quote:Originally posted by jeff6559:
...So what d'ya reckon this baby would cost to get it done, including machine work. I am definitely not expert or even experienced in this area so that's why I am asking. Here's a typical economy rebuild and it would cost about $_______....l
Jeff, rather than give you a hard fast number, I'll give you an idea of what you are buying:
1) the builders price for the parts, plus maybe a 10% mark up (profit for the builder). Some builders don't mark up the prices, some mark them up even more. There are a few things I've left off the list, such as gaskets. Poor quality parts cost less than the top name brand parts. This is one place builders will cut costs to quote you a cheap price, or to maximize their profit. You can open up a Summit catalog and price a lot of the things on my list.
2) the builder's cost for the machine work (block, heads, crank, rods, porting, balancing). The builder may farm out some or all of this work, or he may do it in house. Even done in house, there are still substantial costs for labor & machinery built into the price of ths work.
3) the builder's cost for the dyno time. A big operation will be capable of doing that in house, a small guy will have to farm it out. The guy cutting corners to give you a low price will bypass the dyno altogether. This is OK if he's just re-building a stock motor. This is a bad idea if he's building a modified motor.
4) the labor to assemble the motor. I would spend 40 hours easily to carefully build a motor. In todays market, that is about $3,200 ($80 per hour). The garage mechanics, rebuilders, etc would laugh, thinking 8 hours is plenty of time. This is another area where the guy trying to give you a bargain price is going to cut corners, or a dishonest mechanic will over charge in order to increase his profit.
your friend on the DTBB