Business ProfileforR & L Engines, Inc.

Had R & L an engine for my 70 Nova. Car was show quality, had been shipped up from Florida, frame up restoration. Had another local shop ******** Service Center) do the install with careful instructions not to touch or move the distributor during install. Everything was perfect for the 1st 3 weeks or so, but the idle kept advancing. Spoke with Nadine at R & L, she advised to bring car by shop (with a call ahead) and they would adjust idle and reset timing. I stood and watched as their "tuner" played with every bolt and screw on the (brand new, purchased from R&L during engine build) ) carburetor. Everything seemed perfect when I left shop (July 20th or so). Headed home from a car show the night of August 3rd suddenly smelled gas and car stalled. Pulled over, heard a loud snapping noise and saw smoke instantly from vents, 2 fire extinguishers later my car sat and burned on the side of the road in Wells, Me. Next morning, I went to the shop where it had been towed, ***** **** **** and ****** in *********, ME. With the owner of the business (***) watching me, I took the air cleaner off the engine to try and make some sense of what had happened. I was looking at the back side of the engine itself when *** said "well, that right there might be your problem" as he pointed to the float adjustment screw, which was about 2 inches from the hole that it should have been threaded into and sealed. It was pointing upward. Gas got down onto the headers/exhaust and ignited. Nobody had touched the car since R&L's employee adjusted the carb, idle and timing. Car was insured with a stated value (25K), but was worth 35 with the new engine (i have multiple folks who saw it at********* car show shortly before it burned) that would verify the cars value. When I went to R&L and informed *** what had happened I got "gee, that's a shame". 10 days from them adjusting a NEW carb that THEY supplied and tuned the car developed a major fuel leak at the carb and burned.