[V8] it figures...

[d saad]

First the good news - my motor is running great, the car is at the
alignment shop (where they no doubt will hose something up) and I should
be back on the road today with a fresh new motor and rebuilt front end.

The bad part?
I can NOT pay anyone to work on a car - any
one, or any car and have it done right.
I get sick of it.

This time? I paid $1200 in labor (parts extra) for a valve job, and to
have rings installed in my block. The shop that did it comes with the
highest recommendation, and the machinist is legendary around here for his
race motors and quality of work. 

When we last visited Dave's
garage, my motor was running - but rough and would not idle well.
Debugging, I found that pulling a plug wire from the left bank would
stall the motor, but pulling a plug wire from the right bank would make no
audible difference in RPM. It did not take long to suspect that I had
somehow made a mistake with the timing belt - so I pulled the valve cover
and started looking at timing marks. My work was done correctly - but the
machine shop installed the right intake cam advanced by one tooth. I was
able to correct it with out too much problem - I did not have to take off
the t-belt luckily.
I will now always have a nagging question of what
else did they miss?
Once installed properly, she purrs like a kitten
(or is it a Tiger?) and seems to have plenty of power. I could not drive
it much because the front end was way out of whack. Tonight will be the
real performance test.

Dave