I had an engine built and run in on the dyno in California (I live in Australia). When I pulled the
oil pan off to install supercharger
oil return lines before installing it into a car, I found a lot of metal fragments which turned out to be a cast distributor gear being chewed up by the billet solid roller camshaft. Easy mistake to make when assembling an engine I guess.
Fearing that it might be more than just the distributor gear needing replacement (ie: had debris gone through the
oil pump and/or into the bearings?), the engine builder agreed for a local engine builder near me to disassemble and report on any carnage. Turned out the bearings were fine, so it was just a matter of needing a bronze gear and some miscellaneous gaskets. Add in a few hours labour and I let the Californian business know what it was worth. It turned out that I needed to buy some other unrelated parts at the same time, so they agreed to credit me for the cost (so I didn't have to wait for parts to ship to the other side of the world). They added about 20% extra to the credit (just in case any other bits were needed!), and sold me the other parts I ordered at their cost as a goodwill gesture.
This was a "mere" $20K engine, but I think it's an example of how a situation can be resolved without the distance being an issue.