how long does it take to swap heads????
It all depends. If it's your first time, I'd read up, read some more, print out a couple of the how to's so you have pictures and references, and it will probably take you a solid weekend. I found the how to at www.ls1howto.com very thorough and helpful the first time I tackled the task on my own.
I reccomend you take your time and not try to rush it, or else you'll be on here putting up posts begging for help or posting about something that went wrong. If you are worried about getting the car back up and running because it's a daily driver and you need to go to work on Monday, line up a rental car just in case. Trust me, it's cheap insurance if something doesn't go as quick as expected. $25-$35 a day for a rental is a heck of a lot cheaper than having to pay to have your car towed somewhere because something happened because you were rushing.
Once you've done it a couple times, you can get the whole procedure down to a one day job. If you think you'll ever have to do it again, get mls gaskets and head studs or at least ARP's bolts. One of the toughest things about an F-body head swap is doing the torque to yeild head bolt sequence specifically on the rear bolts. Going to ARP's eliminates that, you just need a torque wrench and the proper torque sequence.
Good luck, it's a 3 out of 5 wrench job the first time and 2 out of 5 subsequent times. Just don't rush cleaning out the bolt holes or else you run the risk of either floating a head or cracking the block.
I reccomend you take your time and not try to rush it, or else you'll be on here putting up posts begging for help or posting about something that went wrong. If you are worried about getting the car back up and running because it's a daily driver and you need to go to work on Monday, line up a rental car just in case. Trust me, it's cheap insurance if something doesn't go as quick as expected. $25-$35 a day for a rental is a heck of a lot cheaper than having to pay to have your car towed somewhere because something happened because you were rushing.
Once you've done it a couple times, you can get the whole procedure down to a one day job. If you think you'll ever have to do it again, get mls gaskets and head studs or at least ARP's bolts. One of the toughest things about an F-body head swap is doing the torque to yeild head bolt sequence specifically on the rear bolts. Going to ARP's eliminates that, you just need a torque wrench and the proper torque sequence.
Good luck, it's a 3 out of 5 wrench job the first time and 2 out of 5 subsequent times. Just don't rush cleaning out the bolt holes or else you run the risk of either floating a head or cracking the block.
Originally Posted by maddymac07
how long is it taking to do job
I've evaluated your mechanical skills and shop tool inventory, and calculate that it will take you exactly 22.425 hours to swap your heads.
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Call around, get estimates and comparison shop. Head swap is pretty much a flat-rate job for a shop that does this type of work, not an hourly-rate thing where they're feeling their way around the process. Asking here doesn't accomplish anything useful for you.
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Originally Posted by crainholio
Call around, get estimates and comparison shop. Head swap is pretty much a flat-rate job for a shop that does this type of work, not an hourly-rate thing where they're feeling their way around the process. Asking here doesn't accomplish anything useful for you.
Your paying for the job not the Hr. If they charged by the Hr many shops would be too inconsistant. One shop might take 22 hrs while the other takes 7 hrs. Or Joes car might take 15 hrs but Brians went smoothly and took 9 hrs.
