My buddy is starting a restore on his late fathers 64 GTO Rag Top. Its all orig with a 389 w/trips. The engine turns by hand but has been sitting for at least 10 years. A guy gave him a price to rebuild the engine of 2500.00. For that he will come over, pull the engine, rebuild the engine & the carbs and bring the engine back & install it ( i figured he should not get the engine installed until the chassis / frame is done ). The guy does race engines & from what I hear he does good work. With this little info, does 2500 sound like a right number? Its gonna be a stock rebuild & it did run when it was parked ( considering it would have to have run to have been able to be parked, thats a dumb statement) I havent had to consider an engine rebuild in 20 yrs so I want to be sure the number sounded right. I also understand that you dont know whats up until you start tearing it apart, but this was his dads car & should not have anything major needed to it. Thanks, Steve
Sounds really fair to me, seeing as how he will be picking it up AND delivering it. Complete rebuild, carbs, electrics, gaskets, filters, wear and tear parts are expensive, and labor. we have given higher quotes for smaller import motors. I say take em up on it. cheers and beers Hodge
SOUNDS LOW a gm crate motor is about that money.. and based on your explanation the guy "bidding" the job has LOTS of time invested in "pulling" and reinstalling the engine.. I havent rebuilt a complete engine.. but I had 400 in a pair of heads a few years ago.. (they only got "tested" and decked!) and I removed and reinstalled them! this price sounds too good to be true.. if it is a good deal.. I want the guys number, as I will have a new engine guy..
Sounds low to me. Had my 390FE heads done for $800, valves, springs guides and exhaust seats (they looked terrible). Gave him the rest of the motor, he tore it down and it needs a crank, big gouge in a main bearing. Cylinders were good, so it's just honed and I won't need pistons. I expect it will be over $3000 all told. I only took the motor out to seal it up, every gasket leaked and the freeze plugs were weeping through the rust. It ran like a top. No noises, no smoke, perfectly reliable. They are like old houses. one thing leads to another. I can't believe he will do an excellent job and R&R the motor for $2500. Maybe too good to be true.
He said stock rebuild, I dont think the guy will need to do any machining. Right? cheers and beers hodge
I'll throw some chips on the table here. If you have a numbers matching 1964 GTO tri-pow you got a rare piece and I'd make damn sure who-ever you had do this job was a PRO !! as not to mess up any of the original castings >>>>.
he might be figuring it this way: $350 to R&R the motor, $800 for complete gasket set, bearings, rings, oil pump, water pump, dizzy, carb kit, stock cam, lifters and springs, then do a home inspection on the valvejob, spin a bottlebrush hone down down the holes and then put her together and pocket the dough. make sure you're paying for a REBUILD, and not just a FRESHENING with seals and bearings. ( unless that's all that's needed) Know what you're getting for your money.
And, of course, my first question is the last. Are you making the dicisions for your buddy? What is your expertise? Not being a smart ass, it's a basic question in my mind.
As an engine machine shop owner I can tell you that for that price all the person is doing is a whip and ship. We just did a 389 Pontiac and by the time you buy all the parts and do the machining you have a $3700 bill plus R & R from the car. The problem with the low cost rebuild is he is using most of the parts over again. When we dissasemble an engine we measure things like the valve stems. In most cases you end up replacing all the valves becouse of stem wear or face pitting. For sure you want it bored oversize and use NEW pistons. Ring lands wear out on the old pistons and just slapping rings in it makes for a very short lived rebuild. You have to be carefull of guys giving you a low price with out getting it apart first. We have people that bring in blocks/heads etc for basic machining but do not want to fix anything. The bores are tapered and out of round but they want you to just hot tank it and hone it. The gave their customer a price and are going to do a quick job to make a profit. After it fails the "engine rebuilder" tells his customer to call the machine shop to see what went wrong!! We see alot of that going on with the muscle cars that people are trying to slap together and sell for a big score. If the car is worth something either money or sentimental then consider paying more to get it done right. Is there a warranty for $2500? We either test fire on a run stand or dyno the engine before it goes back in the car. Saves alot of head aches later becouse you can find possible problems before it goes in the car. Camshaft is broken in and oil pressure is checked and heads are re-torqued. The it goes in the car and everybody is happy! It is very labor intensive but better than doing it twice. If you have any questions you can call me @ 585-288-1499 / 8-5 Good luck: Matt Pro-Formance Specialties 1115 East Main St. Rochester, NY 14609
Knowing what I know there is always someone willing to do a job cheaper than I will. And you get what you pay for.Think about it ...R&R engine from the car and rebuild it with a tri-power rebuild Quality parts on a properly done rebuild would have to be close to the 1800.00 range min,Now we are going to remachine complete engine,reassemble,and reinstall back in a car with a tripower restoration for a total of 2500.00 Nobody works for free,There just not doing the work Like I said you get what you pay for Tony
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