340 Re-Rebuild or take my chances

I had my 340 rebuilt a year ago and it sat in my shop. I am now ready to install it into my dart, but I noticed the rocker arms were installed incorrectly. This is something of a concern because the NAPA auto that rebuilt the motor is now out of business. I can correct the rocker arm install however, I am thinking the guy may have made other mistakes. So my question, Do I fix what I see and call it good or do I spend the money and have another rebuilder tear it down and reinstall?

I would correct the rockers etc & preoil & fog the cyls & possibly pull the intake or at least borescope to see if the lobes are gooped & you might be able to see in the dist port if the lobes on that end are lubed. If it fubars you will be paying for a rebuild anyhow (assuming it dont blowup) so just me I would fire it up as is. do all the std preprep for a successful breakin. Hopefully the rebuilder just did not know some of the top end Mopar specific valve train peculiarities & that the long block was done adequately.

When in doubt, check it out as far as needed to make you comfortable
Is Rettig Bros. machine shop in Fresno or further south ?
If they are close they would be the ones I would and do recommend, if not close or to busy to help you there are several others outstanding Mopar drag race engine builders near you also besides Rettig Bros.
I think Don Little is still taking in work, he is in Patterson
If he isn't he might be able to refer you to some else that is real good also

It's much easier to have a qualified Mopar shop - as Cab listed for your area - look at things now rather than later, after it's installed and maybe hurt.

Have it gone through for your peace of mind. You will never be comfortable with it unless you do. Every time you drive it, you will be worried about that being the day you find out something else was wrong. Gene

Yep. Good job Gene!

If everything is new, it is highly unlikely that disassembling it will destroy anything. And you will have peace of mind. I had a friend that bought an allegedly rebuilt 383 short block some years back. Wanted me to help him with final assembly and installation. I told him the only way I would have my name associated with that was to disassemble the short block. He balked but when we pulled the pistons and found two that had the ends of the oil ring spacer overlapped....well it was a different story then.

Why would you take it too Napa in the first place, did you know someone there, in my area at least taking your stuff too a Napa machine shop is equivalent to taking your car to Maaco for a paintjob and on top of that a desirable getting rarer every day engine?

If you want it done right, take your time and do it yourself, at least then you will hopefully know at the end that the best was done and if it blows up than you havent done anything worse than the so called professionals at Napa would have done.

I suppose that would have everything to do with the individual NAPA store. Some have had very good machine shops in them over the years. What may have been a bad experience with one should not condemn them all. Gene

[/quote]Why would you take it too Napa in the first place, did you know someone there, in my area at least taking your stuff too a Napa machine shop is equivalent to taking your car to Maaco for a paintjob and on top of that a desirable getting rarer every day engine?

If you want it done right, take your time and do it yourself, at least then you will hopefully know at the end that the best was done and if it blows up than you havent done anything worse than the so called professionals at Napa would have done. [/quote]

Who are you? The Napa Police? All you had to say was...maybe... "You might wanna check it out"....or something? We're trying to help a Brudda out here man...

Back in the day our NAPA had a machine shop and they did excellent work. Of course this was 25 years ago. Its hard to find ANY machine shop in this area now.

My local NAPA did the machine work on the block for my 470. They even checked and corrected the heads I originally ran on the motor which were done by a reputable Mopar shop that most everyone on this board raves about.

The same NAPA has been doing the machine work on two of my buddies cars for close to 20 years; both are 10 second cars that are dead consistent and in the winners circle multiple times a year.

As most have mentioned, I think it just depends on the individual shop.