fair price for head swap

icaruswings

icaruswings

New Member
Hey Guys,

for anyone that has done a head swap on their lancers.

before I hit up my mechanic and see how much they will sting me.
I'm wondering what i should consider a 'fair' price

all the parts are being sourced elsewhere, so Its just labor costs I'm trying to get an idea of.

can anyone thats done it before tell me about how much it might cost me, and what kind of time frame is reasonable for me to expect to have my car back?

cheers
 
More information required. What head on what block?

I put a DOHC head on my 4G15. It was a lot of work, for me, a few little custom pieces and a lot of stuffing around.

It took me a week of afternoons to get done, getting parts in my lunch break.

If you can supply the 'how to' and all the parts, should cost around $1500, give or take... probably give.
 
If you have ALL the parts for the swap then it would probably take a couple weekends to finish up. Removing head and then putting new head on. The hard bit is probably torqueing the head bolts. Gotta have torque wrenches for those. 1/4" and 3/8" and an angle socket for the g15s. Not sure bout the g92/3. Like onwaylo said. Probably gonna set u back 1500 for a trained mechanic to do.
 
Thanks guys

4g93e DOHC head from LLT on my 4g94 block

Head is being supplied with all parts, gaskets etc. needed for a straight swap, so as far as I understand its gonna be pretty much just unbolt the old head, bolt on the new one, and sort out the new timing belt.
 
icaruswings said:
Thanks guys

4g93e DOHC head from LLT on my 4g94 block

Head is being supplied with all parts, gaskets etc. needed for a straight swap, so as far as I understand its gonna be pretty much just unbolt the old head, bolt on the new one, and sort out the new timing belt.
Click to expand...

yeah lui does heaps of these conversions.

what kind of power are you aiming for? in terms of dohc head conversions, not too much to be had, but an upgrade in power none the less, you would benefit more from a cam upgrade and tune id say, but that with a dohc head wouldnt be too bad either, but very pricey
 
I don't see why it would be any more then 200-300 labor? If you already have the head, t-belt and gaskets?
 
Probably because a simple head gasket change cost around 300. But that's probably them supplying the gasket. Gotta factor in timing belt which usually go for 200+. I'd say its atleast 800. Btw don't forget to get the head decked or machined to make sure its not warped.
 
Mate forget about allll of that, its a professionally prepared head supplied with all the parts. I'm pretty sure Luke just wants a price for a mechanic to slap it on. Should be no more the 4-5 hours labor in my opinion, so @ $75 an hour it will cost you 250-350max. I didn't do a dohc swap but it took Luie about 45-60 mins to remove, replace gasket, torque down, retime. And we were ready to start up again. Valve clearance took an extra half hour but that should be already done.
 
yeah, thats what I was after, labor involved in simply swapping the head and fixing timing belt, I'd be stoked with under $500 bucks.. and sounds like if all goes to plan, it should only mean my cars off the road for the day - thanks guys

the head is getting worked a little, ported & polished, heavy duty valve springs etc.. I have a Haltech PS1000 that is going in and will be tuned at the same time.

I'm shooting for 150HP atw with my car, i'd be stoked with that, and i'm not really that far off, just over 120hp at the moment, dyno'd before the current cam went in or the Haltech ECU and a decent tune.

I'm starting with stock 4g93e cams in this head, but depending on how close i get to my goal with the swap ( I keep getting told to expect about +15-20kw atw, which seems like alot, so we'll wait and see - after its done, if I still want more, which i probably will, I'm doing high comp pistons, and at that point will also do a cam upgrade to get the most bang out of it.
 
just spoke to the Mechanics actually, and he gave me a ballpark of $400 - $500, so thats perfect!

he advised that because I have had some issues with the haltech wiring harness, that we install it and give it a little tweak, so we know its working and we are installing the head into the car with the haltech in a working state to make troubleshooting a bit easier.

so I'm booked in on Wednesday to fit the haltech, remove the MAF, make a custom intake & tune.
hopefully i'll be able to post a decent dyno printout for you all to check out.

Tuning it now kinda feels like a waste, but the silver lining is it gives me a baseline to see how much the DOHC head changes things when I do the swap in a couple of weeks.
 
No way! $400 to $500 for a different head swap!

I wish I didn't do mine myself now.X-D

Much swearing and breaking of things.

Why wouldn't you get the supplier to install? Sounds like he could do it quickly and therefore cheaply.
 
Because the supplier is in a different state, so the cost of flying him down would exceed the price of a mechanic doing the job.
 
ABrouwer said:
Because the supplier is in a different state, so the cost of flying him down would exceed the price of a mechanic doing the job.
Click to expand...

I was contemplating driving the car to sydney so Luie could just do it, I like driving, but decided I don't like it quite that much.
 
Icaruswings hope you dont mind me asking but how much was the head and gaskets from LLT ballpark figure?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top