Quote Originally Posted by RacerBill View Post
When I blew a head gasket last year, I decided to try that route. Found a local race engine builder that seemed to know what he was talking about. $2300 later, I had an engine that lasted three weekends (never got over 200 degrees, or over 6000 RPM) and did not seem to have any more power than the old engine. It sounded great, though. However, when I first tried to start it, we found that the timing gears were so far out of alignment that the only way it would run was to rotate the plug wires one position on the distributor.

I have enough skill to change the head gasket, but other than that, no experience bulding/rebuilding engines. I chased a leaking thermostat housing for two days before the nut behind the wrench figured out that a stud that located the oil dip stick tube was put in backwards and was bottoming out in the head, preventing the housing from getting drawn up tight and sealing.
The two items you mentioned above in bold are GREAT reasons to stop everything and take the engine back to the builder. In hindsight don't assume the shop did the right thing and band-aid the setup to make it work. In the end you'll lose, case and point.