Be careful where you get your work done! Here is the start of a story coming together. My buddy Casey had been talking with an engine guy over in Michigan at BTJ Custom Marine about an engine swap for a while. He told Casey about how successful he is and all his accolades from big-time poker runners and racers. So he drove 7 hr to Michigan to drop the boat and have the motor swapped out from a 454 to 502 Mercury Marine motor that this guy said he would guarantee with paperwork. He also said he would come to Wisconsin to fix it if there were any problems. So he had to wait an additional week from what he was promised for a timeline. So Casey got the call that the boat was ready and to come to get it. So he headed back over to get there and BTJ Custom Marine LLC changed his tune again and said it wasn't ready and he had to do some tweaks quick. But he had to go to court in the morning and would be back about 10 AM and get him on the road right away. Well, that didn't happen and he finally made it there and had Casey ready the following day at 3:40 PM. Then he tells Casey that one of the workers was cleaning something and fell through the hatch and broke it. What?? You fell through the hatch on the front of the boat while fixing the motor. He had also promised to clean and detail the boat since he had it for an extra week, but that didn't happen. He promised to paint the valve covers and do some highlight paint in purple on the motor. When he was asked about the paint color. He told Casey beggars can't be choosers. WOW!!! He acts like he is giving him a great deal! So he got the boat home to Wi. Then out on the water right after the barge party on Sunday the 24th. The boat would not even get up on plane. So we thought prop change. But it's a 2800lb boat with 540hp. So it should really be able to get out of the hole with ease. So Casey called to get ideas on what the issue might be. Zero response from BTJ Custom Marine LLC and no response since he left. We decided tonight to take it out for a quick run and see if we couldn't get it to at least come up on plane by just slowly walking it up a little at a time. We went over to the 24th St. launch in Oshkosh and dropped in the boat. We took off and made it about 3 city blocks away, it never came close to getting on plane and the water temp came up to around 200 degrees. We shut the motor down and noticed smoke from the back engine compartment. Opened up the hatch and noticed the exhaust bellows were smoking!! We waited for about 10 min started it back up but the water temp didn't drop right away so we shut her down. Therefore, I am guessing the water pump is trashed now as well. So we sat for a while and no one was in sight to tow us in. I called my man Jeff from Sweetwater Performance Center and he sent out his man Carter with the rental boat to get us into shore. It was a true blessing for us or we would have paddled forever with the wind against us. So now the boat is on the trailer and we will see what happens next in this story. I will be writing the full story on this for the blog with all the details receipts, testimonials, and photos. I know a lot of you will never travel this far for a boat repair or engine work. But thought this deserves a heads up to any poor soul that might go to this guy.