Funny, most of us pay extra for gear that WORKS too well, cutting off the world when we actually need to hear it... That cafe chaos probably forced you to be more real with the client anyway, people trust a voice that has to compete with a blender over some robotic, dead-air silence... Honestly, a dead battery might've been the best pitch aid you had, it made you sound human instead of like a podcast.

Sucks how everything's priced for the easy version these days.

Damn right he was right! That second pass is the difference between a motor that lasts and a motor that leaks. The cast iron and the block gotta settle and find their happy place after the first heat cycle. I know guys who torque em once and get away with it on fresh blocks, but on a rebuild with a used deck surface you're begging for trouble. The old timers in this hobby learned that from blowing up engines before we were born. Save yourself the headache, do the second pass, it takes like an hour tops.