Cost Of Engine Rebuild?????

[Westy]

What would a ball park figure be if I rebuilt my own motor? Of course any machine work I would not be able to do. It's just that I can't find the car I want, so I'm thinkin' buy a nice but high mileage car, and spend the money I saved on the motor.

Any thoughts?????

[HarryD]

Get Wayne's Rebuild book to get a sense of what may be involved and some potential costs. You can use the Pelican Parts Rebuild Wizard to get a sense of the parts costs (no machine work).

[ChrisBennet]

It will vary from motor to motor - a 2.7 is going to be more expensive than an 3.0 SC for example. If you're even considering doing your motor, get Wayne's book.
-Chris

[ischmitz]

I would budet 3000$ for machine work and 3000$ for parts (including new P/C). There is a variance of about 2000$ depending on how far you want to go in regards of upgrades (Chain tensioner, head studs/rodbolts, higher compression) on the parts side and what all you need/want to have done for machine work (balancing, linebore, shufflepin, mooning, boattailing, knife edging)

Of course if the donor motor has some unusable parts (crank, oil pump, head) that are normally not damaged it gets more expensive.

Same is true if you go wilder with the performance upgrades (twin plugging, EFI, etc)

Ingo

[oneblueyedog]

The estimate given in Wayne's book is pretty accurate. My rebuild came out a bit more expensive.

[thunderdenton]

I spent about $3500 (March 2004) on parts from Pelican (I decided to also do the rear breaks and wheel bearings) on 1984 Carrera ROW (European model). I did not replace the pistons or cylinders.

The hours involved on the rebuild are what I did not consider. I spent in labor about 80 hours in the rebuild of the engine and I had some knowledge of the processes (18 years before I had worked on VW and Porsches).

The group of people here were an immense help and I wish I had contacted them earlier in the rebuild (it would have made me more comfortable and made the process smother).

We are here to help.

Thunder Denton

[mtelliott]

My machine work including heads and race balancing came out to only $1300. Parts on the other hand came out to ~$4500. Of course, that included new wiring harness, flywheel, clutch, P&C's, then second set of gaskets when I screwed up the first rebuild and it leaked oil.

[Rondinone]

For my 79SC:

machine work (heads and cams): $1000

parts (rings, all bearings, chains, tensioner update kit, gasket kit, bunch of small stuff, head studs, rod bolts, 1st & 2nd gear synchros, 10 gallons of carbourator cleaner): $2500

Harbor Freight sandblaster: $70

New alternator because I hammered on the shaft of my old one and destroyed the rear bearing: $300

New fuel pump because I accidentally plugged the fuel pump plug into the cold start valve, causing intermittent fuel pump operation, which I thought was a failing fuel pump: $210

Wayne's book assumes a worst case scenario. If your engine is in fairly good shape, then you can reuse the P&Cs and may not need alot of machine work. Of course, you won't know until you open it up.

[HarryD]

Originally posted by Westy
What would a ball park figure be if I rebuilt my own motor? Of course any machine work I would not be able to do. It's just that I can't find the car I want, so I'm thinkin' buy a nice but high mileage car, and spend the money I saved on the motor.

Any thoughts?????

Figure 30-40+hours of labor plus parts and machine work.

As I said before, the wizard can get you price on the parts.

Depending on the year, machine work may be limited to the heads. Depending onthe specific issues for the car, cylinder reconditioning, cam grinding, and timeserts for head studs.

If you have a magnesium case engine, if you crack the case, you should figure on align boring, shuffle pinning and other machine work to get the halves to mate up properly and still use STD/STD bearings.

For a full rebuild on a mag case engine, do by a "pro", you can easily go north of $10,000.

Just renewng the heads by a pro can cost you $3,500+.

[ChrisBennet]

Harry,
I pay less than $800 to have a set of heads done, or about $400 if the valves can be reused. Is that $3500 figure a typo perhaps?
-Chris

[HarryD]

Originally posted by ChrisBennet
Harry,
I pay less than $800 to have a set of heads done, or about $400 if the valves can be reused. Is that $3500 figure a typo perhaps?
-Chris

Chris, I am speaking of paying someone else to do the work (pull engine, disassemble, measure, reassemble and reinstall engine).

I figure $1,500 for parts and head work and about 30 hours.

[john walker's workshop]

yup, 30 hours=$2400, plus parts. standard shop valve grind labor hours, and you do honestly spend 30 hours to do a good job. rings, studs, rod bearings and bolts, extra time and materials from there.