I apologize to everyone for the length of this post. But I would read if I were you.
So in Late 2022 I received my rebuilt engine back from Mark Remmel who owns newoldsperformance.com- He had my motor for almost 8 months. His original build quote was for $8500…. By the time he was done I paid him $14130.
So when I received my engine, I thought to myself man this is going to be great. I can finally drive my car. Many of you have seen the care that I have taken to slowly have this car restored and the love that I have for this car. I had to find a few people to help me put the engine in and that took me another 3 to 4 months because I am not a mechanic.
We finally got the engine in and got the car running somewhere in the second or third month of 2023. Once I got the car running I noticed that there was leaking coming from the back of the motor, and I found out that one of the freeze plugs had gone bad. Now keep in mind I hadn’t driven my car more than a couple of times in this time period. I called my builder Mark Remmel from newoldsperformance.com and he told me “ this is why I don’t like working on these older engines “, even though this is what he does for a living. So after spending many hours, trying to figure out what to do I finally sent the car out to have it fixed, and Mark Remmel from newoldsperformance.com begrudgingly paid me for the fix which I appreciate. From there, I drove the car on and off a few days a month for a couple of months. In the meantime, I had sent my carburetor out to be rebuilt by a very reputable Carberator builder name, Phil, who owns Custom Carberator in New Jersey. I receive the carburetor back and finally put the carburetor back on and drove the vehicle for about 300 to 500 miles over a couple of months period.  I noticed that I was not getting as much power as I thought I should, being that I was told that the motor was pushing somewhere around 430 hp. I called up a friend and he came and timed my car up for me, and we found out that the quads were not opening up when I got on the car. He noticed that the car was skipping and said you should check into that. I took the car out the next day and all of a sudden my car shut off like it was flooded. I brought my 442 to a reputable shop locally and found out that after some diagnostic time, that the valve had bent and hit the pistons. I had called my builder, Mark Remmel from newoldsperformance.com in Florida and discussed this with him, and he said “ my machinist has done thousands of these heads and has never had a problem with the filler that we put in and that it must’ve been because you put a different carburetor on the car and went on to tell me this…
“I’m not going to chip in for new heads if that’s what you’re asking. I might help a bit to try and fix those but otherwise no. That filler got hotter than normal for some reason. That’s what made it shrink, and therefore get loose.
That would’ve shown up on the Dyno if things weren’t correct in the first place. However, we both know it didn’t until now. I’m going to go back to my original thoughts, your carburetor, I believe goes dead, lean in certain areas, therefore generating more heat and shrinking that filler.”
If that was a possible issue, I would’ve never thought that his head builder would ever put a filler in that could possibly shrink and damage my motor. 
I’ve driven my car, roughly 500 miles with this rebuilt Rochester carburetor and was told by my “ engine builder” that I didn’t have the carburetor rebuilt correctly to the specs of the engine and the prior carburetor he first dyno’d the car with, even though I sent the the carburetor rebuilder all the specs of the engine that Mark Remmel had given me . And so my discussion is tonight, the valve in my heads bent because the filler heated up and caused my valve to stick, causing an internal problem with my engine that I spent almost $5000 over the original quote which I never complained about. My builder, Mark Remmel who owns newoldsperformance.com has basically said to me well, I guess I would help you if you wanna rebuild these heads a little bit, but after talking to his machinist, I don’t think we have any responsibility to this. Obviously, I do not trust his machinist to touch the old heads again after doing a terrible job to begin with, and my machinist has told me that these heads are now crap. So now I am putting in Aluminum Edelbrock heads and having to pay roughly 5 to $6000 between parts and labor to another shop to redo an engine that I have had roughly driven 5 to 800 miles. Is he responsible because I changed the carburetor to a different Carberator, maybe not, and maybe that’s true . Did I have this problem because I changed carburetors, I doubt it very much. I have talked to dozens of engine builders, machine, shops, and people in our Oldsmobile community, and not one of them has yet to say to me yes , because you put the new carburetor on , that this caused this issue. But my builder, Mark Remmel from Newoldsperformance.com who numerous times reminds me that most of the people on these sites have no clue what they’re talking about whatsoever. So here I am, for all you people who know me, stuck once again, not able to drive my car for another two months or so because my builder won’t man up to covering anything except “ maybe” trying to fix my damaged heads. It is obvious that after Mr Remmel was not even able to put a freeze plug in correctly, that I hired the wrong person. Now when asking him to help me, his answer is well I guess I’ll help you if you want to try to repair the old heads, which are now junk and my machine shop said were junk. I wanted to try to stay original and that’s why I stuck with the G a heads originally instead of going with aluminum originally as he discussed with me. That being said, I spent $2200 for HIS machine shop to correctly fix the heads that were on my car. My car has never yet gone over 190° and over 5,000 rpm’s in that time frame and there should’ve been no reason why the filler should have failed and caused this engine failure. I have yet to pull the engine out of my car to find out if my pistons or any other part of my new engine are damaged or my cylinders are damaged. But at this moment it seems like I am stuck with the whole bill, and with an engine builder who is at best mediocre. Maybe I am wrong for putting this post up, but after all these years of trying to get this car, running perfect, and deciding to put big money into this engine, I thought I had the right builder. Unfortunately, this builder does not stand behind his work, DOES stand behind his machine shop, and does not care about his reputation whatsoever, except to make excuses, and tell me why it is my fault only. I can only imagine the damage that my engine has taken from this and I am not looking for anything from this builder at this point, because I don’t trust that he would do anything at all to help me.
The best part is after he told me that a Hydraulic roller cam motor is the best motor to build and I came to him with this issue. He said “ this is why I am no longer building roller cam engines, because they are nothing but problems”. Can you imagine having your builder tell you months after you receive your engine back and have spent over $14,000 to have him build the engine that he suggested, that he is not going to build Hydraulic roller cam engines anymore. I am going to put up some videos of the heads for you to see and enjoy. I am also going to put up the original quote, and then the final bill that I received. Once again, I am only trying to warn people to be careful when hiring people who are supposedly reputable. I now have to take money from an account that I do not have and have to deal with the consequences of my decisions by having this company build my motor. Shame on me and shame on you Mark Remmel.





****Final bill

Remmel Auto & Marine
1021 W. Lk. Eloise Terrace
Winter Haven, FL 33884
Cell 863.206.3320
Email: Fastone01@hotmail.com


INVOICE #4058
DATE: NOV. 2, 2022
Sold to:
Steve G
RE: OLDS 455 W30 BUILD
1 build
$ 900.00 Intake - Weld in three places, surface twice, jet wash twice
$2300.00 cyl heads, Port heads, new springs, retainers, valves, seals, locks, open to 7/16 studs and guide plates Weld dividers, fill crossovers to one cyl, cc and surface to 78cc.
$ 450.00 1.6 ratio Aluminum Harland Sharp/Newoldsperformance rockers
$ 325.00 One piece Restricted pushrods
$1375.00 Billet IG(Iron gear) core hyd roller cam and Comp cams hyd roller lifters
$1400.00 Scat H beam rods, Ractec Forged pistons, Mahle ring set,)
$1850.00 Hot tank block, bore with BHJ bor tru plate, hone with tq plate, machine block for cam washer, balance, square deck to 10.615, align hone with ARP bolts.
$ 100.00 OEM style balancer
$ 80.00 ARP Main Bolts
$ 275.00 Cloyes Billet timing set, cam button and washer
$ 450.00 All bearings and gaskets
$ 475.00 Thornton 6qt. pan and pick up, HV pump
$3800.00 Pick up from depot, Teardown, machine crank for bearing, check clearances, degree cam, file fit rings, assemble, break-in, dyno tune (1.5 days), machine and shim dist gear, machine block for cam washer, install stand, crate, freight, insurance, bell housing.
$ 350.00 Hays Clutch pressure plate and disc

$14,130.00
any questions concerning this invoice, contact Mark Remmel @Fastone01@hotmail.com

 

Can you specify what “filler” caused this issue? The only “filler” I am familiar with goes into the exhaust crossover and therefore would have no impact on the valves


So call me a conspiracy theorist but I suspect this is an AI bot. This is what we have to expect in the future.

 

This is the third appearance of this post.

Spam.

 

I guess, I somehow missed this part..... Many of you have seen the care that I have taken to slowly have this car restored and the love that I have for this car. Your profile shows you joined in June 2023 and you have only three posts.

 

I'm right there with you.

 

You are new here and posting this same thing several times. Mark Remmel has been a fantastic member here and helps many of us on a regular basis. Hundreds of us have used him for parts and engine work and not one time till your post have we ever heard of anything bad. You are highly unlikely to find support or sympathy here with how you have approached this.

 

This olds community is small. It sucks he can’t tell his story without ridicule. It gives Mark a chance to respond on his known community forum.


*Glad you fellas were able to resolve the engine problems!

 

Are bent valves a thing on Olds engines? Can't say I know anyone that's ever done it

 

I merged your 2 threads and moved it to the buyer seller feedback forum. Before jumping to conclusions let's hear both sides of this.

 

sorry for your loss but mark has been very helpful and shares his knowledge with others and sells us parts , you wont find many people out there that will give you good advice as mark .stop bad mouthing mark and giving trying to give him a bad name hes helped to many of us on this site . if i ever had the money id have him build my 425

 

This was posted in a Facebook group. I advised him to post here to give Mark a chance to respond since he is not in that group.

 

Exactly, always two sides to the story..seems odd some of the things the op proclaims..

 

I sympathize with the poster, gurallah, but there are so many things that could contribute to what happened here, too lean carb, poor fuel feed, poor cylinder distribution, and I'm sure the list goes on. Too many variables in the recipe to put the blame on the builder when many others are not having problems with his product!

 

No there's actually 3 sides. Yours, theirs and the truth.

 

Let’s hear from Mark. With no malice towards gurallah, his post comes on hot & heavy as a smear piece with a few vagaries and an annoying lack of punctuation. I can’t necessarily blame him if he’s relaying an accurate account of things, but as mentioned, Mark has a nearly spotless record of knowledge, customer service and sharing in the Olds community, other than maybe involving himself in some unnecessary, unproductive mud slinging with a certain few here on CO. I think some of Mark’s replies and quotes may have been paraphrased for effect but that is only speculation on my part and not a shot at gurallah.

Even the best can miss something here or there and it’s possible that maybe he did, but, if the engine was dynoed it would seem a core plug problem or loose crossover fill might likely have been caught. In my observation and experience, filling crossovers is not a 100% sure thing to have reliable “adhesion” of the filler material, dissimilar metals, unseen contamination, etc., one strange example is my own kid’s car. At over 100k it all of a sudden was running bad, he drives it over after a day or so of driving, I find a dead cylinder, pop the valve cover, find a broken spring. I supervise him pulling the heads since at that mileage one MAW go through them completely. To my surprise, the crossover filler from one head is missing, gone without a trace! WTH did it go? I’ll never know. Did it have anything to do with the valve spring? I’ll never know. Over the decades I filled a number of heads, this was the only one I know of that “failed.” Good news is that it barely marked the piston, not even close to depth or sharpness in gurallah’s photo. Deburred it & buttoned her up.

I remember something similar with Trovato years back. Somebody crawled all over him anywhere they could find a place to type. Prior to and since I have never heard a complaint about him, other than some minor personality clash or disagreement on bearing clearance, Mark being one of his “clearance disagreers” but they agreed to disagree. Ya, there’s the dyno water temp thing but that’s irrelevant here.

I hope things get back on track for gurallah so he can enjoy his car instead of fret over it.

​​​​​​….
​​

​​​

 

Did the replacement valve seat fall out? Is that the issue?

 

bccan nailed my thoughts while I was typing them.

I don't have a dog in this fight. I've bought parts from Mark in the past without issue, and I know that many others have as well but that doesn't mean that there couldn't be a problem with work that he has been involved in. While the format and syntax of the OP's post are annoying that also doesn't affect the possibility that something had gone wrong. It seems that certainly something has gone wrong, and the only question is to "why?". With what is known at this point the reality is that I don't have the knowledge to be able to make a qualified judgement on why and/or assign blame with, and my layman's guess is that at least 95% of the members of this site don't either.

This wouldn't stick out to me one way or the other but years ago on ROP a similar response was given to a gentleman overseas who had put big $$ down for new heads and ended up getting stiffed by a guy (don't remember his name, was from the center of the US, Nebraska maybe?). Initially he got raked over the coals with "I've used Vendor for years and know him well, blah blah blah...". In the end it came out that the vendor had screwed him and others over.

For years Savitske Classics and Customs was a go-to place for performance suspension, with lots of satisfied customers...until he wasn't. Lots of info on that situation, just google it. Likewise, Mondello Performance Products had a sterling reputation for decades...until it didn't. I'm glad to see posts like this - more information is always better, and I would rather have the opportunity to review it and make a decision on who to do business with rather than have information suppressed. I hope a bunch of people without actual firsthand knowledge of the situation don't end up taking pot shots at the OP because that will discourage others in the future from sharing info.

FWIW, one post like this wouldn't discourage me from buying from Mark again in the future if he had something I needed.

 

I believe the "filler" is the zinc or whatever Mark uses to block off the heat cross over in the middle exhaust ports. It appears to have melted and ran out the seat of the exhaust valve.(depending on the material used, this would require extreme heat to melt this material).
The valve has somehow struck the piston and bent, Causing a dead cylinder.

I would like to see a good picture thru the exhaust port to the back of the valve, plus a picture of the seat with the exhaust valve removed.
Id also like to see the same from the other head that didnt have a failure.
And I would like to know what material Mark used for the fill.(Thermal properties).

The improperly operating carburetor is of definite concern in this instance.

 

Exactly. Here are the FACTS;
The shop that filled the heads is Champion Race heads. A first rate shop that’s a major player in the Buick V6 arena. In fact they cast their own heads as well as modify OE ones as well.
Once I got the engine on my Dyno, the carb supplied by Steve, the op, was bad. I had to abort multiple Dyno pulls because it would go dead lean, to the tune of 17.1. I tried adding jet, and reducing rod sizes repeatedly and significantly, with little to no difference. I concluded there was an obvious obstruction in the carb somewhere. I called Steve and told him what was going on. After a little while he called me back to tell me he’s going to overnight a friends carb to me. I said fine I’ll give it a shot.
That carb was much better, and responded to further changes as expected. I later found out it was originally done by Cliff Ruggles some 5 years earlier. The build made 430hp with manifolds, 467 with headers. I supplied Steve with all the Dyno sheets he wanted. At that time he even contemplated putting on headers due to the increase in HP. I told him let me know as the jetting would have to be adjusted for that as well. I made approx 12-15 pulls, no further issues.
Once installed in the car, it had developed a cyl head freeze plug leak which is hard to duplicate on the dyno, as it doesn’t pressurize the cooling system. I paid for the ENTIRE repair.
He also informed me that he had sent his old carb to Phil at Custom carbs in NJ. I told him at the very least they need to duplicate what was in the carb I used on the dyno. I gave him all that info. HOWEVER in speaking with Joe at Custom carbs it seems Steve only provided cam info. Custom carbs just added a couple of jet sizes and sent it back.
Steve put it on his car and immediately told me it didn’t run the same as his friends carb. Steve Minore, a friend of his, then “adjusted” it so the secondary’s would open correctly. So it was running on the primary circuit only. Hmmm, another concern. Again not the carb it was Dyno’d with.
Later he described a driving session as “I stabbed the throttle it took off then sputtered and died”.
Here are the facts. I have the Dyno sheets and phone records of the many conversations he and I had describing EVERY aspect of this build, and the problems I encountered. That carb simply ran lean, as it did before, heated the filler beyond its original size. It then shrunk, rattled and pieces came off. Again the shop that did his heads has done literally thousands with the same filler, using the same process, even on boosted applications. No issues.
Bottom line is, his heads are fixable, and I offered to help with that, even though I truly believe this was his doing, installing a carb that had documented issues, without any type of further testing.
Now he wants me to pay for a set of Edelbrocks. Really?

In addition he keeps texting me telling me that he knows I’m a “good guy”. Yet he posts this. Confusing, very confusing.

Hope this helps clear thing up.

P.S. Here's what's stated on the bottom of the receipt Steve received with this build;

"Please Note, given the age and initial condition of many of the customer supplied core parts used in this build, Remmel Auto & Marine is not responsible for any repair or replacement of said parts in the event of their failure, and/or their potential to cause failure to any and all non-core parts used, and/or subsequent damage to the other remaining replacement parts used in this engine build."

 

Been following on FB and noticed its made its way here as well..

As I've mentioned previously, this is the first I've heard negative against Mark. Not just in the 2 years within the Olds realm, but also in back researching previous builds and such. In my personal dealings with him, not only in regards to helping with part selection with my 400G build, but also in the hours plus of troubleshooting, even just to the picking of his brain to validate/correct some of my ridiculous thoughts surrounding the many issues I'd had.

Personally, the fact that the freeze plug was paid for should speak volumes to character and customer service. In these posts Covid times..customer service has become nearly non-existent. Shoot, while mine was assembled wrong and the builder admitted it, they're refusing to fix their problem..so props to Mark.

​​​​​​Ill say in reading this, I couldn't help but think about how many times Id seen over the years Mark mention how vital it is to tune via wideband. At the very least looking at this scenario, it would eliminate the variable of the carburetor being the ultimate culprit.

As previously mentioned, regardless of who/what/how..Ultimately I hope you're able to get things squared away so you can get back on to enjoying your car.

 

Is that spark plug new or the one the OP ran with the different carbs ? Looks bright white.

 

That plug looks to have been ran. Not new.

 

The bottom line is: some people just shouldn't play with cars.

 

Thats a fact. This isn't the only engine recently that has had "issues" that I have thought the same thing.

 

well said, I'm one of them.

 

Ha.

 

After hearing Marks response and reading the problem and other facts I can understand. Much of the liabiltiy ended when another carb was placed on the motor AFTER the one used for the dyno run was removed. I would not think of tampering or removing the Quick Fuel carb Mark put on my 468 CID(472 HP) engine Mark put on my engine.

 

Changing the carb isn't a big deal if you know what you are doing. If you don't, it can go south real bad, like we see here. Ima call it self inflicted.

 

I’d like to thank all who PM’d me and supported me on this. It’s both humbling and gratifying to see the support I’ve received. Again I thank each and everyone of you for taking the time to absorb and consider all the facts.
In addition, if any of you have ever spoken with me one on one, you know that I spend copious amounts of time explaining the why and how of these things and how they work. I did the same with gentleman as well. Unfortunately for all involved, he chose not to heed my advice.

Again thank you all and I look forward to the resolution of this.

P.S. I just read thru more of Steve’s post. At no time did I ever say “I’m not doing roller cam engines anymore”. What I said was “I’m not doing flat tappet builds anymore, ONLY rollers. I’m also steering away from all hydraulics and just doing solid lifters wherever possible”.
Another discrepancy on his part is, I explained about porting iron heads vs aluminum. He wanted to keep it more authentic looking, so we kept the irons. Why else would he ok all the repairs to the original style W30 intake as well?!!!!

Again doesn’t make sense to me.

 

My offer to him;

Good afternoon;

After many hours today and over the weekend, and countless conversations with various business owners in the same timeframe, I've come to an offer that ALL believe is more than fair. I'll post this on the websites as well if needed.

I'll send you $400.00 towards packing and shipping the heads back to me. I'll take them to a different shop, have them restored to new condition, with ALL necessary parts replaced. As a personal favor to you I will pay for all of that, as well as the return shipping. Your guys are the only ones that think the heads aren't repairable. Read some of the posts. Others feel, as I do, that they indeed can be fixed.

Here are the facts Steve. You didn't have Edelbrock heads to begin with. In fact you wanted to keep it in original condition, hence all the work done to the intake as well, remember?

Question, if you bought a fridge from Lowes that was $1000.00, and it broke, BUT WAS REPAIRABLE, do you think they're going to just give you one that's $2500.00 instead? No, they're going to try to fix the one you purchased first. So why am I burdened with buying you New Heads?
And if you change the heads, you add YET ANOTHER variable. Not to mention, all the extras you'll need to purchase in order to make them work.

You contend that the carb is not the issue. But until that's substantiated that's a moot point. However, I talked to Custom Carbs again today, And again they confirmed you didn't send ANY request to duplicate ANY jetting.

Hopefully he'll take me up on my offer. Otherwise we're done here.

 

That is more than a fair offer from Mark given the circumstances here. I have a question regarding the carb change. If the newly installed carb was running very lean wouldn't the motor have started pinging?or is this not always the case?i don't have a wideband to tune my quadrajets so its all by ear and feel (and sometimes smell).I would always want to be a bit on the rich side.

 

Mark, you have made him a more than equitable offer. I respect your decision as a small business owner. My two cents worth says he won't take you up on the offer. The quickest way to take away a keyboard warriors power is to solve his problem. You have gone above and beyond!

 

He'd be dumb if he didn't. It's the only one he's going to get.

 

Mark has given a realistic and sensible offer. Would be silly not to accept it.

 

A more than fair offer, in my opinion.

 

I wanted to thank everyone for their comments and advise lately regarding my 72 442 W30. For the record, Mark Remmel and I have come to a mutual agreement regarding my engine issues and he has been more than gracious to offer his help and support to remedy the problems I have had. I want to apologize to Mark for any harm this may have caused him or his business. My end goal is and always has been to just be able to drive and enjoy Big Blue for as long as I’m physically able to. Thank you

 

FYI appears to be resolved - Mark Remmel/newoldsperformance.com

 

I merged your remedy post into the original thread and restored the deleted context so that it had closure. Please do not delete the original post in the future.

 

Not speaking for Mark, or anyone else on the forum/Facebook posts for that matter..but thank you for following up with this. As someone with 15 years in the customer service realm through various jobs, as well as years of experience in sales..I can attest to the countless times dirty laundry was aired publicly, but the corrective action was never spoken of and it has had a lasting negative affect on the business. As it has been expressed before..ultimately it sucks to hear that you're having issues preventing you from enjoying your car as you'd like, and hope the resolution helps get you back on the road and no further problems arise.

 

I wonder if you should change the title of this thread. As it stands, it's not very fair to Mark, who has taken great pains to do the right thing.