I took my heads to a machine shop about a month back for some work, everyone recommends this guys work, ive talked with him and he's real friendly, anyways at first he says it would be about a 400ish dollar job, and now today I got a phonecall and he says my heads are all done, i ask him how much my bill is up too and he says its 680 bucks. now here is what I had him do:

cleaned the heads up, resurfaced them, purchased and installed two new valves (told me they would be about 30 bucks a pop). did a new 3 angle valve job on all the ports. installed valve springs i supplied, and he installed the retainers he supplied that i would pay for.

does this sound about right? When i go in next week, I'm gonna check it over. just curious though what your thoughts are. ive never delt with a shop before.

 

what kinda valves did he put in? manely only wants like $9 a pop for there really nice stainless steel valves...

my shop does a 3 angle competition valve job for $200...John would probably install the new valve springs for free since he's got the heads apart anyway to do the valve job...guide would probably be about another $50-$100 plus cost of guids...probably around $30...so with two new valves at say $10 a pop to be on the safe side you looking ar a max of $340 from my shop...yep, your gettin ripped a new one...

 

they are the top of the line manley's the catch is they are 2.10 intakes (odd size) but the standard 1.6

at first i told him i would get them myself but when summit quoted me damn near the same price for the valves and they were backordered 2 weeks, i went ahead and told the shop he could go ahead and get'em.

 

"400ish" = $400 +/- 10%

Unless he can show itemized parts and labour pricing to justify exceeding the estimate by so much, hand him $400ish.

It's your responsibility to get a firm $$$ price.
Know or ask exactly what your heads need upfront and how $$$much$$$

Most states and provinces have laws concerning automotive repairs, invoices and estimates.
It's his responsibility to inform you and get approval if it is going to exceed 10% of the estimate.

What else had to be done to justify the higher final bill?
Labour on machining operations is very subjective.
Especially if you don't know that you're doing, don't have the proper stuff on hand. Anybody can turn this into a career.
Seems a little high for the work done.

If you signed a work order and he can justify the cost, you're going to pay that much.

next time you get work done by a mechanic, machinist or lawyer, get the $$$bottom line $$$ before hand. Ask...

 

I remembenr him showing me the invoice what he was gonna do, i signed it, this was for the low 400 something dollars, as printed on the paper, I am sure i will speak with him when i go their enxt week and will get it sorted out. just curious that this should or shouldnt run that much. Ill be sure to let ya know what happens.

 

I had my heads decked, spring pockets cut, 3 angle job, hot tanked, final cleaning, painted, viton seals, valve guides cut down and new spring shims all put together for 435.00

 

thats pretty high if you ask me

 

Not sure on the laws there but the shops here cant go beyond 10% on the estimate unless they have a written/verbal consent by you that OKed it. That will be on the paperwork you get after it's paid for (usually you can look at it before paying) otherwise Id be asking a lot of questions.

 

well I'm going in tomorrow, good luck to me!

 

well, what happened with it? I hope you didnt pay him that cost. You could almost buy a set of aftermarket heads for that.

 

ill be heading over thier in a few hours. i will post later today.

 

Well I just got back. (waited till the next day to go)

And He actually did include the price of the engine balancing (280 bucks) in the total, though over the phone he said it was not included, because i had not even brought him the engine yet.

so really, its all good. 400 for the headwork and 280 for the balancing = 680.

thats a load off my mind.

thanks for the headsup though guys.

 

So he was thinking ahead and included the balancing as well. Sounds like a good deal.
Now profile the rods to clear your cam. Make sure you have enough clearance and then temp move the cam about 4 deg either way +/- advance and check again. Then install your cam in the correct position you plan on running it at.
I believe you need .030" minimum clearance and all the close contact points. (block and rods) be sure to check between the crank counterweight and piston skirt at BDC. Not every rod will need the same amount of grinding . But then all the rods will need to be equalized for weight and then the crank is balanced to this.

 

well i just took the whole engine to the shop and they quickly looked it over. I am just gonna sell the cam and they are ordering me a small base circle cam of the same version, they said it would take way too much grinding to make it clear. stupid I beam rods

wanna buy a cam? lol