After the full report with pictures (there are many more) was sent to the dealer, he immediately said that I had ragged it to death and ran it low on oil, which is total rubbish. I have maintained my Bugeye myself and thats the last thing I would ever do!
He then went back and forth offering me second hand engines and then a brand new crated one, but all these offers rapidily dissapeared. He then said I had taken a different engine to the second specialist than was originally in the car when sold - again, total rubbish.
The first specialist had not taken any details or pictures of the engine which I had specifically requested so I had no proof to show it was the same engine that came with the car.
The dealer continued to mess me around so I threatened court action which he seemed to be scared about. After getting advice from my solicitor and after he had spoken to the dealer and sent him a letter to which the dealer did not bother replying too, I was advised that I needed a witness statement from the first specialist to show he had taken the engine out and it was the same engine I took to the 2nd specialist.
I never got anything from the first specialist so had no evidence to produce. This meant that I was pretty well stuck, even though the first invoice from the original specialist pointed out the exact same issues the 2nd specialist had found before spliting the engine!
Basically, the dealer had totally shafted me and the first specialist had a big part to play in this!
So what do I do now??
I could put a second hand engine in the car and hope it never fails, or I could save up and get a new engine built.
After a few months saving I gave the go ahead for a fully forged 2.1 engine to be built using Lateral components.
Wiesco over sized pistons
New 2.5 crank
Fully honed and chemically cleaned block
ACL race bearings
ARP studs
Lateral H-beam rods
Fully rebuilt, re-shimmed, skimmed heads
New oil pump
etc...
During the engine build I done a few small bits myself such as....
DEI wrapped headers, up pipe and down pipe
Painted the tow hook
Crackle blacked the header tank and spent a lot of time cleaning parts such as the sump, and engine bay (technically I didn't actually do this myself)
