What should a person expect for a 700 dollar valve job? I already had the stage one valves so that is not part of the job and they were reused by the shop.
dang 700. well probably throat work, bowl work, back cut. valve guides worked and new guides. 700 a lot though. i would save fOR bare ta alum for 1400 and assemble
To give you a little back ground I recently had my motor rebuilt and it has less then 200 miles on it TA forged pistons TA 413 cam,new every thing. Today I pulled the number one plug out to measure it to one of the e3 plugs to see how close it was to the ones I had in the motor, and much to my surprise the is water on top of the number one piston. I pulled the oil cap off and sure enough its starting to get some condensation on it. After the motor was put back into the car a couple days later I noticed it was smoking on the driver side pipe, and the smell was sweet. So I called the shop and explained to them what was going on last week. Today I called my mechanic and he came over and check and told me that I had a blown head gasket. When I called the shop that built the motor they immediately started to talk about the heads possible being cracked. My thought process was is if there was a valve job on the heads is that not something that should have been checked before the valve job was done?
maybe you should retorque the head. also. magnafluxing is any machine shops first step with anything. put cyl on tdc with plugs and rad cap off and fill cyl. with air. is the oil milky?
The oil is starting to get milky, and the smoke out of the drivers side is constant. The cylinder pressure at number one is 160 which I think is a little low for a motor that has less then 200 miles on it, and all of the other cylinders are the same or lower with the lowest being 145. What would it cost to magnaflux the heads i addition to the $700 I already paid?
I would pull the spark plugs and pressurize the cooling system . See which cylinder the coolant is coming out of. were the cylinders bored and to what .000 ? I saw a 455 bored to .010 that was fine until the piston went up and down the bore a few times. After a hour of running the piston ring wore a hole at a point where the metal was very thin. Weird but the cylinder wall thickness was thin at the one point and the piston ring going over and over it opened it up. #7 cylinder on a 72 block. Head retorquing might also be a good idea .
They wanted my mechanic to do a compression check, take the valve cover off to clear out the milk, and call them in the morning. So we did the compression check, I did not take the valve cover off because I don't want there to be any confusion as to who did what and why in the morning. I sincerly hope this is shop takes care of this situation because if not then I will for sure be done with buicks, and that would be a shame because I love my car.
The dr side head needs to be pulled. If the oil is getting milky I doubt the head is cracked I would lean toward a gasket leak. This leads to whether the decks were cleaned up, heads resurfaced, and what gaskets used. Regardless when fixed retorque after a few heat cycles. Ray
Yeah...seriously. That would be like deciding to stop eating because a cook made bad food. You just need a new cook.:laugh: Or, in this case - possibly a new machine shop. I'd at least see if they make things right. And $700 is way more than just a valve job should cost. I'd like to hear an itemized list of what they are claiming to have done to the heads.
My guess is that the new engine got really warm for the first time and the gasket leaked. First step; I would torque the heads (both) and change the oil, (and filter) all with your shops approval, and see what you got. They should have checked and decked your heads and I would ask them that question. Sorry about your problems, but stuff happens. I wouldn't be too happy with my shop if I was you, but now isn't the time to yell at them. Good luck!
Ill be in for about $550 for my vavle job. Mind you he's a retired machinist operating out of his garage, so youd probably pay about 700 for this at a shop maybe more. Checked for cracks, engine shampoo, bead blasted, center coolant holes reamed and plugged with 7/8 frost plugs, exhaust flanges milled true 6thou, mating surface finished to MLS spec, 3angle valve job, throat opened to 88% or so, valves lapped and backcut, 2 new guides (didnt need any others), guides machined for dual springs, valve tips equalized, and guides milled down to clear the new springs. Its not quite done yet, but im basically getting assembled heads at the end of it. I started with SS stg1 valves, locks retainers, and the springs. Im buying the intake valve seals because i want teflon, but he is supplying the exh ones.
For me its the cost of having to build this car. This is the third time that I have had to go through this motor, and to have something like this happen after spending $6000 on the motor this time is a little disturbing to me. I know everybody has chevy's and that is why I went with the GS to begin with but at some point when issues like this keep coming up cost has to be factored in, and given the fact that on the third rebuild I have well over $11000 just in the motor I could have built 5 big block chevy motors. Maybe it me being frustrated , and maybe if the shop does the right thing by me this will be a none issue, and Ill come back to my senses, but right now I feel like customer service in America sucks. And as a customer I wanted to hear no problem bring the car to us and we'll take care of it knowing that the motor has less then 200 miles on it, not that we didn't magnaflux the heads and the heads could be cracked after they did the valve job on the heads and charging me $700
trade you my chevelle for your buick. everythings rebuilt but interior , body and trans.. running 13.2s at 3400 da. and 18 to 20 in vac. ha.
Dont tempt me. I wil be dragging the car down to the shop in the morning so well see how it turns out.
Lets just say if this shop is not capable of building motors correctly we all should give our buicks up.
