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partial engine rebuild

Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 5:54 pm
by ericem
How much labour is involved in replace the headgaskets and changing the valve seals? Not including parts and machining if neccesary. Thanks!

Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 5:24 pm
by Legacy777
Is the engine in the car or out?

Headgaskets is just cleaning the surfaces and prepping for the new gasket. The valve seals are probably a little more involved, but shouldn't be bad. Only issue is you may need a spring compressor. Not sure if you need anything else to do the seals.

Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 8:58 pm
by log1call
Labour depends on what model it is, how fast you are, how good a condition the car is in and how good a job you want to make of it.

I'd quote between ten and twelve hours to do the gaskets and valve grind depending on whether it had a turbo or not and what condition the car was in.

People will tell you four hours probably but that isn't realistic and they won't do a thorough job. It takes time to clean, inspect, assemble things nicely. They you want to check it after a run for leaks, retighten things etc.

I'm a mechanic and I have to make sure the job is right when it leaves my shop. If it takes too long I can always discount a bit of time and the customer will be happy. The customer is never happy if there are problems when they get the car back no matter how cheap the job may have been.

You should aim for a perfect job as well. Don't worry about how long it takes, worry about getting it perfect.