Daytona Emergency

Hi! I am new to this board. I have a slight emergency with my car. She is a 87' Daytona Shelby Z with 2.2 turbo intercooled. First of all, let me say I have driven this car for 14 yrs and never had a problem other than alternators and small easily replacable normalicies. I took my Baby to a shop that was recommended by a Idiott friend of mine.My daytona began stalling here and there throughout the day. It would only do it at stoplights and Stopsigns. I did some reading here and found that was probably just the sensors beneath the distributer. Reguardless, I was told I needed a head gasket job. This shop quoted me $280...... It took 2 weeks and I began going by the shop to check on the progress of my babies delicate operation. On the first day of checking on her, I noticed my valve cover looked new! WTF? I didnt say any thing because I thought they may have just cleaned it up. But it kept bothering me because it just looked too new. On the day I was suppoesd to pick it up,(three weeks)after dropping her off!, I drove up to the shop and he was messing with it in the parking lot and It was dumping oil like the vealteese! upon inspection I noticed my valve cover was broken on both sides where the corner bolts are! They had tryed to fix it with gasket sealer and spraypaint! i pulled the cover right in front of the reterd squad and asked WTF? They tryed to say it was broke when I brought it in there. I told them i had installed a new valve cover gasket 2 weeks before and I know it wasn't broken..... They dropped the facaude and said they would get a new cover... I went today and a new cover was on it. it held oil and looks like the original. I dont really care other than I was being taken for an idiott... It took them a week to get it started... What the hell is with that... I drove it arround the block and it overheated and I drove it back to the shop. My fan wont kick on now. he broke a swich box right in front of me with a pair of pliers... The fan was kicking on yesterday though. My turbo isnt boosting now either. It idles on -10 or 15 as usual and when I goose it it goes to 0 and the car wants to miss n not really go anywhere. Its like I have to floor it to take off and the motoer is not running right. Its burning oil now and smoke is pouring out the exaust! They broke the fuel pressure regulator and and the turbo sensor while removing the head... I was told they were no good. My question is, Would my car have ran like a dream if all that were bad? I have been totally gentleman like and even helped them figure it out.But every day that I stopped by , there seemed to be another expensive patr mysteriously gone bad... It ran like it always has (like the day I drove it from the dealership!) until these idiotts started with it. It will not boost now. Should I ask him for some of the money back? My family demanded I get it away from these idiotts now before some major shit happens if it hasnt already. I am seriouslty considering filing in small claims .... $420 is not a joke! Any help would be appreciated... I will probably end up taking it to a Dodge service center. They are high as hell but ya get what ya pay for..... Some of the dodge places "live" for helping old gals like mine...... Thanks guys, Any comments are welcome and appreciated...................... Jerryboy

Yeah, I know how you feel. As you can see, both of our cars are quite similar. My LeBaron was the same way, perfect, she ran like a dream. Then one day I noticed that there was coolant under the car. I got under there and the water pump is leaking. I call up the dealership to get an estimate and it is pretty high. I would have done it myself if it weren't for the fact that all my tools were packed and I was getting ready to move here to Utah. Under my mothers advice I take it to some mom and pop type place in town. She swears up and down that they are nice people. So I take it in and they get to work on it. It takes them almost a week to do it. This bothers me since a water pump is a three hour deal at the most. When I get it they tell me that there were some other problems that they took care of as well. I said, like what. He tells me that on top of the water pump a motor mount was broken and there was a leaking intercooler hose. Both claims I know are BS since first the only coolant I saw under the car was under the water pump, second; that motor mount is in plain view and I know damn well what a bad one looks like. I asked them why didn't you call me before you replaced these? Why should I pay for them when I know for one they were perfectly fine and second I never told you to replace them? Needless to say I ended up paying the bill. Then after starting my car it was idling very high, at about 1500 on up to 2000 and the car was shaking pretty bad. The damn timing was way off, so I had to wait for them to fix that. Since then my car hasn't performed the way she used to, I am suspecting an ailing intercooler, I am sure they screwed something up.

From then on I vowed to only take my cars to the dealership or my local performance shop that I implicitly trust the guy. I don't have the money to take her in and find out what is going on, so I am going to wait until the turbo bites the dust and replace everything under that hood. As for that shop, I will have my revenge.

All I can tell you is take it into the dealership, have them look over it, then you will have your proof and take those bastards to court. I hope you are able to sue them out of business. I just makes me sick that this happens. There was no reason it should have taken three weeks to change a head gasket. The dealership changes them in a matter of hours. Whatever you do, do it fast, it sounds like to me that they screwed up your baby pretty bad. I wish you luck and hope you can get her back to normal; I know how it can be when they don't run the same.

:eek2: Sounds like both of you got took to the cleaners by "Yahoos R' Us". I think i might know what both of your problems are, especially with jerry boy. I'm beginning to think that they put the original intake gasket back on the motor. Or, they didn't tighten or put a hose back on correctly. Hell, they could've cracked a hose for all I know. Either way, I'm thinking massive intake leak. Grab you a can of carb cleaner and start spraying around suspect areas like the intake flange and some of the intake hoses. If the idle drops off after you spray a suspect area, you found your problem. By the way, at least report these bastards to the Better Business Bureau. By doing that, you'll at least have some comfort that it won't happen to some else. Hope this helps!