What’s your opinion on these cam lobes? (1 Viewer)

What should I do?


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Story time. I recently purchased a new 1FZ shortblock from Toyota. Instead of going the route of a brand new head, I decided to get a reman from a trusted Land Cruiser shop, who will remain nameless for now (because I might be the one that’s wrong). There’s no local machine shop in the middle of nowhere, so shipping is my only option.

I got the head a couple of weeks ago, and it arrived in less than stellar shape. There was a knick where the distributor goes, but I didn’t think it was all that bad, since it seals inside instead of against the surface…but the cams looked kinda terrible.

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I contacted the shop and the owner admitted he didn’t oil them prior to shipping because he didn’t want dust on them, and didn’t think they would flash rust so fast. The head was wrapped in plastic wrap, so to me this seemed like a given. He instructed me to try to rub it down with Kroil and it should come off. Seeing as how my options were kind of limited, I decided to work at it a bit.

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Surprisingly, they cleaned up a lot better than I thought they would, but there’s still slight pitting on the cam lobes.

I contacted the shop again, and they said to run it, but they don’t offer warranty. They also said if I returned it, I would be the one to pay return shipping, and they wouldn’t send me another one “because they always run into these problems”.

What are y’all’s thoughts on this? I’ve had really good dealings with this business in the past, and I really want this to work out…but the principle of sending someone a potentially defective product and make them pay return shipping makes me pretty mad. Am I wrong in this?
That's BS. - I agree with the other members. Aside from the quality of the workmanship, the seller should have taken more care in shipping the part, it's damaged, however minor. They should cover all costs associated with replacing the head, just for the damage incurred while in transit.
What shop is this so that I can avoid it?
 
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Send it!!!!!!

Haha, Send it as in use it, not send it back to the shop 😅
 
Just the fact that you’ve created a thread and are needing help from this forum is an indication to me to send that bitch back. I speak only for myself and I’m speaking purely from an emotional, non-technical perspective. If I dropped that much coin to get this partially damaged, flash rusted head, despite it being good enough to run, I send that bitch back faster than my hot ex-Gf. And believe me she was hot. When I began asking my friends if it was normal for the level of hot-crazy I was dealing with and the emotional and financial roller coaster vomit ride I was on, you know what I did? I sent that beautiful bitch back. Never been happier with a known good, stable, still hot but not as hot woman I call wife. She was expensive on the front end to hook her but over time she was the much more economical option.

Most of what I write here is made up. But I think you get my point. There’s always some truth in jest.

BL: Send that bitch back and tell us who the vendor is so we can be more informed. This will also give the vendor a chance to explain their side of the stupid “I didn’t protect an expensive and critical component, OMG how ****ing stupid was I” side of the story.
 
One of my takeaways from this thread is that if I am considering taking a head in to a machine shop, I should ask to see an invoice for a head they are ready to hand back to a customer. They should routinely be providing much more information then they provided you, it's damn 2022 already!!! I want detailed information, especially for almost 3 Large.

Related: I had to have some body work done on our Honda van about 5 years ago after someone hit my wife. So, I drove to a few paint and body shops and talked to them about it. I asked each one to walk me through the shop and show me around, and to show me a couple cars they had ready for pick up - and to point out to me the work they had done on them. Just that process knocked 2 shops right out - the walk around raised red flags for me (poor prep, haphazard parts lying around, etc.), or the cars ready for pick up looked like crap to me. The shop I went with was run by a very meticulous German guy who had an old Mercedes gullwing he restored on site, and a Porsche Targa from the 1970's in Gulf racing colors which he restored on site for his son. The shop was very clean and organized, and the paint booth looked like a surgery room. They did a great job on our van, top notch.

TLDR/Takeaway: Take no shorts on important work, interview in advance, ask questions. Yes, I'm that guy.
 

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