The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Found Vibration problem in 350 crate motor

This is a little off topic, but I had earlier started a post, and wanted to finalize. After getting tired of shotty work from local engine shops, I broke down and bought a new GM 290 hp crate 350, to replace the 283. As soon as I started it, I had vibration problems. Long story short, pistons and crank were both out. You could see where the crank had been worked on before, but not correctly. As far as a warranty, you may as well put it where the sun don't shine, because no dealership wants anything to do with your old vehicle in their shop, and it's only warranted through a GM dealership. I gave up after 3 months, and did it myself.

If it was a GM dealer item (Mr, bad wrench), I'm sure its a Mexico item. I don't think the local shops are any worse than that.

they aren't working on your old vehicle, they are working on their POS warranted crate engine that is in your old vehicle. HMMM, wonder if this sort of business ethics has any connections to the trouble GM had here a few years back?

Even the dealer you bought it from wouldn't help?
I've been in the generals army for over 30 years, done many warranty repairs on engines & transmission sold over the counter that were installed by indy shops or individuals. Had a crate 350 (home installed by customer & buddy)w/ exhaust lifter tick, root cause, bolt (looked like a body bolt) setting in the L.H. exhaust crossover beating the valve & seat up. Area service manager said if we couldn't prove how the bolt got in the port it was warranty. Did he by the engine from us, no. Any customer pay work from him, no. That said I've also had folks mad as h--l because the transmission pump damaged during install was NOT covered.

I actually bought the motor from Jeg's, but that question never come up. I and three different divisions from GM, talked to at least 7 local Chevy dealers Service Managers, and non would touch it. None of them even asked where I bought it from. Out here in SoCal, the service bays run about 150 cars thru a day, and they don't want anything distrupting there "assembly line". The sad part is, I actually liked a different motor more, but went with this one because of the warranty, go figure.

Something wrong here, What did the dealerships actually say when you took it in? I'm sure they didn't say we won't honor the warranty because of what vehicle it was in. That's where most crate engines go (vintage, old, hot rods, resto's, classics). What are you leaving out of this story? Didn't read the original story. Where is it? what is the heading?

With GM up here they say you need to take it to them to get the timing set, etc., then the warranty is valid. Did you do that? Did you talk to Jeg's about it? Something seems fishy here...

doesn't matter if bought from JEGS: http://www.jegs.com/customerservice/GM_Warranty.pdf

"General Motors LLC warrants to the purchaser for the time and/or mileage indicated that it will repair or replace, at its option, using new or remanufactured parts, any GM Parts Service Replacement Engine, Engine Component, Transmission/Transaxle, Transmission Component, Transfer Case or Short Block
Assembly that fails due to a defect in material or workmanship"
"WARRANTY BEGINS ON THE DATE OF INSTALLATION BY AN AUTHORIZED GM DEALER OR BY A QUALIFIED INDEPENDENT SERVICE CENTER. FOR OVER-THE-COUNTER SALES, WARRANTY BEGINS ON DATE OF RETAIL SALE."
"Direct any inquiries to:
General Motors LLC
Consumer Relations Dept.
P.O. Box 33136
Detroit, MI 48232-5136"

looks very straight forward to me

Bill

hollow65, here is one post

post in May where he fixed it... not sure what the cause was

Sounds like it went away and then came back (vibration). Sounds like you took it apart or someone took it apart? to say "pistons and crank were both out". Don't know what "out" means. Must have been "OUT" OF WARRANTY, because no one but authorized shop should take apart. I would have disconnected trans and clutch and run the engine to see if it vibrated. Anyway you don't say what happened between "it's all fixed" and now. There is a reason the would not "touch it" but it's not because of an "assembly line", dealers make GOOD MONEY fixing warranty's.

Bottom line: you are not asking for advice, you didn't ask a question or to be questioned, just an update, so carry on. Hope it's running good now.

I love the warrantee Red68 mentions... especially the part that says "at its option".

Dealers do crazy things and have since they have existed. I remember when I worked at the dealer back in '65 I was sent more than once to a junk yard to get engine parts, down to the rings, to back up fake warrantee claims......but they got what they had coming to them and its all a part of history now!

Main thing is what another bolter here always says..... What did we learn from this. I'll draw my own conclusions and so can each of you.

SD66burb, move forward. Good luck in the future.

If it did not come from a GM dealer then why should they be responsible? It could have been a return to Jegs and they didn't bother sending it back and just resold it to you. And if the someone that first owned it had it apart and goofed with the balance then sent it back etc etc. GM probably saw that it was altered and wouldn't take it back anyway. Actually sounds like someone was hoping you weren't gona complain about a little vibration.

It did come from a GM dealer, Jegs is an authorized distributor of GM products. I would consider this transaction an "over the counter sale" What ever the case, the fella took it apart, thus voiding any warranty it may have had. Hopefully he will return and interpret some of his statements. Like the crank and pistons are "OUT" what ever that means, the crankshaft showed signs of having been worked on. What sort of signs exactly was he talking about? I still have no idea what he found and what was done to resolve the issue.

Was the engine the one piece rear seal style or conventional early 2pc rear seal. What flywheel/flexplate did you use? There not interchangeable for that reason, even though they will bolt up to the other.

Installed a new 350 Chevy crate motor many years back, knocked like crazy but was able to get it exchanged for a 2nd POS motor. The second Hencho in Mexico engine ran ok but did not last very long, sold the car. A buddy of mine purchased the first motor from the dealership as scrap, pulled it apart and it was missing rings all over the place.

So what fixed it? Was it a defect in workmanship or materials on the crate engine? When did you try to get a dealer involved? Before engine disassembled?

I've installed hundreds of them. The only problem was a burned ex. valve in a 292. The dealer repaired it.

Sorry to leave you hanging, it's been a rough week. This is going much deeper than I thought, so hear goes. I bought the engine, had a vibration, did not go away, but made it good enough to go on a road trip up north the following week. Came home and GM Performance said to have an EVA (engine vibration analysis)done. None of the dealerships would do it. Dealt with 8 local dealerships, GM Performance, GM Customer Service in Detroit, Regional Mgr out of Texas. Bottom line, no dealerships wanted it on their property. This is in a 60 corvette. I had already replaced/rebalanced everything on the front and back of motor. With the motor, differant Harmonic Balancer, and flywheel only, still vibrated. One dealer said he would "look" at it, if I spent about another $600 in GM parts first( in the GM paperwork, they gave gm part numbers for HB, FLywheel, Preswure Plate, etc, and he would not look at it unless this was on it). IN the same paperwork it also say's this is an internally balanced engine, and can use neutral balaced external items(not word for word). I had the car 3/4 apart already, and after about 3 months, got tired of the games, yanked it out. At this point, the warranty wasn't doing any good. Talked to Jeg's, and they said GM handles all of their warranty issues, their hands were tied. Took internals to local shop, and the pistons were out 8 grams, and even though the crank had earlier signs of being balanced to some degree, it was also out. I do not have it together yet, so the final verdict is still out. The motor could be driven, but starting at about 1800 - 2500 it had a noticeable vibration that needed to be fixed. In reagrd to an earlier post about what kind of cars these go into, everyone at GM that I talked to , said that I had such unusual situation, because the motor was in an old car. Yea, I guess you buy 502 bigblocks for your pickup all the time. My opinion, they found a way to sell these things, but don't have or want to back up any issues that come with them.

I think maybe a call back to GM performance telling them no one would do a "EVA" would have been interesting. If they were the coordinating office, you needed to get step by step direction. When what they told you did not work, call back and so on. This is how you handle a situation like that. Find out who controls the situation and follow instructions and report dealers who don't cooperate immediately . The motor being in an "old car" would have no bearing. Did you ask them "What does that have to do with it?" The engine does NOT know it is in an old car. Did you ask where it says in writing what years and make and models of vehicles are covered to put it into and which are not? Well, too late now. Should have posted again after you said "it went away" and gotten advice/suggestions/experiences at that time before tearing into it. Never touch a warranted anything. Parts for the engines are made all over the world and assembled in places like Mexico. The balancing and machine work was most likely done in U.S. or Canada. If GM did it in Mexico, it would be under supervision by GM personnel with the best equipment available. If it was under warranty and vibrated and you did not screw it up with wrong parts, they would have replaced it/fixed it. It's GM for Gods sake. The dealers want to make the money if the install is legit, old car or not. People put them in model T's, is that old enough?

"I had already replaced/rebalanced everything on the front and back of motor. With the motor, differant Harmonic Balancer, and flywheel only, still vibrated."

"in the GM paperwork, they gave gm part numbers for HB, FLywheel, Preswure Plate, etc, and he would not look at it unless this was on it"

"I had the car 3/4 apart already"

sounds like they didn't want to get into something that had already been messed with maybe should have skipped the road trip and self-repairs

Bill