Bitner Automotive

Furman

★☆☆☆☆

9 months ago

Review of Bitner Automotive Machine Shop – Disappointed and Concerned I’ve had a Ford 460 engine in my jet boat since I built it back in 1995, and it’s been rock solid—until the end of last season when I started noticing valve issues. A compression test showed cylinder #5 was down to 90 psi (while the rest were at 175), and a leak-down test confirmed a leaking exhaust valve. Since the machine shops I’d used years ago were long gone, I decided to try Bitner Automotive. They inspected the heads and confirmed my suspicions: the exhaust valves were starting to tulip and needed to be replaced. They quoted a full valve job, resurfacing, and new exhaust valves—over $800. Pricey, but I agreed, hoping for quality work. The engine was out of the boat and in my heated garage, fully assembled with all ports taped and the engine covered. I got the heads back on January 14, 2024, reinstalled them a week later, and left the engine protected until I dropped it back in the boat about a month later. I briefly fired the engine—less than a minute—without water, just to verify startup. Later in the season, I connected a hose for proper setup. The engine ran terribly: it had a miss, wouldn’t idle, and clearly wasn’t right. Compression test again: #4 and #5 were way down (25 and 40 psi). Leak-down showed #4 leaking intake and exhaust, and #5 again leaking exhaust. I pulled the heads and brought them back to Bitner. A young man checked them over. At this point, I was already out around $200 in gaskets, plus all my own labor. They called back and claimed a valve seat (or seats) had been damaged by foreign material passing through. I found this explanation hard to believe—I had cleaned everything meticulously, even running the intake manifold through the dishwasher. There was no damage to pistons or chambers, and my shop is clean—no sand, no filings, no debris. They re-cut the seats and returned the heads to me at no charge, but when I did a bench test with compressed air, I found that all but four valves were leaking. Instead of taking them back again, I removed the valves and inspected them myself. Sure enough, I saw issues with valve faces—especially some intake and exhaust valves. I spent two hours hand-lapping them, improving the seal, but it still wasn’t perfect. The valve margins were almost nonexistent, and the contact pattern was all the way at the top of the valve—not centered like it should be. I reinstalled the heads. Compression now ranged from 125 to 175. Not ideal, but it’s running on all eight, and I’ll be putting it in the water this week. As for what went wrong? I suspect the so-called “foreign material” may have come from the resurfacing process—possibly metal chips in the air injection holes of the exhaust ports. It also seems clear that no pressure or vacuum test was done after the valve job, and I doubt the valves were lapped or the patterns checked. For context—I was a flat-rate GM technician for 30 years. I’m an ASE-certified Master Tech in Automotive, Truck, Machine Shop, and Parts. I’ve done over 200 head jobs, ground seats and valves myself, checked margins, and always verified sealing with a three-angle job (60°–45°–30°). What I received from Bitner fell well short of professional standards. I won’t be going back. I even considered small claims court. I’ll run the heads for this season, but plan to replace them next year due to the risk posed by the poor valve margins. Disappointed is an understatement. Looking forward to hearing Bitner’s response.

John Bohonyi

★☆☆☆☆

Edited 3 months ago

Bitner is a dishonest mechanic who shouldn’t be working on any vehicles. Our truck sat at their shop for 10 weeks. They gave it back to us three times, all of which the truck wasn’t running right, it was leaking fluids and engine knocking, check engine light on. After $4,000 they still wanted more money to fix the issue their mechanic caused. We took our truck in for an oil leak and picked it up not running, leaking oil and diesel, check engine light on and engine knocking. Bitner make our truck worse and then had the audacity to blame us saying it wasn’t their fault. We had to use another mechanic and pay for the repairs that Bitner caused. Not only did they not fix our truck, they made it worse and still took our money! I would make sure to go out of my way to share my horrible experience with anyone who even considers using these incompetent mechanics. Also during this time we got a quote from them for another truck. They wanted $2,600 to replace two batteries and a starter in our other truck. We ended up having another mechanic do the work. We paid $250, not $2,600. It needed one battery, not two and the starter was not bad, it was brand new but the nut/connection was loose! *Bitner was the ONLY mechanic to work on my vehicle. They did injectors and reused the old, worn out seals. We dropped it off leaking oil, they gave it back to us ten weeks later leaking oil and diesel, which we dropped off the truck the next day. Bitner never fixed our truck, it was Junior Automotive, a fellow competitor of theirs who was able to diagnosis and repair my truck. Bitner is still lying even in their response. Stay far away from these dishonest and incompetent. Cylinder 6 was misfiring because Bitner installed injector 6 wrong and we had the truck break down the day after picking it up. UPDATE: 12/10/25 two injectors that Bitner installed needed to be replaced and they were not ford/oem injectors. I paid for oem injectors and told Bitner I wanted ford/oem injectors and they lied, installed cheap injectors. Not only are these mechanics incompetent, they are proven liars. I should have read their Google reviews before choosing these hacks!

Benjamin Rosas

★☆☆☆☆

Edited 10 months ago

Extremely poor communication. I brought my engine here for assembly, balancing, new bearings/rings, and resizing the rods with ARP rod bolts installed. After 7 months with little to no updates, they told me the new cam bolt broke during assembly. They helicoiled and moved on. Only after paying $2,000+ did they mention their no warranty policy. When I got the engine back, the rear cam plug was missing, and after priming, the rear main and oil galley plugs were leaking. I followed their break-in procedure, changed the oil, and drove 600 miles gently. Shortly after I noticed a knock when warm, on deceleration. I reached out for support and got ignored with no care of what happened. "Mark" was supposed to call me but never did. I finally pulled the pan and found a spun rod bearing. Now the crank is scrap and the engine is filled with bearing material. I would not recommend this shop if you care about your time, money, and peace of mind, look elsewhere. EDIT: I saw the response and wanted to clarify a few things. I did not decline to bring the engine back, I was hesitant due to the added cost and downtime. There was no clear indication the issue would be looked at seriously. Since the failure, the engine is now contaminated with bearing material, making a meaningful inspection difficult. It was assembled carefully with a new oil pump, a cleaned pan, a new pickup screen, and it was properly primed. I also noticed I received a faster response here than when I initially reached out, which was disappointing. I’d still be open to a serious and transparent inspection if the shop is willing or decides to give me a call back.