Machine Shop Costs

[451Mopar]

I just found my Machine Shop bill for my 360 RV engine.

Since there has been alot of questions on building an engine on a budget, here is some of the charges:

Block Package Labor $225. This is a basic clean block, R&R cam bearings, and overbore and hone the block with torque plates.

Line Hone mains $104
Square block deck heights $95
Turn Crank $64
Ballance Engine assembly $125
Recondition Rods / install new rod bolts (rod bolts not included in price) $80
Press Fit pistons on Rods $48
Deck heads to CC $48
Mill intake side of heads (to correct for the decking) $48
Consumables $25

That is $862 in Machine work alone.

Actually my bill was slightly higher as I had them mock-up the engine to make sure the dick height was correct for the "quench" pistons. This was an extra $65 in labor.

Parts I got from the Machine shop:
K-B #232 Pistons $317.84
oil pump drive bushing $1.42
cam bearings $35.54
main bearings $41.20
rod bearings $22.88
I can't find the bill for the piston rings? I think somewhere around $60?

[Doug Wilson]

Would that be "deck height", or was there something else going on at the machine shop?

[451Mopar]

The block decks were not even near "spec" of 9.60". The block deck height (or crank center to deck) varied front to rear, and was different from the right bank to the left bank of cylinders.

The machine shop milled the block so the deck height (crank center to deck surface) was the same distance at all the cylinder bores, so the compression ratio and quench distance is the same in each cylinder.

This just shows how bad off some of the factory machining specs are, and they should be corrected on a performance buildup as part of the blueprinting process.

[MoJoe]

Doug, it went right over his head, didn't it?

[jelsr]

Makes one rethink the term "tooling"!

[cuda66273]

Whatever happened to the spill check hair?

It figures Doug would catch that one....LOL

Hey Doug....looks like a "Snow Out" for this weekend.....

[cuda66273]

Back on the topic..
Those machininng bills look pretty reasonable.

The squareness of the block is common, don't be alarmed at all. You should see what some of the Chevy blocks look like when you try and square them.

[Dr. Righteous]

I'm here in Knoxville TN and I have a 360 getting bored 0.30" over and boiled in a local shop. The will do a torque plate bore and hone and align bore. They also have my heads which they will tear into and inspect. I will post the costs when I get everything back.
This is a small shop and does GOOD work for a fair price.
Hensley's Racing is the absolute best around here on MoPars because they won't touch anything else but I cannot afford them. Maybe if I was building a all out race engine I would take my work to Hensley's. But this is going to serve truck duty in my Ramcharger.