rebuild hours for a 3.2L
 

Question: I have a 3.2 out of an 87 911. Need to replace one of the heads and while in there it appears the exhaust valve guides are sloppy. Basically got an estimate for 1 head replacement, new valve guides, valves, and piston ring replacement. labor came to about 48 hours. so that is pulling the camshafts, heads, removing pistons and putting it all back together. Is this amount of hours in the right ballpark? I would expect a whole engine rebuild to fall into that many hours. Thoughts?

My tech who has built several engines (including one for me) told me that the dis-assembly, reconditioning, and re-assembly of a 3.2 motor would be 46 hours total, all in.

That leaves me wondering like you that he's either not very good and/or trying to take you for a ride.

8 full hours a day for 6 days, doing nothing else?
Sounds like wine, roses and filet mignon when that engine is done...

It could simply be that your tech is not that familiar and he plans on triple checking measurements. I would talk to him and find out why his hours seems a bit long.

If you're still not satisfied, go to someone else.

In the end, I would tend to err with someone who is going to take his time as opposed to someone who is going to slap parts together. Anyone could do that, i.e. Motomiester.

as i recall the flat rate book says 40 hrs - that does not include anything more than remove measure & replace

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/911-engine-rebuilding-forum/636219-911-sc-rebuild-estimate.html

- add in unknown extra or elective machine work (such as replacing guides) and the sky is the limit

i was recently quoted 15 hrs just to do a cam swap on a long block engine on a pallet by a local reputable 911 shop

One thing people also tend to forget is that those times are based on when the motors were low mileage and new/clean. You can easily spend an additional 10-20 hours cleaning/inspecting parts properly if you want to do a good job and have a motor that lasts~

Agree with CK. The time I have spent on cleaning and checking is huge and my engine was quite clean to start with. The actual assembly part will take far less time and much more joy.