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Hey guys, just looking around to figure out how much I should be spending for a cam swap these days. I've only gotten an estimate from one shop so far and it seems pretty steep to be honest. Cam, springs, and pushrods replacement are $2,700, an extra $1,320 for lifters, and $800 for a tune. That's over $5000 for just labor/tune, parts NOT included. Is that a normal price for northern VA? I figured labor would be more expensive here but not that much more expensive. For now, I'm going to keep calling around.
Do it yourself you would save thousands..
if you can’t why complain, people gotta pay bills.
yeah, doing it myself is an option I've been looking into for sure and is most likely what I will end up doing, but there's certainly no harm in seeing what shops are charging in case it's worth having them do it and saving a weekend. All I asked was if that price was high or not, as it did to me based on other posts saying $1k - $2k.. No complaining here, just curiosity as I'm just getting into things and want to learn more about my options.
It's ALOT of turning bolts. Nothing "hard", just, ALOT of bolts.
On a car that's only 2 yrs from becoming an ANTIQUE, expect ALOT of trouble with plastic things ... like electrical connectors ... , rubber hoses, and so forth, to crumble to dust. Expect ALOT of "might as wells"; as in, who in their RIGHT MIND would take off a 20-odd-yr-old water pump and PUT IT BACK ON without replacing it? and so forth.
So, you'll get LOTS of variation in "quotes", based on whether the shop thinks they're dealing with someone chiseling out the lowest bidder, in which case they'll be SUPER optimistic in the quote and then dump all those well-looky-here "surprises" like ... broken connectors, rusty parts that break, leaking water pumps you didn't realize about, ... as "extras"; or, if they assume they're going to run into all that as they most surely are, and take it all into account in their quote, in which case they definitely WON'T be the low bid, or even anywhere close. As well as, the LAST cam swap they did, the customer complained about EVERYTHING, and they got totally skinned in comebacks. Butt in reality, even if you get a REAL favorable quote, once they dig in, it's gonna cost what it's gonna cost, and the difference in the "quote" is how honest or well-informed or willing to admit about what it's REALLY gonna take to get the job done. And you'll have to weed out people with ridiculous high quotes who are using their quote to tell you "get your greasy grungy filthy million-mile 20-yr-old rusty oil-dripping POS out of my nice clean shop that works on NEW cars" in a more polite way.
Which leads to the nugget of wisdom: forget about ANY attempt to get a realistic "quote" like that. Especially if you're gonna go with the low bid. It'll cost you the same as the highest bid by the time you drive your car again. Which is why most of us here do ALL of that sort of thing for ourselves. Best to either do that, or use a shop that you trust and pay em whatever they charge, and don't even bother with the "quote" stuuuupidity.
To change the lifters requires pulling the heads. Lifters aren't all that $$$; pulling heads off of an old motor though, who knows what they'll get into. Be careful what you ask for in case you get it.
using their quote to tell you "get your greasy grungy filthy million-mile 20-yr-old rusty oil-dripping clapped-out BO-riddled ragged hot-rodded-to-death POS out of my nice clean shop that works on NEW cars that belong to people that don't bring me their own parts that do nothing but cause me trouble, and then complain about the bill" in a less impolite way
Most shops are going to go off book time to do a job. I don't remember how many hours that job calls for. Most shops are probably in the $125-$150/hr range, successful shops are anyway.
Someone said something about "Won't install customer supplied parts." Hell no they won't. After getting burned and loosing your ***, most shops learn that one pretty quick.
You are going to get a bunch of people who say, "I can do it cheaper" and they are right. There's a big difference between doing it on the weekend in a buddies garage and doing it for a living and trying to keep a business alive.
I've been on both sides and I see both side's arguement and honestly neither are wrong.
I wonder if people ask professional HVAC, plumbers or tradesmen if they can buy their own parts/supplies and try to beat them down on price. If so, I'd be curious to know what the answers are.
For some reason the automotive field has always been like this, more so since the internet. I know for a fact it's done it for tuners. Everyone "thinks" it's easy.
Then they are on LS1tech at 2am pleading for help.
20+ year old car is always full of surprises just driving it let alone doing that much work.
replacing lifters requires removing the heads. When replacing heads you need new bolts gaskets coolant etc. it’s a bigger job that it may sound like.
I think most reputable performance shops will either turn you away or require an agreement for ‘actual hours’ and expect 125-150/hour for that.
others covered the risks with older cars pretty well, old plastic, rubber, etc.
I wonder if people ask professional HVAC, plumbers or tradesmen if they can buy their own parts/supplies and try to beat them down on price. If so, I'd be curious to know what the answers
Fairly recent that any parts are available to the public. Info is even harder to get. It’s a monopoly that should be illegal in my opinion.
I do all my own work but good luck finding specs or parts for ac units much past start caps.
last time I paid an electrician (insurance requirement) I had to fix his **** work that caught my battery charger on fire.
Last estimate, I had for doing a cam in my 02 Z28 w/260,000+ miles from before the pandemic was this...the shop owner flat out said plus oil pump, timing set & water pump given the age and mileage on the car.
I asked about longevity, he smiled and say 50/50 chance it lives with the original lifters in the motor with a new cam. Some do and some don't. He rightly said all that work and money to slap a cam in the old LS1 sure would go a long way towards a new motor.
I decided to wait and do a new motor & transmission at some point in the future.
Yeah no doubt. Everything…repeat….EVERYTHING has about doubled if not more in the last 3-4 years. Man I need to raise my prices more in my business. Dangitboy.
Hey guys, just looking around to figure out how much I should be spending for a cam swap these days. I've only gotten an estimate from one shop so far and it seems pretty steep to be honest. Cam, springs, and pushrods replacement are $2,700, an extra $1,320 for lifters, and $800 for a tune. That's over $5000 for just labor/tune, parts NOT included. Is that a normal price for northern VA? I figured labor would be more expensive here but not that much more expensive. For now, I'm going to keep calling around.
$5k for labor on a cam swap makes an $8k supercharger kit not sound so bad, and I think it’d be easier for the layperson to install. You’d still need a tune but when it comes to bang for buck it doesn’t sound like a cam swap is where it’s at. Not for $6k+.
Most shops are going to go off book time to do a job. I don't remember how many hours that job calls for. Most shops are probably in the $125-$150/hr range, successful shops are anyway.
Someone said something about "Won't install customer supplied parts." Hell no they won't. After getting burned and loosing your ***, most shops learn that one pretty quick.
I wonder if people ask professional HVAC, plumbers or tradesmen if they can buy their own parts/supplies and try to beat them down on price. If so, I'd be curious to know what the answers are.
.
Even if the customer was to bring in the same exact part the shop is going to use it’s still a no go. Not letting customers bring in parts is more about profit margin than it is about customers bringing in subpar parts. I work for a dealership and we markup parts at least 30% from what we buy it for. Even if we paid retail it’s getting marked up above retail. What’s crappy about speed shops is that they aren’t buying parts that the general public can’t buy elsewhere. They’re buying from Summit and the likes and then adding their markup. We also markup freight charges. If we have to order a part that costs $20 to get shipped to us the customer is getting charged $40. Sucks huh?
Yeah no doubt. Everything…repeat….EVERYTHING has about doubled if not more in the last 3-4 years. Man I need to raise my prices more in my business. Dangitboy.
good luck. I’m still at 2017 prices for service call and labor because so many other companies around me advertise no service call fee aggressively.
try explaining to a customer that they more than paid for it somewhere else, or that they will definitely find “something else broken” and all you get back are blank stares. But the service call was free…
Every day I'm reminded that going to college for automotive service and deciding to never work in the field again after 1 year at a dealership was STILL a great investment. I probably have saved upwards of $50K in labor costs over the last 25 years by never having to take any of my vehicles in for work. I couldn't afford the car hobby if I had to pay for labor costs. Sheesh.
03-25-2024, 04:25 PM
Cost of labor for cam swap 
