Bitner Automotive

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

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 experienc

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 cra

Worst mechanic service I have ever experienced. When I called in to check in on my car a day after dropping it off, they didn't even know my car was there. Despite the fact I literally handed the key to a person at the front desk. Wanted to charge me $370 for a diagnostic and oil change, told them not to bother with the oil change. They then tried charging me $147 for a "diagnostic". I brought the car in due to low oil pressure. The diagnostic they gave me was that the oil pressure was low. That's the symptom, I needed to know what was causing the low oil pressure. While discussing this with one of the mechanics he slammed his hand on the desk, ripped up the paperwork, and tossed my key on the table while cursing at me. Clearly was incapable of managing his emotions and quite literally thr

STAY AWAY ! I brought an engine to be machined. Once I brought them all the parts, I was told that it would take a couple months. A couple months later they didn't even start on it. They weren't up front with me and never told me that the work I needed done was going to another shop because they didn't have the equipment to do it. Now after 4 months, I was told to come and pick everything up and they didn't want to do it anymore. I scheduled what I needed to do with them saying it was going to take a couple months. Now they completely wasted my time, I am without a finished engine. They lied to me when I dropped everything off. Absolute worst people to deal with. They said I wasn't patient enough. I'm guessing that in the machinist's world a couple months must mean a couple years. **EDIT**