[snip]

>I suggest the following.
>
>1) find a local rebuilder, and have it done in your own community including
>installation. That way, you have someone local to go to to complain,
>local desk
>to bash with your baseball bat or saw through with your chainsaw
>when you don't
>get satisfaction for the work.
>
>2) Exchange engines with Boston Bob or other source of your choice, Bob being
>at the top of my list as his reputation for excellence in his work preceeds
>him. Have your local mechanic do the R&R.

3) Learn from John's experience: *always* (unless it's been done
recently under your ownership) replace the transmission input shaft
seal whenever the engine is out. The parts costs are infinitesimal
compared to the labor costs to do it later.

(BB's quality work aside, your rule #2 contradicts rule #1. If
something does go wrong and, say, it was the installer's work that
was at fault, the rebuilder and installer are two different people
(duh!) and therefore you are back to finger-pointing, however
responsible one of them (ie, BB) is, you're still caught in the
middle.)

Dave
--
Dave Carpenter

Whatever you wish for me,
May you have twice as much.

"Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think
we're not. In either case the idea is quite staggering." -- Arthur C.
Clarke