Rant!

[Fraser Beatty]

I don't normally do this, but today I AM REALLY TICKED OFF! My Dad had a rebuilt 350 engine put in his truck on March 9 by a local business who are supposed experts in doing this kind of thing. We've had nothing but trouble since Day 1 with it. Right from the get-go it lacked power, backfired, and missed. Several trips back to the business and about a dozen carb adjustments later, the truck finally seemed to be running okay. Well next thing that went was the fuel pump, which they had supposedly replaced. It left my Dad stranded on the side of the road, and we had to tow the truck back home and slap a new fuel pump on ourselves.

Okay, all fine and dandy, the truck has been running fine the last 3 or 4 weeks. Well, all of a sudden today, while about 65 miles from home at an auction sale, something went terribly wrong....we started smelling antifreeze in the cab, so stopped and pulled over to check it out. Upon opening the hood a cloud of steam poured out and we saw antifreeze splattered everywhere. In a matter of seconds we had lost 1/2 the antifreeze. We didn't get a good chance to look at it there on the side of the road, but right now we are thinking blown head gasket or a popped frost plug. THE ENGINE ONLY HAS 3063 MILES ON IT! Thankfully the warranty was 90 days or 3200 miles, so the business that put it in is going to be paying for their mistake.

Short of the story is, we hiked up to the nearest farm house, called home and got my Mom to come pick us up. The truck is still out there, waiting for tomorrow when we can find ourselves a car trailer or arrange a tow truck to go out there and get it. I'm not normally one to b!tch but when you pay someone a decent chunk of $$$ to do a job you expect it done right. Oh well thanks for letting me vent.