Engine Shops

[Snuffy "Hub Cap" McKinney]

What's a good way to find a reputable shop to R/R & rebuild an engine? Planning to do the head but if not that much more will do the whole thing. Regular minor repair mechanic doesn't know anyone.

[micky]

What I've done with dentists and with gastroenterologists and surgeons is to call one and ask him to recommend another one.

So I'd call someone who advertised engine rebuilding and ask them for a referral.

In the case of the doctor, I knew him socially, almost a friend, and he said, "Well I'm a gastroenterologist", and I said, "Yeah but I can't go to you merely because you're my friend". And he gave me a name of another guy.

In the case of a dentist, I had called a child's dentist, someone I knew not at all, maybe just saw his name on his office door, and he said, "I can see you" and my silent reaction was, "If you had enough children, you wouldn't want my business. Why don't you have enough children?" So I said No. I don't remember how I found the dentist I went to until I moved away.

With the surgeon, my friend had had shoulder surgery when we were in college, and he had moved to Boston and I called him for advice on finding a doctor. His father was a surgeon, so I figured he'd know how, but he told me he'd just used whoever the student health service assigned to him!!! But 15 years later, he'd just had his other shoulder done, so he gave me that doctor's name. I called him, in Boston, and asked his secretary for a referral in NYC. She went and asked him and came back and gave me a name, and I asked a stupid question, Is he really good?, and she told me he was world-famous. I thought she was just trying to make me feel good, until AFTER I'd had the surgery and was in the waiting room for a follow-up visit, and another of his patients told me he was WORLD-FAMOUS. And he was. All he did was shoulders and the artificial shoulder was named after him! (although I didn't get an artificial shoulder).

[micky]

BTW, when I lived in Brooklyn, in every Sunday paper there was a 2" ad for an engine rebuilding place, just over the border of Queens into Nassau county. My engine was running rough so I finally went there.

An enormous place, half a block long, with loads of bays iirc. And it turned out they did everrything, not just engines. That sort of disappointed me, but I guess they had a reason for advertising only this one thing where I saw it.

A mechanic looked at the car and he disconnected one spark plug wire at a time, until he found the one that made no difference. That was the bad cylinder. They wanted a lot of money to take it apart and give me an estimate, (which of course would have been even more than the charge for the estimate) and I'm not saying it wasn't fair but I was in no rush to do it.

Anhow I took off the valve cover for that cylinder and found one of the push rods was missing! Where did it go? IIRC, half of it had slid into the hole with the other half. IIRC I was able to pull out the top part of the push rod with my fingers iirc, and I bought a magnet shaped like a short pencil, on a metal stick, and could pull out the bottom half (without turning the engine upside down and shaking it.)

I bought a new push rod at the dealer, put the valve cover back on and after a while I realized it ran no better!! Boy was I stuck. After a few days I went back to the dealer and he checked and said, "Oh yeah, there are two possible pushrods for that engine. " I didnt' ask him to refund what I'd paid for the first one, and he didn't offer. (It was only a couple dollars.) The second one was shorter. So I take off the valve cover and the first one is there, Z-shaped. compressed by the cam and in the hole so tightly it was hard to get out. But once I did, I put in the shorter one and the car ran fine. Total cost, 4 dollars. (I ddn't bother replacing the valve cover gasket.)

[gfretwell]

Usually you are best with an engine bought through an established rebuilding operation. The guy in a mom and pop shop may be good ... or not and the warranty will usually be shaky, if there is one at all.

The last time I did this, I got an engine from a national rebuilder, installed in a dealer shop. It was competitively priced to the middle of the range of private shops. YMMV depending on how busy dealers are around you. I got 100,000 miles out of it and it was running when I sold it. (351 in an Econoline)

[Tekkie®]

Snuffy "Hub Cap" McKinney posted for all of us...

Go to a REAL parts store like a NAPA store and ask or a speed shop.

Around here quite a few advertise Jasper engines & transmissions. I know someone whom had a tranny replaced with a Jasper and it worked well for him.

[Snuffy "Hub Cap" McKinney]

engine? Planning to do the head but if not that much more will do the whole thing.

Thanks, this is the cost for a rebuilt engine at

with a list of 20+ installers within a few miles....

Price: 2668.00 Core Charge: 360.00 Review JASPER's Core Policy Skid Charge: 15.00 Kit Price: 347.00 Premium Service Plan Price: 255.00

[Snuffy "Hub Cap" McKinney]

engine? Planning to do the head but if not that much more will do the whole thing.

Autozone.com has these... Anyone have experience with them?

Surefire p/n DFN5, $1700, long block Tri Star p/n 31010, $1925, long block Dahmer p/n L3095VR, $2100, 4 yr warr

[trader_4]

Maybe you should bid on Snuffy's job.....

[Fred]

I had to look up what "IIRC" means!

[micky]

I accidentally used it twice in one clause. ;-(

[Stormin Mormon]

Please also look up "trim trailing text".

- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .

. .

[Stormin Mormon]

I accidentally nagged two net nitwits about trailing text.

- . Christopher A. Young learn more about Jesus .

. .

[Snuffy "Hub Cap" McKinney]

engine? Planning to do the head but if not that much more will do the whole thing.

Had to pick up some windshield washer fluid so stopped at Pecker Boys -- the only thing I would buy from that place after they tried to rip me off for unneeded front end work one time.

Just for fun, I got a quote for replacing the head gasket - was around $1700. I asked what would it be if the head was warped, and they couldn't give me a ballpark estimate -- have to send it out.

For more fun I asked what it would be to install a rebuilt engine and it was around $4800. Almost spilled my Pepsi right there!

[micky]

I'd have to charge 5800.. That's 4800 to take it to Pep Boys and a thousand for me.

[Snuffy "Hub Cap" McKinney]

and it was around $4800. Almost spilled my Pepsi right there!

Micky, it's worth $1000 not to take it to Pep Boys. This one actually has a sign next to the front door giving the corp address to process servers. Never saw anything like that before in my life.