repaired head without permission

[joe3180]

I have my engine in the shop getting rebuilt. The machine shop they sent it to went and repaired a crack (that neither I nor the shop knew about) in the head without my permission. The number 1 cylinder had a crack where the spark plug gets threaded, so they welded it and put a helical coil in. Now if they would have asked I wont not have had them do that work and just gotten a different and undamaged head or at least looked into the good and bad of doing a repair like that. Since the work is done already is there any reason I should put up a big fuss? I don't mind it too much as long as there is absolutely no downside to it but I am not too keen on the steel helical coil in my aluminum head.
Is there ANY issue you can think of that this can cause? I did want new exhaust valves which they didn't install due to the whole not asking thing. And they will be getting the head back to put them in regardless of what I do about the repair issue.

This is what they did:
disassemble/reassemble springs/guides/valves
hot tank
deck
new guides
that repair

My shop says they invoiced him $600 for the work.

I just want other opinions because im sure my shop doesn't want to muddy the water with their head shop and altho they are quite angry he didn't get a call about the repairs nor the go ahead from him or me...it feels like he is leaning towards the...eh just pay it, its a fair price for what they did...kind of attitude.

If there is something I didn't mention please ask. Thanks.
redtop sr20det

[Kingtal0n]

I would tell them to keep it. Get a new head. Its not like a redtop head is hard to get. for $800 you should be able to source an entire longblock.

[racepar1]

It is against BAR regulations for ANY work to be performed without your permission. You SHOULD have been contacted before the head was repaired. From my experience cracks around the plug holes are NOT REPAIRABLE. In order to repair them you have to weld the entire plug hole closed and re-machine it. A heli-coil does not fix a crack. If the threads were simply damage then yes, that repair would work fine for that. A helicoil should NOT have been used though, and probably wasn't. They sell threaded inserts for repairing damaged spark plug threads. It is actually VERY common on the Ford V-8's to blow the spark plugs out with the threads. We have a specific repair kit for that at my shop.

[joe3180]

I wish I knew what they did exactly. There are no pictures of it before to know what exactly was wrong with it. I can tell it was welded but not much more than that and I can clearly see the helicoil since all 3 of the other holes look normal and the one is steel and goldish color. I will ask about how they did the repair exactly though and what exactly was the issue so I know. I just know I wont be paying what they are asking.