IN one of my A bodies (An Aussie Valiant VG 770 Coupe - Dodge dart to you guys), it was a factory 318 car. Pretty rare for Australia as most were ordered with the 'Hemi' 245 and 265 ci straight six bangers. Anyway, I was planning on dragging the car but it was also my daily driver.
I had heard of a guy selling Yella Terra (An Aussie company that used to do heads for Mopars..no longer doing them I heard) heads (273 heads, bigger valves, using the Mopar forged adjustable rockers etc.) The heads had a lot of work done by Yella Terrra, custom for this guy.
Well the heads were awesome. And I got an engine builder to rebuild my stock 318. Forged Crank, flat top pistons, bored out to 030 on the block, Crane came, a tq something, I forget now. Balanced everything. Eddie torker 2 intake, hooker headers. Rebuilt my 727, balanced prop shaft, and 3.23:1 LSD.
Car was awesome. I loved it and it sounded right.
The old guy that originally built my engine retired a bit after my car was run in. But I had no problems with it and did not worry.
Skip ahead a year, and I got a pinhole in the waterpump/timing chain area. Jetted water into the oil, which did not help the car run better. I took it to a guy I had heard owned Mopars himself, but was still pretty young. Now I was only 19 or so at the time. And he might have been in his late 20's.
I left the car with him and a few days later he called me back telling me one of my heads is cracked. I said BS, no way did the heads give way. But he said he checked it and that was the case. He offers to weld the head. A few days go by and he called me again..Weld did not work.??WTF? Have to replace the heads. He put's on stock heads from another old 318. And phones me up telling me to get my car.
When I got there I asked to see the yella terra heads....
Now, ALL Yella Terra heads from their shop are yellow! But I had mine blasted and stripped of paint and painted BLACK. SO there was NO yellow on them at all. He shows me a pair of heads, looked like 273 ones, that were mostly black and had yellow showing through, albeit an entirely different yellow to the one Yella Terra use. It looked like Caterpillar yellow to me. I said to him, these are not my heads. He said yep they are, now pay me.
I had to pay, he was not going to let my car go, I was young and in no position to argue.
But a week or so later, a Valiant AP5 ute this guy had, which was not running, was up and running on the street again, with a small block in it! And you KNOW they were my heads right! ;)
Total BS. I tried to fight for ALL of the parts he took off and supposedly replaced. Months later I got a bottom rad hose and hose clamp and some mystery gasket pieces. Well, you live and learn. But that one put a dent in my bank account at a time in my life when I could not really afford it.
The guy went broke about a year later. Lot's of similar complaints, him running up bills without doing the work etc. Finally caught up with him. Little good it did me though.
