1973 360 Rebuild
Coyote Jack said
Hey moper, just out of curiosity, what would all that machining cost? Just a ballpark figure.
Jack
Here's what I (and my customers) pay:
disassemble/wash/mag block- $150
deburr and airless shot block - $125
disassemble and mag heads- $100
measure, wash and mag crank/rods- $50
fit bolts/studs and align hone (not including fitting caps or doweling)- $300 (includes cost of parts)
bore/plate plateau hone - $325
square deck - $250
index, grind,polish crank $325
internal balance (no mallory included) $250
resize rods (includes ARP bolts) - $150
performance valve job - $325
mill decks beyond clean up (to set chamber size) $75/head
mill intake flanges or intake $70
Assemble complete engine w/spec sheet - $500
Total is $2850 without needing heavy milling on the head surfaces. To be honest, I can cut come off that easilly. My blocks I sell magged and ready to machine for $300. Many engines are not re-using cranks or rods. By disassembling and bring in just the cores you can save a little too.
The thing is, all operations correct for factory based issues. I hear a lot of "that's a race engine deal..." It is a performance call. Good performance means more than 600hp. It means smooth operation, long service life, no future probelms after the install, better gas milage, better emmissions if you need to worry...And it means more power. Lifter bore bushings are definately more race oriented. But if you've ever had persistant low oilpressure from worn lifter bores, you also see its a repair for a block that would be tossed otherwise. Square decking as opposed to std milling gives you a correct quench distance, matched performance from each cylinder, better gasket sealing over the life of the engine on both head and intake, less valve train noises from pushrods being a hair too long or short...etc etc. I had a deck on a 340 that had been rebuilt. It was .028" different from end to end. If you had .040 preload on the front lifters, the rear would have .060. That can cause a cam to be wiped out. All because the miller used years ago wasnt used by a skilled machinist. Play with a calculator and see what the dfference .028" makes in compression. The front hole is .4 of a pt lower than the rear. If this had detonation problems on pump 92 and you couldnt figure it out, you'd be swapping cams, changing igitions, or mixing in race gas. Not to mention the intake sealing against oil and crank case pressure for more than a few hundred miles. There is a lot to be said for dropping ina new engine and needing only to set up carb and timing and change oil. An aweful lot of issues we read about over and over are the result of cutting costs during a build, and having to do things over or replace damaged parts after the fact.