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A kid bought my pickup and threw a rod in under an hour.. how?

9K views 61 replies 24 participants last post by  gearheadslife 
#1 · (Edited)
I have an ethical dilemma. I sold my 1977 Chevrolet 3/4 ton 4x4 pickup a few days ago to a young man who promptly threw a rod complete with holes in the oil pan spilling both oil and coolant on to the ground within an hour of the title being signed over. I rebuilt the motor late last year and have around 500 miles on it since the rebuild. It has been running great since day one and the kid even said it ran "excellent" on the test drive. I am not a professional engine builder, but this certainly isn't the first motor I built and I am confident it was machined and assembled correctly.
I know I have no legal obligation to do this but I want to stand behind my motor. However I do not if it was abused. Do you think the motor was scattered by overspeed, incorrect assembly, lack of oil???
The motor is a 350 sbc, .40 over, new bearings throughout. Crank journals line bored, new rods, pistons, block was magged and fluxed, crank ground. Stock rotating assembly, edelbrock intake and carb. Stock heads were tanked an inspected. New RV cam. Engine was made to last, not be a runner..
I have been out of town for over a month, oil was good the last time I put gas in it and had no visible leaks or smoke in the exhaust. Truck has been parked except for test drives since I left.
The guy swears he did not tach it, but we were all 19 once so I have trouble believing. So what do you guys think? I know there is a lot of experience on this forum, certainly more than I will ever have.
Thanks in advance for replies.
 
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#48 ·
Lol this went crappy. The only thing that would make this pissing contest better would be a couple of 24 packs! Yeah I said it despise me for it lol geesh....

Im sure with him being deployed he doesnt want or need this on his mind which is why im sure he was asking advice. All said and done its between them to figure and sort out. It would be awesome of you to help the kid out but is it a mandatory obligation to do so? No.

When. I was younger 17 my dad and I went to a small used car lot looking for a daily driver for me to get to work and school and w.e basically nothing special. So we didnt want to spend over a thousand. All of the autos were as is with no warranties because they were all older under 2000 dollars. Found one for 500 bucks late 80s k car ok checked it all out *looked* like it would last long enough before anything crapped out or the auto just died didnt care it was a k car. The second day of driving it front end vibrating ok no biggie not bad its only a daily so w.e. later that day the entire drivers side assembly went out just shy of rubbing tire on wheel well. Not worth fixing told dad about the car. We went back to the place talked with the guy in a nice manner and he took it back with no problems and knocked off 300 dollars off of one of the other cars that were of better condition because it wasnt a k car lol he said he didnt do anything to it because of this and we didnt blame him. So all in all we both lost a little but we both gained as well. But he was a dealer....of sorts...all autos were as is and if we wanted to take it the dick head route and go off the handle we wouldve only been considered dicks and been called a retard even by anyone having authority in law because some things are just that apparent. But being nice and talking things through with him he helped us out sure he got more money but he couldve just turned us away having to scrap an auto out of 500 bucks and back to square one of looking for a daily.
 
#57 · (Edited)
Well this thread certainly got a little heated. I appreciate all of the input gentlemen, from both sides. As I said at the beginning I am just trying to do the right thing here. After all of this I am fairly confident that I didn't put the motor together wrong. Did it hold up as well or as long as it should have? Obviously not, but I was honest with the guy throughout this whole process, before and after purchase. As far as the shift indicator, come on.. he test drove the vehicle and said it ran "excellent" and wanted to buy it. That little piece of plastic didn't even cross my mind. And maybe I am a little callous in saying this but if he couldn't figure that one out he didn't have any business buying an old pickup and should have went with something more familiar. I feel bad for the guy, I really do, but at this point I don't believe I did any thing morally, ethically or legally wrong. Sucks the motor blew, sucks he didn't know better, sucks that he didn't have anyone with him that could explain it. But I guess this is just one of those "**** happens" situations. Nailhead mentioned getting the pan dropped to figure out what happened. I actually presented that idea to him the day after it happened and he brushed it off. I told him if it was abused it's on him and if I assembled it incorrectly I'd give him $1200 which won't cover the motor, but that's what it cost me in machine work and parts to rebuild. Anyways, thank you again for all the input. Talk to you all again in a year when I get home and break something on my 50'!
 
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