i was asking my mech how much trouble it would be to install a cam into my 86 t/a and he said it could be up to a day and a halfs work and for tht i might as well rebuild the whole engine. what exactly goes into the installation of a cam . is it worth it if your not gonna rebuild ?

and also, i asked h im to search his connections for a posi rear for my car and he said one junk yard wanted 700 bux for a whole rear end with drums and all. i thought that was a whole lot coming from a junkyard. anyone in nyc have any decent connections in the junkyards for such a part?

im getting really discouraged with the price of upgrading my car . i see ppl here writing about doing the same mods im planning on and im coming to the conclusion that either all u guys are very well off or love with your parents and have no other bill except for hooking up your ride.

is my mechanic charging me too much or are these pricesd the norm?

thanx
romeo

 

The reason most of us can afford to modify our cars is none of the reasons you listed. The only reason I have been able to modify mine is because I do all the work myself. Youd have to pay a shop Id guess about 200 dollars at least to do a cam swap. Thats probably just labor. I take that back shop around here wanted 200$ to do an intake so its probably like 400$ for a cam swap.

If you do a cam swap yourself you could do it in 2 days time and it would only cost you the cams price and gaskets so for your hydrualic cam your looking at ~125$ for a cam swap. Unless your car has alot of miles or is running bad i wouldnt rebuild it completely yet.

Im assuming you have a 305 since they didnt put a 350 in our cars until 87.

I wouldnt rebuild the 305 when the time came anyways....youll be much happier with a 350.

700 bucks for a drum brake rear is a rip off. Don't buy that. Ive heard of people saying they have gotten v6 rear from the bone yard for 20$. Place here wanted $350 dollars and I laughed and left.

Just keep looking...if you can't afford to modify a small block chevy I wouldnt get another car...SBC is about the cheapest motor to modify...tons of parts also.

 

Put the cam in yourself. That's what the rest of us do.

 

comments about ppl lving at home and such were a joke. and yes i realize that these engines are relatively cheap to modify considering how much it costs to mod a japanese car. i just wanted to know from those who have the experience how much they pai for such mods and if there were any ppl in nyc who had their stuff done at a reasonable shop they copuld recommend

romeo

 

you need to get to know some gearheads. they will help you or atleast point you in the right direction. you can mess it up 3 times for the cost of paying someone else. i work about 55 hrs aweek to pay for the house , 3 kids, 3 vehicles and my toy.

 

Well, a cam swap should take around 6-7 hours for one person on a carb car in good shape (no fixing other stuff while doing it, that will just run up the time), or about 9-10 hours on a TPI car, same stipulation. You've got a 16-year old car. There's no telling how many vacuum lines, sensors, wires, carb rebuilds, plug wire sets, water pumps, etc. it's going to take to get it to run right and not leak after the swap; the times I quoted are for a new car, in new condition, with no defects. Just a straight cam R&R. Typical shop rates are in the $60/hr range. You do the math. Sounds to me like he's not too far off base, actually.

That's just simply one of those things you need to learn to do yourself. None of us (or at least, very very few of us) pays somebody to do it for us. This is a F-body board, not a Vette or Porsche board. We don't mean to come across sounding like d***heads, it's just the facts of life. Follow Craig's suggestion... it's a good way sometimes to enlist free, experienced labor. You can buy all teh tools, plus books to tell you what to do, plus pay for the parts twice when you accidentally screw up the first time, and still come out ahead of paying to have that done.

 

agreed agreed. make some friends that do cars...

I made a good friend who knew enough to help me with my first cam swap. after that, ive been doing it myself since. took me 16 hours to do myself the first time, now it only takes me 6 hours.
hell, i even have a pic of my first cam swap...
heh, that was 2 years ago... ah, i remember it well. we didnt even hav the trany back in yet, we got bored waiting for it and i decided it was time to swap cams. that was 4 cams ago for that motor... heh. i swap them now about once every 3000 miles, just for fun and to see what a new cam can do for me.