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What are fair machine shop prices?

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laserspeeddemon

20+ Year Contributor
6,717
61
Jul 26, 2002
Fredericksburg, Virginia
I was looking around at engine machine shop prices near me and wondering what you all would pay for the same type of services.

I dropped my block, crank and head off with an engine machine shop near me. I called him last week and he hasn't put together a final price. I just want to make sure that I'm not going to get ripped off. What are fair prices for machine work? I am really looking for people who built the engine themselves or machinist to answer. Please don't answer if you never had these done or have done these services yourself.

Block:
Hot Tank
Align bore/hone the mains
Bored/Hone Cylinder to 86mm (0.040" over)
Deck
(Possibly: Hot Tank a 2nd time)
(possibly:Install or re-install freeze plugs.)
Final cleaning

Crank:
Clean Crankshaft
Turn/Polish Main/Rod Journals
Final cleaning

Head:
Hot Tank/Clean head
Clean Valves
Square/Resurface Head
Reface valves
Lap Valves
Final Cleaning.


Also, all the machine shops around here are filthy (including the one I took my parts too), is this common thing?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I had my block at a machine shop got it: hot tanked, line honed, bored .20 over with tourqe plate, new freeze plugs installed, top was cut for a mls headgasket, painted. My crank, rods, pistons, and flywheel were then balanced together. Then he installed everything to spec and it all cost me 1100 I feel that was a fair price for the amount of work he did and he was a great guy, had a lot of NASCAR drivers pictures with him in it and some were autographed saying " thanks for the best block I ever ran"... Guess that's good enough for me haha

And talking about being clean, they deal with alot of cutting oil and small metal chips it's bound to be dirty. When I received my block it was wrapped in plastic and packed into a cardboard box for me to take home so my block was clean that's all I really cared about. Hope this helps a little bit
 
Heres My list.

Balance 4 cylinder auto-- $130.00

Degrease engine Block-- $35.00

Bore and Hone cyl.-- $18 (each) $72 (Total)

Deck 4 cyl. Block-- $78

Line hone 5 main-- $130

Valve job 4 cyl.multi valve-- $140

R&R pressed guide-- $5 (each) $80 (Total)

Mill 4 or 6 cyl Head-- $40

Pressure Test--$40

Some of this stuff you may or may not do obviously, but this is what i had done. I took those right off of my receipt. I got a new 2.3l crank so i didnt need any of the crank stuff done. I installed everything myself, Final washed it myself ###### 2-3 times, and put in the freeze plugs.
 
I pay as follows:

Align Hone Mains $100
R&R Valve guides $100
Valve job $135
Resurface Head $35
Resurface Block $35
Hot Tank (Head or block) $25 per trip (usually 2x for head and block)
Polish Crankshaft $30 (if it needs to be cut you should throw it in the scrap pile)
Set Main/Rod bearing clearances $75-100 (this is billed on time and it doesn't always take the same amount of time).
0 Balance Rotating Assembly $100
Bore/Hone Cylinders with torque plate ~$150 (I don't have this figure memorized)
R&R Freeze Plugs $75 (if I were to pay the machine shop)

So that's $960 if I were to pay my machinist to do all of the above work.
Depending on all the specifics, $1000 is in the ballpark.
 
My machine shop charged me $400 for just about everything you need done, and they do good work, hell this is the second season on my race motor!!!
But I put everything together, and measured everything.
 
We charge $685 for a complete 4 cylinder block prep. It includes ARP main studs, BS bearings, freeze plugs and galley plug.

Hot tank, clean, inspect and magnaflux block
Check align bore with ARP studs
Square deck
Bore .020" over
Plate hone
Final wash
Install new BS bearings, freeze plugs and galley plugs

Stroker engines add $120 for deburring the block, clearancing the block and modifying the balance shafts.
 
I'm at about $450 at my shop with everything you have listed minus the head work.Mine will also be magnufluxed
 
I dropped my block, crank and head off with a machine shop. I called him last week and he hasn't put together a final price. I just want to make sure that I'm not going to get ripped off. What are fair prices for machine work? I am really looking for people who built the engine themselves or machinist to answer. Please don't answer if you never had these done or have done these services yourself.

Block:
Hot Tank
Align bore/hone the mains
Bored/Hone Cylinder to 86mm (0.040" over)
Deck
(Possibly: Hot Tank a 2nd time)
(possibly:Install or re-install freeze plugs.)
Final cleaning

Crank:
Clean Crankshaft
Turn/Polish Main/Rod Journals
Final cleaning

Head:
Hot Tank/Clean head
Clean Valves
Square/Resurface Head
Reface valves
Lap Valves
Final Cleaning.


Also all the machine shops around here a filthy (including the one I took my parts too), is this common thing?

$800.00 here nj
 
Also all the machine shops around here a filthy (including the one I took my parts too), is this common thing?
Some filthy shops do great work, but they're not all filthy. The shop that did my block work has a floor clean enough to lick (if you're into floor licking). And another shop that I've been to is so clean, ALL of their workers wear bright white collared button-up dress shirts on the job. It's funny seeing guys dressed like that while running a bridgeport or dropping a tranny. :)

This guy is charging me nearly $1000 for machine work.
That's a pretty decent price for everything listed, as long as they do good work. The price that I paid my local shop for my blockwork was inline with what JacksonAuto quoted above. Also make sure they have a torque plate for boring and honing.
 
Hot tank, Bore & hone, deck, cut and polish crank and line hone and I'm in for 560. This does not include any disassembly, re assembly or head work on the machine shops part including freeze plugs. Ill be spending another 200 for the rotating assembly balance. I don't think 1000 bucks for what you had done is unreasonable. Maybe a touch on the high side but not by much. I personally would rather pay more for first class work than a little less for so so work.
 
Hot tank, Bore & hone, deck, cut and polish crank and line hone and I'm in for 560. This does not include any disassembly, re assembly or head work on the machine shops part including freeze plugs. Ill be spending another 200 for the rotating assembly balance. I don't think 1000 bucks for what you had done is unreasonable. Maybe a touch on the high side but not by much. I personally would rather pay more for first class work than a little less for so so work.

Exactly. Get some references and if it's first class work, I'd pay the extra easily.
 
Well this shop ended up being a TOTAL rip off.

First they bored the block straight to 86mm without every looking at the pistons. Which has me concerned that the piston to wall clearance is to loose.

My wife picked up the head back and paid $500, since I plan on sending it off to get ported/polished and my head is FILTHY. He claimed that it was hot tanked twice, but not only is it covered with engine grease and the old valve cover gasket still sticking to the head. But I marked all the camshaft caps with a number and then marked the head where they go. I marked this with DRY ERASE MAKER. The markings are still on the head. I took my finger and wiped the mark away. This guy is a total rip off.
 
Man that sounds horrible, what are you going to do next?
 
I had jacksons machine my block,the whole idea was to assembly it myself but after reading some threads about eagle rods not being within spec,i decided to let them assemble it too.So i had them bore .020,assemble and balance it wisco's on eagles, and what do you know,the big end of the brand new eagle rods were 1/10 of an inch too big,so i had to spend an other $70.00 to have them resized.So i'm glad i did not assemble it myself.Paying the extra for peace of mind priceless.
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Well this shop ended up being a TOTAL rip off.

First they bored the block straight to 86mm without every looking at the pistons. Which has me concerned that the piston to wall clearance is to loose.

My wife picked up the head back and paid $500, since I plan on sending it off to get ported/polished and my head is FILTHY. He claimed that it was hot tanked twice, but not only is it covered with engine grease and the old valve cover gasket still sticking to the head. But I marked all the camshaft caps with a number and then marked the head where they go. I marked this with DRY ERASE MAKER. The markings are still on the head. I took my finger and wiped the mark away. This guy is a total rip off.
Put your foot down man! I know you have it in you. :)

They promised you a lemon pie and gave you a poo pie. ;)
 
The problem is I don't have time to deal with this. My wife opens her business in about 1 month. We need 2 cars, now! We got $150,000 into the business. We lose that we lose our home and it's back to the army with me.
 
Well this shop ended up being a TOTAL rip off.

First they bored the block straight to 86mm without every looking at the pistons. Which has me concerned that the piston to wall clearance is to loose.

My wife picked up the head back and paid $500, since I plan on sending it off to get ported/polished and my head is FILTHY. He claimed that it was hot tanked twice, but not only is it covered with engine grease and the old valve cover gasket still sticking to the head. But I marked all the camshaft caps with a number and then marked the head where they go. I marked this with DRY ERASE MAKER. The markings are still on the head. I took my finger and wiped the mark away. This guy is a total rip off.

Yikes, heads aren't supposed to be hot tanked, only jet washed. The acid used in hot tanking is known to eat away at the aluminum, and the high temperatures can easily warp the head...
 
Sounds like the shop I JUST took mine to.

Local shop known well nationally for their american V8's. I know all the guys personally, and knew they weren't looking forward to working on a 4 cyl. Told them I wanted the block/crank spec'd yadaa yadaa. Go to pick it up on wednesday the block is still filty just like when I pulled it out, crank doesn't look touched. Supposedly they magnafluxed and hot tanked it. How do you magnaflux a block that is caked in oil/grime?

I paid my $70 for the crank "check" said screw paying for the block, walked into the machine shop and walked out with my block and crank.

Had I walked in with a chevy 350 and wanted it worked on I would've been like a god to them. Some shops you just can't trust.
 
Well this shop ended up being a TOTAL rip off.

I took my finger and wiped the mark away. This guy is a total rip off.

tyeler18 said:
Had I walked in with a chevy 350 and wanted it worked on I would've been like a god to them. Some shops you just can't trust.

I realize I'm waking up an old post here, but I was looking for the same information and saw a couple of entries that I felt I could field some answers on.

First, I've rebuilt engines and I've had the machine shops work on them. I've rebuilt 6 engines with my dad (they were my brothers' and he never knew how to check the oil on an engine that needed to have that periodically checked.) and I've rebuilt my own engine twice.

First, my dad always maintained that the cleaner the shop, the less trustworthy they are. In other words, if they spend their time keeping the shop spotless, then they are spending too much time doing work that does nothing for the engine. Oddly enough, my dad's high school friend and owner of his own shop used to work so carefully that he never spilled any oil on the car, shop floor nor got a drop on his shop coveralls. However, there were two other machinists that worked there, and...

Second, There's been a number of comments about a buildup that is still there after hot tanking or whatever process. Allow me to point out that I had a chevy v8 that I once brought to a machine shop. They claimed to have dipped it twice and it still had copious build up. I wont name brand names, but I experimented with a synthetic oil additive that claimed to reduce wear and tear, reduce friction because it was a penetrating treatment. So, I added the additive to the engine oil of my brand new car. Within 2 years I was blowing blue smoke like crazy and all I did was drive it daily. I took the engine apart and found about a 1/4" thick of what looked like a brownie buildup all over any oil passages, etc. As I said, I took it to a shop and had it dipped and it was still there. I asked my dad and he said the Advertisement for the synthetic additive said it "binds dirt" besides that it "penetrates the metal surface." So, that's what it did, penetrated the metal and bound with any dirt resulting in a buildup that could not be removed by conventional means.
My guess would be that's what happened to you two as well, with a non-removeable buildup.

As to markings not being removed, while I won't say what I'm about to say is what happened, I can say I've seen similar instances. Machine shops sometimes mask an area, especially when there are owner's markings, to allow the owner to see their own markings after the machine shop has done their work. Why? Maybe because the owner was putting a mark there for a reason they don't know about. It's safer to mask the markings, than clean them and get bit**ed at for removing what might have been important.

As to the original question about machine shop costs, aside for "tasks priced per cylinder," Machine shop costs should be transitive from one shop to another. As long as they aren't buying parts, the labor of boring a cylinder from one shop to another, should be nearly identical. Now if you bring them an assembled engine, then prices may differ because they might not be familiar with the assembly procedures and thereby a fluctuating hourly labor charge may come into play.
...however, labor costs rise from one year to the next, and the last time I got machine shop work done was a little over 20 years ago.

I hope this helps with any future similar questions.
 
Depends on where you live. Here in Cali, labor per hour is 110 to 125. In Oregon where I'm from, its still around 80. Prices for big jobs will vary considerably depending on the labor rate.
 
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