Advise needed: serious issues with mechanic

[surprise]

Hi there,

My car is RS2'd.
I brought my UrS6 to my local Audi mechanic to get new piston rings installed.
I also gave him a set of Scat rods to install on the car rather than putting the original back in since I might upgrade the turbo.
He put everything back together with the 50ft.lb torque from Scat with new bearings and car started fine.
I drove it 30 miles and got low oil pressure indicator.

I brought it back to him.
He took the oil pan out, took one rod out and told me that the bearings spun and damaged the crankshaft.
He accused me of giving him the wrong rods and he does not take responsibility for the damage.

I asked him if he had plastigaged the rod bearings before putting it together and he said you do not need to plastigage as long as you follow the specified torque specs.

After a long argument he agreed to pay for half of the labor necessary to fix it.
He does not want to put the Scat rods back in the car and he wants to install the original rods that came out.

One my side, I will still have to pay for half of the labor ($700) + all parts necessary (headgasket, pan gasket, bearings...) another $500 + the crankshaft repair from a machineshop.

I am 100% certain that the rods are good.
I have the invoice from 034.

I beleive he is 100% responsible for the damage.
Please let me know what you think and what you would do.

Thank you

[S2central.net]

The bearings should have been plastiguaged.

If the mechanic was so concerned about the aftermarket rods and/or bearing shells why didn't he take some measurements. I'm also not sure that 50ftlb torque setting is correct - will have to look it up.

[S2central.net]

Just checked the manual - they should have been torqued at 30Nm plus quarter turn... That is 22ftlb fella !!!!!!!!

[surprise]

Please look at that link from the Scat website:

http://www.scatcrankshafts.com/scattechpdfs/Rod_torque_specs.pdf

This shows 3/8" ARP 2000 to be torqued @ 50ft.lb
Also look at this (bottom of page under Volkswagen) It shows the bolt size to be 3/8"

http://www.scatcrankshafts.com/catalogs/2009/18-23.pdf

[AUDIS2avant]

50ftlb is WAY to much, think you have the problem there m8

[surprise]

But that is what the Scat specs said (see post above with links)

[EspenW]

22ftlb plus a quarter turn (as specified for stock stretch type bolts) could equal 50ftlb (w/o 1/4 turn)

[GazzaG60]

scats are different to normal rods. arp 2000 bolts.

i didn't plastiguage mine. you should really i suppose. when you bolt rods down to shells you get a feeling if there is something wrong.

did the mechanic follow the procedure on the rods.

having the rods weight matched first can help. sounds to me like not torqued enough

[GazzaG60]

just seen the sheet. 50 it says. not sure what i did with mine. cant remember.

no issues here with mine.

too tight would load them abnormally. also what oil?

[GazzaG60]

and what lube in assembly

[Jamo]

For ARP 2000 bolts in aftermarket rods it's 50 ft/lb with the 3/8 bolt not the 21-22 of the stock stretch bolts.

I had Pauter rods and used this http://www.pauter.com/blocknotch.htm

I've seen no different on any aftermarket rod website

[surprise]

I am not sure what procedure the mechanic followed but he told me he did not plastigaged them.
He used the ARP lube.
Engine oil was Mobile 1 15W-50 (I am in Florida ans it's hot)

The thing is that he does not want to take any responsibility for the damage. Accoriding to hime, the rods were wrong and he did everything right!

[Jamo]

Did you have everything balance prior to install?

[surprise]

No, he opened the bottom end to replace the rings and installed the new rods at the same time.
You mean balancing the rods? The crankshaft?

[Knight Rider S4]

I would check the rods ...Sure Raymond had a issue with the first set he got as there were out by a mm on the bearing/ journal face and if he had used these it would of caused the same problem