I need to determine the best course of action to protect my interests.

Short story:

I have a jet boat with a 455 oldsmobile with a high rise and twin Holley 600's.  It had been in storage for a season without use.  After pulling it out this spring, I decided that it was finally time to have the carbs gone through and tuned, since they'd leaked a little gas for a very long time, and now the seals and what-not had likely dried out substantially from sitting....

I changed the oil and filter, filled the gas tank with fresh gas, and brought it to a shop for  a complete "rebuild, clean-up, tuning, and synchronization."

Picked it up yesterday.

First time out, it idles very poorly... rough as hell to be precise.  Could barely keep it running through the no wake zone after leaving the dock... black smoke emminating from the exhaust.  Once out of the no wake zone, I had to stumble across a flat spot in the throttle to get the RPM's up... got to decent speed, but was missing pretty badly and even a backfire or two along the way.

Pulled her immediately back to the dock and trailered it.

Called the shop and plan to bring it back in this evening... but the kicker is, after I talked to them, I checked the oil (not sure what made me curious) and saw that it had actually increased in volume.  Pulled the plug for the drain tube and it "flowed" out... not a trickle like a thick high viscosity oil, but like it was water... except no bubbles like water in the oil... and it smelled highly of gasoline.   

Should I take it to the same shop and explain what happend?  Hoping they'll fix it and I'll be all good? Or did this potentially cause much larger problems, that I should have another shop look at, in-case I'm now looking at a new block that I might go back on the original shop to replace?  I worry that the original shop will down-play the mistake, change the oil and make a few adjustments, hoping to send me on the way before a bearing failure....

I need to determine the best course of action to protect my interests.

sounds like maybe power valves might be blown unless you have plugs in the meter blocks thats my guess good luck. as generallee said take it back to the shop. this is getting to be a big forum. that shop does not need the word of mouth on here.

Update:

I called the shop and explained what I found with the oil... they said to bring it in and they'd change it (for a fee)  before reviewing the carbs... So I bought new oil and a filter and am doing it myself first. 

Found a few things:

1. The oil flowed out of the drain hose (that comes from the bottom of the pan and is long enough to run out the drain plug) like it never has before... generally I have to use a drill pump to suck it out, and then only get about 4 of the 5 quarts out (with filter change)...but this time it flowed like water, and I got close to five quarts out.  I ran a few more quarts through the engine just to (hopefully) clean it out a bit better.  Smelled like gas something fierce...

2. I have oil on the underside of the exhaust and the side of the block near the back right corner of the engine... cylinder #4...  the only time I've ever seen that was back in 2003 when I spun a main bearing.

I'm going cut the filter open now to see what I find...

Sounds like a ton of fuel may have leaked from your carbs into your cilinders and may have seeped through your rings into the pan. hydrolicing i think is the term. When I was having ingnition problems with my efi. my injectors were spraying but no spark. After I got it running I changed the oil and it reeked like race fuel. could be a similur issue. Did you turn it over alot b4 it fired. was it hard to turn over at first. any flames aout the exhuast?

Couldve been very rich and washed out the rings not good check compression id bet they didnt set a float right and it was pukin from the over flow that then ate the rings so now the fuel is going straight to the pan

 Lets hope not

The term is white washed the cyclinders  and your scareing this poor guy  change the oil a couple of times  do a compression test or even better a leak down test will tell what percentage is leaking past the rings ,with out pulling the pan no way to know what condition the bearings are in , get the carbs done correctly and see what happens .  Oh document everything along the way so you have a leg to stand on      GOOD LUCK 

Changed the oil and dropped it off tonight... after draining it, I ran another 4 quarts through it, one at a time until the last one seemed to come out clean oil... dropped the filter and swapped it out, then filled her back up.  Just wishing I'd have thought to check the compression, or got these posts before I dropped it off... can't verify that now...

I can say that it ran perfectly before it was parked.... but how many of these issues could be attributed to sitting idle for a year and a half?  Some maybe, but I feel as though I did right by changing the oil, new fuel, and bringing it in for a carb job... just wish I'd have chosen a better shop right now.

Also, I saved a few "clean" samples of the oil to send in for analysis... I was thinking Blackstone from what I've found on the net, but can anyone recommend a lab?

 ya wait on the lab stuff see what they tell u what shop was it anyway if they try to do u wRong threatin them with the ase and see what they say then

Oil analysis' give the best results when done over the life of an engine.  Just one sample might indicate foreign material but not give much useful information.


Good luck

Sounds like needle and seat might be plugged in one of the carbs allowing fuel to flood engine.

I would try tackling it myself next time.

I would too, since I'm out 700 bones and my boat is nowhere to be seen... I knew I was going to pay through the nose to have it done elsewhere, but figured if I rebuilt them myself and took it for tuning I'd have paid dearly, and probably faced the argument that it was done incorrectly if they couldn't get it right... now I sit wondering why I just didn't try.

They've now had it for 2 days without calling me with an update... how long is too long before I need to just pop in and check on progress?  If it were me I think I'd be calling the guy back with an update on his boat, but I guess they feel differently.

Stopped by this morning.  The shop had the scoop off the carbs and had obviously been doing some tinkering.  Talked to the guy and he explained that he had it running yesterday and was trying to adjust the carbs while on the boat, but wasn't having any luck getting it to both idle and run.  Sounded like either/or were doable, but he couldn't get it dialed in where it just wasn't dumping gas down the cylinders.... he was going to search the internet for info and better settings...

While I have yet to identify the shop here, or bad mouth them publicly, because I feel like the guy's been trying to be nice and still has the opportunity to make this right, I feel like they're learning how to tune dual Holley's on my boat, which is an entirely different story than they talked before I brought it in.  I've been very patient, and am trying to remain confident that they can figure it out, but they've had the boat almost three weeks now, and it's still apart on their shop floor.  They said the plugs were bad and had to change them... though I'll bet they had less than 20 hours on 'em before I brought it in.  They also said it's not firing well on all cylinders now, like an ignition problem, which ran flawlessly before she was parked a couple seasons back... I'd be willing to bet that the poor firing is due to the fact that the air/fuel mixture is way off, or there's just too damn much gas being dumped down the shoot...