How much did your maching cost?

[rnstphns]

I think the title pretty much sums up the question. After I spent $1763.83 on just labor alone for my last motor at the machine shop I'm left with the question of how much should it really be? That one consisted of the fancy port job on the head and all that jazz but seriously should it be that much? I just had them redue a different engine and they handed me a bill for $763.72. That was just the bare minimium.
Their "machining" work consisted of...
cleaning the head
deck the head
installng valves,springs, and retainers (previously purchased)
deck the block
bore the block .020 over
hottank the block
polish the crank
that seems a little steep to me. So if you wouldn't mind chiming in... How much did your maching cost on your build?

 

[xreaction122]

when i rebuilt my 7bolt last yr i got the following done

-hot tanked block

-bell honed

-decked block

-check crankshaft

-port and polish the head

all that for 233.00 + tax...

 

[SD99GST]

Wow... you got one monster deal. I have a guy that has ported and polished a few of my cars heads and a hook up price for me is 75.00 per set, so he's charging me 300.00 just for the port and polishing work on my 6 bolt head. Everything else sounds right, I think Im paying a bit more, but close - 279.00 + tax.

But on your port and polish did he do all intake and exaust ports? Do you have any pictures of the work?

 

[64_Frankenstein]

2 years ago I have mine block bored 40 over, and clean. That's not all. I have my cylinder head clean and had him put new valve steam seals and after marker valve springs. My total cost were less then 100 bucks. He did a great job on it for that kind of price. But dam it took him nearly 2 weeks to have it done.

 

[tunernewb92]

I know its not a 4 cylinder but I had my work done at a shop in Jackson called Acey's. Probably the best shop in MS for the work they do. The engines that come out of that shop have beastly horsepower. Anyway, I got my 454 block:
sleeved,
bored out .030 over
plate honed,
cleaned,
and acid dipped for $420 straight up.
Then to port and polish both heads, had I wanted to, would have been 250 ea head.

 

[VETTE_50_TH]

Im not sure what the break done was on my head, i will lay it all out.

Block: Wiseco Pistons - 20over
Eagle Rods H- Beam
ACL Race bearings
ARP head studs
Oil Pan Bolts
Hot Tank
Machine work 20 over
Polished Crank
Paint the Block
Check Clearances and such
Assemble the pistons and rods and bolt onto the crank

= $1350

Head: BC 280 cams
Manley/BC springs
SS 1mm Oversized valves, black nitrated
New seats
Revised 3G lifters
Decked
Hot tank and clean
Assemble all parts
Full race port and polish by Wes Hess.

= $1595 Shipped from New Mexico

Here are some pics of my headwork. I think i got an amazing deal for both of them. If you were to go some other places, think more along the lines of twice as much. There are some things i am going to clean up before i put the head on, like casting imperfections that i want to sand out and maybe paint it, even though its in very good condition, overall I am happy with what i have.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

James

 

[smithGSX]

i got all this for 475 machining, shop labor, AND tax.

block bored .20 over
head cleaned
block cleaned
valve job
head assembled
cams cleaned
head decked
block decked
ported and polished head
block studded
crank lightened, balanced and micropolished
ARP studs honed in
wrist pins honed in

thats bout it. had a few other things checked over too. but damn good deal on it all.

 

[shredwin]

just to get my crank rebalanced and polished was about 130 bucks down at slowboys

 

[97 4G63]

I payd $150 for my head and block work from a shop here in raleigh i had my block decked and went
.20 over,honed,head resurfaced,and new valve guides inn.
Not to bad for NC..haha

 

[mikEclipse99]

i just finished my 7 bolt stroker and for 20 over, port and polished head, 3 angle valve job, hot tanked everything and i forget what else he did haha and full engine assembly it was $1250

 

[djmixerx]

Shoot I think I paid like 1100 for just a assembly of a 2.3 stroker and I already had the parts. He bought bearings and clean the crank and checked for clearance. Other then that pretty much just the bottom end too. CA is grip.

 

[Kastigir]

I was quoted 650 for the following.

Head cleaned, How do they clean aluminum?
Port and polish
2mm oversize valves seats, with 3 angle job
Valve guide installation

 

[phillabaum03]

Wow... you got one monster deal. I have a guy that has ported and polished a few of my cars heads and a hook up price for me is 75.00 per set, so he's charging me 300.00 just for the port and polishing work on my 6 bolt head. Everything else sounds right, I think Im paying a bit more, but close - 279.00 + tax.

But on your port and polish did he do all intake and exaust ports? Do you have any pictures of the work?

send me your head and i'll do it for less!

 

[webconnect]

I just got a quote from a local reputable shop which has their own 9 second cars, $10 per cylinder to bore, $27.50 to polish crank. I forgot to ask how long it would take. Can you guys post how long it took the shop as well?

 

[webconnect]

I came out spending 270$. They cut the crank ($75), and and installed 4 helicoils on my turbo exhaust flange ($75)

 

[david-b]

Around $600 (including shipping) for head work. Took a bout a month or so from me shipping to getting it back (was in no rush anyways).

-Head decked
-cleaned
-3-angle valve job
-ported and polished
-intake manifold ported big time and polished

That included the shipping to and from Chicago to Rhode Island. Block will be next, and found a place locally to do it. Hopefully in April I can get it done.

 

[JusMX141]

send me your head and i'll do it for less!

Don't take offense, but I'd be leary of any cut-rate porting....especially if it's not bench-tested in any way. How would you tune your car properly if two of the four cylinders flow better than the others?

Believe me- this is all total speculation....I've had buddies that ported their heads themselves and they turned out great, and I've also seen machine shops that RUINED perfectly good heads. It's all a gamble.

This doesn't mean you need to run out and pay Slowboy $1500-$2000 for a head....there are plenty of machine shops that do worthwhile porting. I would choose a shop that builds a ton of reliable race engines for circle track or drag cars, maybe they even race a car of their own. Shops like this are tried and true compared to your average backyard mechanic.

 

[bluegs03]

what you also need to think about is any possible disasembly that they had to do. Did you just bring them a whole motor and ask them to do these things? If so they had to spend all of that labor disassembling and reassembling. One of the ways i saved money with my machine work was the completely, and i do mean completely disassemble everything so all they had to do was take the part and hot tank it then machine it. This saved me almost $500 in labor from assembly.

 

[JusMX141]

There are two way to look at that:

- You can save the money on machine shop assembly by building your own engine. The 4G63 isn't rocket science by any means.

- You can let the machine shop assemble your engine, and in most cases they'll offer some type of small warranty if you have trouble relating to their machinework in the near future. I'm not saying they'll warranty the engine if you blow it up going down the track, but I had a buddy that was eating rod bearings on one crank journal repeatedly every 700-900 miles after having an engine shop install a new set of Eagles on his 9.0:1 pistons. Turns out they installed one of the rods backwards, and wouldn't warranty their work because he assembled the engine himself even though it was entirely their screwup.

 

[one_bad_7]

the shop i use flat charges per cylinder. what kills people is the assembly and that stuff. my shop charges 80 a hour to assemble. i jsut do that myself

my LS7 machine work was 125
my 4g63 was less than 100