Cylinder leakdown higher after engine rebuild?

[Chanman1029]

Well, as expected, Andrew is unwilling to take any ownership of the possibility of human error and reiterated there no warranty, and if I want him to look at it that he will, but I will still have to pay for everything. At cheapest, looking at like $3000 for a new hone, pistons, and short block assembly. Not to mention replacement of all the one time use gaskets to tear the motor back down.

I’m honestly super disappointed with Lang. I feel like I have been completely fooled by all the great things I always read about him. He’s very arrogant, very hard to reconcile with, he does not take criticism very well and pretty much was telling me over the phone, “there’s no reason to keep talking about this, so I’m going to hang up”

I truly feel like I’m the only person that has consistently had bad experiences with Lang Racing. And as good as he says he is, he does not stand behind his work whatsoever

[Slideways]

Well, as expected, Andrew is unwilling to take any ownership of the possibility of human error and reiterated there no warranty, and if I want him to look at it that he will, but I will still have to pay for everything. At cheapest, looking at like $3000 for a new hone, pistons, and short block assembly. Not to mention replacement of all the one time use gaskets to tear the motor back down.

I’m honestly super disappointed with Lang. I feel like I have been completely fooled by all the great things I always read about him. He’s very arrogant, very hard to reconcile with, he does not take criticism very well and pretty much was telling me over the phone, “there’s no reason to keep talking about this, so I’m going to hang up”

I truly feel like I’m the only person that has consistently had bad experiences with Lang Racing. And as good as he says he is, he does not stand behind his work whatsoever

Sorry to hear Chanman. If he assembled the bottom end, I'm not sure how you would be responsible for that wear in the cylinders. Since you are in SD, have you considered contacting Kaiv? Maybe he can help and can recommend a better machine shop.

[Chanman1029]

Sorry to hear Chanman. If he assembled the bottom end, I'm not sure how you would be responsible for that wear in the cylinders. Since you are in SD, have you considered contacting Kaiv? Maybe he can help and can recommend a better machine shop.

I actually did send him an email with all the pictures, I asked him for his input but have not heard back yet.

I’m pretty disappointed, not sure what to do now.

[digger]

Well, as expected, Andrew is unwilling to take any ownership of the possibility of human error and reiterated there no warranty, and if I want him to look at it that he will, but I will still have to pay for everything. At cheapest, looking at like $3000 for a new hone, pistons, and short block assembly. Not to mention replacement of all the one time use gaskets to tear the motor back down.

I’m honestly super disappointed with Lang. I feel like I have been completely fooled by all the great things I always read about him. He’s very arrogant, very hard to reconcile with, he does not take criticism very well and pretty much was telling me over the phone, “there’s no reason to keep talking about this, so I’m going to hang up”

I truly feel like I’m the only person that has consistently had bad experiences with Lang Racing. And as good as he says he is, he does not stand behind his work whatsoever

Unfortunately I am not surprised that VAC 2.0 has stated this.

[Icecream]

Well, as expected, Andrew is unwilling to take any ownership of the possibility of human error and reiterated there no warranty, and if I want him to look at it that he will, but I will still have to pay for everything. At cheapest, looking at like $3000 for a new hone, pistons, and short block assembly. Not to mention replacement of all the one time use gaskets to tear the motor back down.

I’m honestly super disappointed with Lang. I feel like I have been completely fooled by all the great things I always read about him. He’s very arrogant, very hard to reconcile with, he does not take criticism very well and pretty much was telling me over the phone, “there’s no reason to keep talking about this, so I’m going to hang up”

I truly feel like I’m the only person that has consistently had bad experiences with Lang Racing. And as good as he says he is, he does not stand behind his work whatsoever

Catching up on this, did you reassemble or did lang?

[digger]

Ok, here it is. All the pictures are labeled which cylinder they belong to. Cylinders 1,4,5, and 6 all seem to have these wide dark spots of marking, while the other cylinders have small vertical scratch like markings. It is hard for me to tell whether those vertical markings are normal, or if they are problems during ring assembly.

Cylinder 5 is by far the worst, and even has what looks like multiple spots of corrosion on the cylinder wall. This alone was pretty disturbing for me to find.

George Hill what do you think about these marks? mind shedding some light on if this is acceptable work by lang?

EDIT: looks like the file names didnt upload:

Cylinder 1: pics 1-3
Cylinder 2: pics 4-5
Cylinder 3: pics 6-7
Cylinder 4: pics 8-10
Cylinder 5: pics 11-15
Cylinder 6: pics 16-21

piston looks like alot of non black buildup / deposits for a few thousand miles? is it burning oil? are you using any additives

[Chanman1029]

piston looks like alot of non black buildup / deposits for a few thousand miles? is it burning oil? are you using any additives

No additives, and no oil consumption that I can tell. Granted I’ve only taken oil to 1300 miles on this recent oil interval.

what do you mean by VAC 2.0?

[Chanman1029]

Catching up on this, did you reassemble or did lang?

Lang assembled the short block, I mated the block and head.

[Icecream]

Lang assembled the short block, I mated the block and head.

Got it, yeah they should own up to this if it materializes into a problem, can't believe there is no warranty. For now it sounds like it runs fine and no excessive oil burn so just enjoy it? Just for fun, have it dyno'd too.
For the torque plate, I think that's only necessary with a bore and a few shops (including lang) confirmed that.

[tlow98]

What are the details of the build? What size bore/pistons, which bearings were used (main and rod), what fasteners, etc? Cylinder spacing, ring gaps, block and head deck amounts, material of pistons, etc

call out where anything is not stock.

ok, I just reread where you talked about not knowing the bore size. Here’s the issue, as the assembler you need to know all the intimate engjne details and be able to double check work before you assemble.

this is not fun to hear as you received the short block assembled, but by receiving it assembled you left someone else in charge of a QA/QC step you could no longer do.

this is prolly where the hard lesson is.

lang should have all of your specs written down. If they don’t, that’s their responsibility.

you should also have them and be able to verify

now, o know you paid money to remove that risk, but the compounding issue that there’s no way I’d warranty a part of a build if someone else had control over something I did not. This is the situation Lang is in.

it sucks for both of you. Shared assembly responsibility. It will always be a he said, she said

[Chanman1029]

What are the details of the build? What size bore/pistons, which bearings were used (main and rod), what fasteners, etc? Cylinder spacing, ring gaps, block and head deck amounts, material of pistons, etc

call out where anything is not stock.

ok, I just reread where you talked about not knowing the bore size. Here’s the issue, as the assembler you need to know all the intimate engjne details and be able to double check work before you assemble.

this is not fun to hear as you received the short block assembled, but by receiving it assembled you left someone else in charge of a QA/QC step you could no longer do.

this is prolly where the hard lesson is.

lang should have all of your specs written down. If they don’t, that’s their responsibility.

you should also have them and be able to verify

now, o know you paid money to remove that risk, but the compounding issue that there’s no way I’d warranty a part of a build if someone else had control over something I did not. This is the situation Lang is in.

it sucks for both of you. Shared assembly responsibility. It will always be a he said, she said

totally get what you are saying.

as for all the specs, I asked lang for the build sheet and he actually told me he would not give it to me, as it is “proprietary info”.

sounds kinda silly to me, but whatever

[tlow98]

totally get what you are saying.

as for all the specs, I asked lang for the build sheet and he actually told me he would not give it to me, as it is “proprietary info”.

sounds kinda silly to me, but whatever

Well, as a paying customer with a shared incentive and liability that’s kind of shitty.

it sounds like a crap situation all around. Sorry man. If it were me, I’d swap the motor for a known good, running motor then take apart the Lang bottom end and post your findings.

You’ll be able to get reliable measurements on the components and know where things went awry.

did he use his widened rod journals and bigger bearings for your bottom end?

[chapmans]

If it's not burning oil, and is running fine just run it. No reason to rebuild the engine if there are no real external symptoms

[Chanman1029]

Well, as a paying customer with a shared incentive and liability that’s kind of shitty.

it sounds like a crap situation all around. Sorry man. If it were me, I’d swap the motor for a known good, running motor then take apart the Lang bottom end and post your findings.

You’ll be able to get reliable measurements on the components and know where things went awry.

did he use his widened rod journals and bigger bearings for your bottom end?

Nope, we just polished the journals and used king bearings. Nothing special with the crank.

[Chanman1029]

If it's not burning oil, and is running fine just run it. No reason to rebuild the engine if there are no real external symptoms

While I do agree with you, my fear is that the metal wear will only get worse, and further damage the cross hatching, which would then cause excessive oil burn.

I think I am going to drive it a little more, do oil changes more often and see how metal content in the oil improves or declines.