What happened to Jon’s Delica is embarrassing.
So here is what happened:
I had almost finished the pre-prep of Jon’s van and drained the oil, changed the filter and was coming back up when the phone rang. The call was a long drawn out discussion about a couple of the issues that IVOAC is fighting and my mind as not focused on the work at hand. Once the call was finished I changed out the fuel filter and went on to the pyrometer install.
The van was moved to the other side of the garage before I was able to do a final once over to make sure all the pre-prep was completed properly. The damage was done.
That is when Jon showed up to learn how to change out the auto hubs for locking hubs. I was instructing him how to do the swap and at the same time working on another project.
Jon went to pull out of the garage the next day and the low oil sensor kept shutting the van down. A grinding later and the “no oil” discovery was made.
In the 25 years of working on vehicles, I have never had such an embarrassing occurrence happen.
I have offered to replace the engine with one out of a 40,000 km unit plus the balance and timing belts and tensioners OR refund his $15,000 in full plus headlights and interior clean.
Jon emailed his requests tonight and I am considering them.
As of this terribly expensive and frustrating result of inattention I have learned a few valuable lessons,
First, stop answering the phone when working on a unit.
Second, no more allowing people to work in my garage.
Third, under no circumstances do I fire up a unit without doing a once over.
] hope you don't come out of it to badly.