engine repair costs

[branhamautomotive]

Mass produced reman engines with a few year warranty are always attractive. I though prefer to have a good reputation machine shop build. It's nice to know and actually talk to the ppl doing the work. Plus they are again not u singing the lowest cost parts they can get ahold of. Not saying all are that way but to many a penny saved us a penny earned. But that being said spending a few extra bucks on good bolts and better pistons goes a long way in the way a motor last too. You can run the correct way, do all the proper maintenence but if built with substandard cheap parts from over seas benders problem will most likely be close behind.

If rebuilding, good arp bolts, not bottom dollar piston, quality oil pumps and bearingand rings and even switching to roller cam lifters adds some money to build, but if only doing once as compared to twice starta to figure in the extra 750 or so bucks is alot cheaper than another build a few years later.

Good quality machine work is just as important too. There is a big differance in a motor balanced to 2 to 3 grams as compared to 20 to 25 like some of these mass producers do

[wakina]

All very good points!

Had one rebuilt several years ago and after tearing down and the baking(cleaning) the shop found a crack in the block in a bad area, I ended up with the cost of the original tear down and the cleaning and still had the cost of another block on top of that plus magnifluxing the second block and the actual cost of parts and labor to assemble.

On the last engine I replaced it was hard to not to look at the cost of a brand new GM engine(long block) with roller cam and lifters manufactured by the GM Marine engine division which cost $2699.00 3 years ago, I also drove to the business and picked up myself so no shipping costs were incurred! I did the switching of the parts from my old engine to the new engine myself so there were no costs involved there except for new bolts for intake and flywheel.

That engine is still running strong! Then again I did not have the option to rebuild as a head and the block were both destroyed between the #3 and #5 cylinders. It had burnt (melted) a channel in both the head and the block.

[branhamautomotive]

Sometimes there is no choice but to replace. But it pays to way all the options outs for sure. It is always nice to save a few bucks by being able to fix things yourself or with friends. Plus the pride in knowing g you did it. There is no way to know what way is best, though sometimes the condition of the parts in hand dictate which way we go.

A good used motor is another way to save money, if you can find one. Over the last 15 years I have put hundreds in cars and only had small number less than 10 ever be bad when I put them in. So less than 1%.

But no need to do any if his motor still has good life in it. Cause no way around, reman, rebuilt, used it's a large bill to get it back up and going.

Jim if you have any questions about checking the condition of yours out just pm me and I will do what I can to help you check it out

[jiginitis69]

My Mechanic. Recommends Wolfs Head oil. I have Chevy 454's and he believes 100% on Wolfs Head. FYI

Sometimes there is no choice but to replace. But it pays to way all the options outs for sure. It is always nice to save a few bucks by being able to fix things yourself or with friends. Plus the pride in knowing g you did it. There is no way to know what way is best, though sometimes the condition of the parts in hand dictate which way we go.

A good used motor is another way to save money, if you can find one. Over the last 15 years I have put hundreds in cars and only had small number less than 10 ever be bad when I put them in. So less than 1%.

But no need to do any if his motor still has good life in it. Cause no way around, reman, rebuilt, used it's a large bill to get it back up and going.

Jim if you have any questions about checking the condition of yours out just pm me and I will do what I can to help you check it out

[Jim Teasdale]

Thank you, Kent, branhamautomotive, cooleyfarms, Tom, and Wakina.

[branhamautomotive]

I run royal purple in my race motor, I personally don't have any experience with wolf's head other than hearing nothing bad about it, I know some like Mobil 1, some Brad penn, on and on. I am sure they are all great, and will pass one form of test better than the others, the main key is no matters who's name is on it, make sure it's of good quality. There is some cheap junk oil out there, and even more important than the name on the bottle is make sure oil of some kind is in there, anything is better than none. Alot of ppl nevery pull that long skinny stick ever

[sherman51]

I had my old 305 228 hp engine replaced at Michigan motorz with a 350 vortec 315 hp engine back in 07 and its still going strong. these are new marine engines and are worth the money over a rebuild job in most cases.

[branhamautomotive]

This touches on the next question I hear alot. Remain stk hp or go up. We have found in most cases that most boat owners feel their bost could use extra power. And if increasing the hp by reasonable levels, 50 to 75hp, AND IF driven the same speed and way, you will almost always see a drop in fuel usage cause the motor is not having to work as hard to get done.

Now that being said, when we have extra power we almost never drive it the same way, cause the boat will run an extra 5 or 6 mph and we normally use it if we have it.

But either way rebuild or reman the hp comes for very little money

[pimplepounder]

I agree with cooleyfarms input on oil consumption. A little oil must get past components for lubrication, but today's engines are very efficient mainly due to tight tolerances. Excessive oil consumption between recommended oil change intervals indicates engine wear. There are tests that can determine where this may be happening. I would also consider 1 quart or less consumption within 100 hrs, to be normal. In Ag and marine equipment this is mainly WOT Rpm and this is a lot of hours in reality, at this engine speed. To use a quart or less is pretty darn impressive when you think of what all is really happening inside..

Little things like this can tell you a lot.

[pimplepounder]

My thoughts here, with a due respect.

Power does not come free. To get more power the two laws of Thermo Dynamics are always smacking us around. Efficiency is perhaps the most high performance quest we can have. If we could get a 1-1 relationship this would be awesome , but we cannot. Almost any hp increase is going to cost more in fuel, driveabilty,or engine wear. The engine is working harder because there are increases in compression, temperature, and pressures, even if rpm is less.

My thought are: if you do not think you have enough power, you do not have enough engine. You can give a scrawney guy some steroids, or just hire an big guy. Which one is going to pop a cork first?