When you pay good money, don't you expect good parts in return?

[340727Dart]

After paying Tony D $495 plus $35 to have it put on a pallet, he sent me a standard bore '73 340 shortblock. I know, I know. I have since learned that was way too much.
When the block arrived, the rods and pistons were out, and the cylinders were covered with grease, I presumed to prevent rust. Hey, Tony is supposed to be a stand-up guy, right?
I only gave the block a quick once-over, satisfied that Tony sent a decent block. I then wrapped it in plastic and put it under my work bench until I could afford to take it to a machinist.
Long story short, after boring 5 cylinders 0.030" over, the machinist encounters rust pitting so deep that he believes 0.060" won't clean it up. I told him just to finish the job at 0.030".
So, I contact Tony. He at first said he didn't think the rust was that bad. Did he know about the rust before shipping the block? That's a very good question.
He has since offered $300 for the block, which has new cam bearings, and brass freeze plugs. However, the deal hinges on my paying to ship it back to him.
The $300 I can accept. However, why should I pay to ship it back?
If I should agree to his terms, he still ends up with about $160 of my money, and has the block.
What a deal. Just thought you'd want to get some of that yourself.

[6pakman]

whats better, loosing the whole shootin match, or gettin back what you can. pay the shipping and recoup what you can get. and next time, when it comes to something like that its better to do a visual than take a chance. good luck.

[djswwg]

Another alternative would be to sleeve the bad cylinder. Done correctly, (not by Tony D obviously), the engine will work perfectly..........djs P.S. who's this Tony guy anyway? a rip-off artist we should stay away from or what?

[dave571]

Sleeve it.

Sleeve it and tell tony to shove his 300.

AS djswwg said, a sleeve is an acceptable repair, if done properly.

I've heard stories of machinists getting thier engines for practically nothing. Why? First they build them .030 over for a regular customer. Then after some hard days of racing the engine is tired, and the guy decides he wants to build another engine.

Brings in a new block ect. The machinist then sleeves the old block back to standard, and runs a set of standard pistons from a core in decent shape, with new rings ect. Cheap engine for the machinist, with all clearances freshly machined to spec.

I'm not saying this is the way I'd want to get an engine, I'm using this as an example of how sleeving is a reliable repair.

A friend of mine built a 73 340. Had to sleeve one hole because a snap ring came out of the wrist pin. The pin worked it's way out one side, carving a groove in the bore. Has several years of hard driving on it since, no problems.

[Mr.Mopar]

I agree with dave571, sleeve it and forget about Tony, he's apparently a con man trying to get something for nothing and will probably resell the same block to someone else. Who knows, maybe he's got a whole garage full of this "good" stuff. Deal with someone you can trust next time. Good luck!

[Doug Wilson]

Sleeve it, and tell the rest of us who this Tony is, so none of us get burned by the cheap crook!

[MY340]

The guy in question is Tony Dagostino (sorry if I spelled it wrong Tony) who doesn't seem to check his parts over very carefully before he sells them as good condition. He advertises in Mopar Muscle magazine. He had another episode awhile back with a Challenger fender that was supposed to be rust free that he sold to a customer. Mind you these aren't $20-$50 items but $500 items. I'm sure he has sold many good parts to satisfied customers but this is just a warning to be careful when buying $$ parts with this guy.

Hey welcome to the board 340727Dart! Good/helpful people here without big attitudes.

[r2]

Bought some misc. brake parts from TonyD recently,,,no problems,,,took a while to get the parts ( pushrod and firewall plate for manual brakes)....likely waiting for my check to clear....but the parts were as described and worked out fine.

[pishta]

I remember that rusty fender pic! rust free turned to be rust covered. Take Tony's 300 bucks and ship him the a 360 core block COD (beat him at his own game (just kidding of course))

[FuryusVIP]

To share iformation, good and bad, on suppliers, dealers and machinists. I personally value this information, so that I don't get ripped off buy guys like this...

[Doug Wilson]

Right on. The dude will never get a nickel of my money, even if he has the only widget I need that's left in the world. You know... you do have to be leery of those Eyetalians in business deals!!