Average Rebuild Price?
Thread Starter
Launching!
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 242
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From: Glen Rock, PA
Average Rebuild Price? Whats the average price for a stock rebuild? Im looking at freshening up my engine but not going for more power. On average, what do you think this would cost? My engine ran fine before the Optispark went out and now i want to pull it out, clean it up, and make it mostly new again.
Depends really. If you just dropped off the car, you'd probably be looking at $5-6k. But if you did most of the disassembly and reassembly yourself (minus the lower end machine-work and assembly) it would cost around $1500-2k.
There are places that sell brand new 4 bolt LT1 shortblocks for $1000, cant remember where I saw them but do a search, I would go that route and then just swap the rod bolts with ARPs and spin the bitch as high as you want.
Thread Starter
Launching!
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 242
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From: Glen Rock, PA
I'm more looking at keeping everything i can and replace only what needs to. New rings and bearings, possibly pistons if the cylinder walls are worn. The engine isn't gonna be built for power, just a stock daily driver. Has anyone heard much about flatlanderracing.com?
By the time I bought new bearings, rings, gaskets, oil pump, and other little misc. crap, I spent around $1000. That was no machine work, a simple hone, keeping factory pistons, doing all the labor myself.
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2-10k depending on mild-wild. Most of the time when you take apart a high mileage motor you need to replace lots of little small BS things. They add up.
**** even plugs wires o2's and a opti can add a decent amount to your build.
**** even plugs wires o2's and a opti can add a decent amount to your build.
On The Tree
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 110
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From: pottsville
i dropped my complete short block off at a performance engine builder and it cost me 1700.that included disassembly,assembly machine work,pistons,rings,bearings and arp rod bolts.block was bored 30 over,decked magnafluxed ect. Im not sure if this will help but i figured it wouldnt hurt.
Thread Starter
Launching!
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 242
Likes: 0
From: Glen Rock, PA
Ill be doing the dissassembly and assembly myself. Just gotta pay for machine work and measureing. I was looking at Flatlanderracing.com. There rebuild kits seem like a pretty good price. Anywhere from $250 for a rering kit to $650 to a master rebuild kit including pistons, rings, oil pump, bearings, etc.... The car is strickly daily driven and not raced. No need for anything more than a stock type rebuild. Im mainly looking at the cost of the engine internals for now. Sorry, i should have stated that in the beginning.
TECH Enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 680
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From: Clearwater
that was almost 2 years ago on ebay. i contacted them about getting more and they do not think it is likely to happen again. i also asked about selling me a rebuilt shortblocks but sadly they only sell rebuilt longblocks.
Staging Lane
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 97
Likes: 0
From: Port Charlotte
it cost around 700 for me, i had the crank micro polished an had the rods resized an had arp rod bolts installed an hot tanked an align honed. the rest of the work i did my self. new bearings an rings an gaskets an that was it.
heres what i paid
crank micro polish 55.00
align hone 60.00
hot tank 40.00
rod resize an arp rod bolt install 140.00
new rings 95.00
rod bearings 28.00
main bearings 28.00
cam bearings 20.00
arp rod bolts 65.00
head gaskets 44.00
oil pan gasket 25.00
rear main 20.00
intake gasket 15.00
timing chain cover gasket set 10.00
solid oil pump drive shaft 8.00
stock meling oil pump an pick up 47.00
timing chain set (it was discounted) 45.00
heres what i paid
crank micro polish 55.00
align hone 60.00
hot tank 40.00
rod resize an arp rod bolt install 140.00
new rings 95.00
rod bearings 28.00
main bearings 28.00
cam bearings 20.00
arp rod bolts 65.00
head gaskets 44.00
oil pan gasket 25.00
rear main 20.00
intake gasket 15.00
timing chain cover gasket set 10.00
solid oil pump drive shaft 8.00
stock meling oil pump an pick up 47.00
timing chain set (it was discounted) 45.00
Last edited by badass383formula96; Nov 17, 2010 at 04:51 PM.
gasket kits alone for these things are several hundred dollars & machine work can get out of hand quickly if very much stuff needs done. You are gonna be so much better off just buying a motor that someone else has done & dropping it in. I got a 383 with Le2 heads & a hotcam for 2k & it only had 3k miles on it. Sure it has a cast crank & rods in it, but it will have similar daily driveability as a stock LT1, a ton more power & cost less (when factoring in selling the old motor) than doing a stock rebuild (which would use a cast crank anyways). Deals like this aren't all that rare anymore either given the economy today. You'd be much better off buying something like that & selling your current motor for a couple hundred. Just my 2 cents, whatever that's worth
TECH Enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2009
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check Northern Auto Parts for the rebuild kits...
rering kit http://www.northernautoparts.com/Pro...tModelId=10726
master kit minus camshaft http://www.northernautoparts.com/Pro...tModelId=10727
for a general rering without any machine work needed i would go with $1000.. i would also get a valve job and upgrade the stock springs..
if i had the engine down for a rering, it would not go back together until it had at least a hotcam in it.. also a new oilpump and high pressure spring...
rering kit http://www.northernautoparts.com/Pro...tModelId=10726
master kit minus camshaft http://www.northernautoparts.com/Pro...tModelId=10727
for a general rering without any machine work needed i would go with $1000.. i would also get a valve job and upgrade the stock springs..
if i had the engine down for a rering, it would not go back together until it had at least a hotcam in it.. also a new oilpump and high pressure spring...
Last edited by brucer; Nov 17, 2010 at 05:21 PM.
Thread Starter
Launching!
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 242
Likes: 0
From: Glen Rock, PA
Ill get with my engine builder who will be doing the machine work and see what his prices are. He did some port and polish work on my old 2.0 turbo head which ended up flowing enough air to make 600hp @ 7500rpm and it only cost me $400 for the head work. I dont think the engine will need alot done, it only had 125k miles and ran great before the opti went out. I mainly wanted to rebuild it because it was really sludged up from sitting for many years. But once again, its gonna be a stock build using all the original parts with the exception of what is bad and needs replaced. Im not into racing, im not into making much more power over stock, i just want a v8 to drive again. Its mainly gonna be a bottom end refreshen along with the heads checked.
TECH Enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 529
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any how the last rebuild kit i got from northern had speedpro pistons, clevite bearings, melling oilpump and lifters.. if a shop cant work with those parts they dont need to be in business.. summit has a good rebuild kit also, speedpro pistons, clevite bearings, hastings rings, felpro gaskets, melling oilpump...
machine shops can get rering and rebuild kits cheaper, but generally its a low cost kit, such as pbm, which for a general rebuild is actually a decent kit..
Last edited by brucer; Nov 18, 2010 at 12:15 AM.
Spiers, do you have anymore pics of your car, it looks good!