tom3

Anyone rebuilt a motor lately and had it bored, decked, heads planed, crank turned? What did you have to pay for this? I'm guessing it is getting real expensive.

dmccain

iTrader: (2)

I paid $350 2-3 yrs ago for boring block .030, decking it, turning crank. In 2005 it only cost me $150

tom3

I'd jump on that today, wishful thinking probably. Thanks for the info.

AlkyIROC

Depends on the machine shop but $300-$500 for basic machine shop work is normal.

Boring it is one thing but they should also have the pistons when the block is bored so they can fit each piston to the cylinders.

ShiftyCapone

iTrader: (7)

Final hone, line hone mains for ARP studs, deck block and balance rotating assembly cost me $1100 around 5 years ago. This was all new GM LS3 parts too.

AlkyIROC

That's a lot more than a basic bore and surface but that's more of what should be done.

If building an engine properly, the engine normally is assembled and disassembled a few times to make sure all the tolerances are correct. When you start adding up all the machine work and time involved, it can be much cheaper to buy a crate engine close to what you want to end up with.

On the other hand, if you're building something "special" then the cost of machine work is minimal. I put an estimated replacement value on my race engine around $20,000 and in today's dollars, that's probably low. Just my bare block is worth $3000 CAD and it's not aluminum.

Bills87IROC

I just had a 1974 454 bored .030" over, honed, new cam bearings and freeze plugs - $500. Also had a set of 781 heads gone though. New stainless valves, 16 new guides, new hardened exhaust seats, new valve springs, intake valve spring seats cut for additional clearance, rotator eliminators for the exhausts, all guides machined for positive seals - $1000.

It drives me nuts paying for work that I can do myself but not working at a machine shop any longer, it is what it is.

AlkyIROC

That's like hearing about a high HP low budget build. Oh, we'll just use these used Steve Morris heads and Callies crankshaft that we have sitting on the shelf and we can keep our total engine build under $2000.

Doing your own machine shop work can greatly decrease the cost of an engine build but only a few people actually have access to that kind of equipment.

skinny z

Just done in June 2022:

Dismantle block and hot tank: $120
Magnaflux block: $40
Detail block: $20
Polish crank: $80
Bore and torque plate hone: $320
Line hone: $220
Remove old rods from pistons: $110 (neither part was reusable so could've skipped this one).
Check rod big ends: $45 (see note above).
Hone small ends of rods: $60 (see note above).
Install cam bearings and plugs: $120
Install pistons on rods: $65 (new pistons and new full floating rods).
Hone lifter bores: $60
Balance crank: $220
File fit rings: $140
Assemble short block: $250

Development course changed when the rods were discovered to be fubared.
I believe the shop labour was $110/hour.
After the rod and piston debacle, I think I was cut some slack on the assembly. $250 is dirt cheap. $500-$750 is typical.

FWIW: My block and crank survived. New 40 over Wiseco forged pistons w/ rings, new Eagle SIR rods, rod and main bearings plus all of the above set me back $3500 CDN.
That gives me an all forged assembled lump sitting in the shop waiting for the heads (on the shelf), cam, lifters, timing set and oil pump (all yet to be purchased). Intake and carb are from the original. The distributor has yet to be gone over to determine it's serviceability.

I've also got an invoice for the heads that were completely reworked in 2016 with new intake valves and 5 angle valve job. Plus some basic porting (bowl work mostly), flat milled (~.026") as well as cc'ing and flowing one cylinder ( for simulation purposes so as to have a data base).
Don't ask.

AlkyIROC

When I bought my heads used, they needed a lot of work but already had a huge amount of porting done to them. If you look into the intake ports, you can see sleeves that allow the head bolts to pass through the ports. The heads needed work. Multi angle valve job. Can't remember of any of the seats were replaced or not. Guides were worn out so they were all replaced. Since the guides were replaced, I went with smaller valve stems to reduce the weight of the huge intake valves. The spring seats were all cut to the same depth. Can't remember how much I paid for the heads or how much all the machine work was done to them but when you add in the new valves, springs, retainers plus whatever it would have cost to do all the port work, my heads probably have a replacement value of at least $5000 for the pair. I'm guessing my out of pocket expenses were around $3000 so it was worth it. I then added shaft rockers and large diameter pushrods to maintain valvetrain stability. I had to modify a couple of the pushrod holes through the head because the shaft rockers now align directly over the valves which moved the pushrod over slightly and the larger diameter pushrods were making contact with the passage hole walls. Oh the joys of custom work.

As for the bottom end, I had a brand new Dart block. Picked the pistons, pins (thicker wall), crankshaft and rods (both billet) I wanted to use then got them balanced. The billet I-beam rods were lighter than the steel H-beam rods I was using previously. After everything was balanced, they all went with the block to be machined and assembled. Even being a mechanic, I would rather have a machine shop assemble the bottom end as they have the tools to check it and make it perfect. If they have to do adjustments to get better tolerances, they can do it better than I could.

Once the bottom end was assembled and I got it back from the machine shop, I set up the heads then installed them. I couldn't get the proper valve train geometry with the T&D intake rockers. The stands were too low. T&D is awesome. Called them up to explain what was wrong. I simply needed taller stands which they had in stock. All it cost me was postage to get them replaced and it fixed my valve train geometry. Installing the cam, intake and the rest of the components after that was simple but if you are paying shop rates, another 10+ hours to make sure it all goes together properly is expected.

In the end, how much does machine shop work cost really depends on how far you want to go to make sure everything is done right. You can get away with the basics for a typical daily driver and hope the rebuild will last 100,000 miles or spend a lot more money to make sure it can survive another 100,000 miles with some abuse.

TallTim

iTrader: (2)

IMO machine shops are getting fewer and fewer so I doubt knowing what it costs in Texarkana will matter to a shop in Canton. Suggest calling em and asking what you want done. In my limited experience a good shop will sniff your parts (not those parts) and say it's going to be this much.

Kingtal0n

In 2017 I paid $250 for a 5.3L 2002 Tahoe engine with 200,000 miles, came with harness, intake, accessories, etc...

Since then I made 600rwhp with it for 5 years and put 50,000 miles on it.

I'm just pointing out that the cost of machine work will get you a fully functional completely built reliable engine capable of making more power than whatever it was you intended to machine

Even if you don't plan to do the LS swap today, consider picking one of these old 02-07 5.3L engines up soon before they dry and gone forever.