How much should a valve guide replacement job cost for one side?
These were new/never been used heads with only 1500 miles on them, can't see doing both sides but if cheap enough I will.
Guess that would not include the cost of new valves either...
Thanks

 

probley looking at about 150$ a head for the labor plus the guides, i'd say in the 200$ range per head.

 

A few years ago I paid $125 for bronze guides to be installed into a pair of Mopar 440 heasd. That was parts and labor.

Call around you local auto machine shops.

 

They're a pain in the ***.. I'd prolly charge 150.00 / head at least..

-- Joe

 

That probably explains why this shop has had them for 3 weeks and hasn't started on them after they first told me it would be a few days

 

Well you got to dissasemble, check the head, beat the old guides out, check the head, beat the new ones in, pray the valves don't score , they usually do, so you have to scorn out the inside of the guides, reassemble, find out the valves are too loose, blah..

No thanks.

-- Joe

 

Huh? What's this beat out, beat in stuff.

My shop bores through the old guides and presses in the bronze inserts. Inserts are 3-4 bucks each, labor is 7 or 8 bucks a shot (roughly 80-90 bucks a head). Once the inserts are installed, then they're reamed for the correct clearance. Any shop that just installed the valves without checking the hole size should be shyed away from in the future.

Besides, can you even "knock out" a stock valve guide? I thought they're casted into the CastIron GM heads anyways? I know Al. heads use casted inserts, but I think Iron GM heads are all one piece? Maybe not, but banging them in and out would definitely not be the correct approach for any shop to do, regardless.

 

I would have to agree with him... they shouldn't be that much... Put it this way.. I got a set of 350 heads done when I was 13!! And I was only doing paper routes... LOL...