without issue.

It really pisses me off that these people get away with this stuff. I had no recourse because I didnt have any of them do the work. I blame myself for not trying to diagnose it myself before I let some yayhoos touch it, and being in a hurry to get it back up and running. I bought all the parts before I pulled the old stuff out.

Moral of the story, dont let others do things for you that you can do yourself. From the beginning I wasnt convinced it was bottom end, but after 3 differant shops told me that it was, I figured it had to be. Makes you wonder how many times doctors do the same thing to our bodies?

What good doctors do is make a differential diagnosis. This is done using the facts of the case (symptoms, physical findings, lab test and imaging tests). Then the most likely possibility comes to the top of the list. But it is always best to keep an open mind because #3 might be the correct diagnosis.

 

[mnypitboat]

Re: One Upset Boat Owner

What good doctors do is make a differential diagnosis. This is done using the facts of the case (symptoms, physical findings, lab test and imaging tests). Then the most likely possibility comes to the top of the list. But it is always best to keep an open mind because #3 might be the correct diagnosis.

I would think a half decent mechanic would use the same procedures instead of just throwing out a diagnostic without doing proper testing.