We had my 2007 Mini Cooper's head cleaned and resurfaced, we also had the exhaust valve guides replaced and valves ground due to an oil consumption issue. (More about that here if you're curious: http://bit.ly/Mini56). We were replacing the pistons and some other parts for high performance parts.
At first the car drove fine, but within the following weeks the car began to billow smoke and sputter regularly. It was suggested that the entire engine be replaced, but after taking the head out again, doing some more research to assure that we did our parts correctly, we found out that the valve heads had been ground incorrectly, causing the valve head to burn. This is within just 1000 miles after having the head done here. It is now being sent off to another machine shop to be repaired.
We had two machine shops inspect the head after it was taken out again, and both said that whoever ground the valve caused the problem.
Unfortunately, there had been one prior bad experience we'd encountered with this shop and were hoping to give them another shot, initially thinking that they did a great job. Now we're out $675, and spending more money to repair it, again. read more