geenick Posted June 8, 2007 Report Share Posted June 8, 2007 My Cutlass started leaking BAD from the notorious oil-drive seal. I took apart the upper and lower intake hoping to fix it, but it started leaking again. Removing that rear head and doing the associated machine work was more thatn I wanted to get into. I would have had to take days off of work to work on my car and that's not cool! I started calling around about doing it the "right" way without cutting the head. So here's what I just had done to the car: Head gasket set Valve job including 3-angle grind new timing belt and tensioner brakets fix that damn leaking o-ring! The shop had it for 14 days! Is $1700 for parts and labor too much for that job? I had TONS of shops say they wouldnt work on it for any price... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IRONDOG442 Posted June 8, 2007 Report Share Posted June 8, 2007 not too bad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted June 8, 2007 Report Share Posted June 8, 2007 Yeah, thats not too awful bad I guess. The timing job is usually a $500-$700 job alone. These heads are kinda in there, and since you had headwork done also, that increased the price as well. IMO, I woulda bit the bullet and done it myself. Thats a lot of money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geenick Posted June 8, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2007 I thought about doing it myself. I've rebuilt several smallblock chev and ford engines before (and honda/acura too). I do almost ALL of my own car work. I've heard about nightmares of getting it all put back together and not being able to get the timing right with the overhead cams on these. Also, everyone I would normally call with questions told me "I won't help with that engine" when I bought the car. So I wouldn't have anybody local to call if things went awry. If the shop had to bill it out at 13 hours, I KNOW it would have taken me 20 or more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted June 8, 2007 Report Share Posted June 8, 2007 Really, if you have done a Honda/Acura with the OHC, it's really not much different. Timing isn't bad, in fact there is a good write-up on 60degreev6.com on how to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwmin Posted June 8, 2007 Report Share Posted June 8, 2007 its really a pretty simple design. i dont think its much harder than pulling heads on a sbc, maybe dare i say: easier. theres just usually a little more room than a 3.4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted June 8, 2007 Report Share Posted June 8, 2007 Yep, I would agree. To do the intake gaskets, less than 1 hour compared to 4-5 hours on the pushrod variants. Less parts to remove when pulling the heads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psych0matt Posted June 8, 2007 Report Share Posted June 8, 2007 anyone who wont work on the 3.4 wont see any of my other cars either. the guy i take mine to is great, and will work on anything. he has his own personal 3.4 timing tools, and even though he's the manager of the shop and not an actual grease monkey anymore, when mine goes in he's usually the one to work on it cuz he doesn't want the other guys messing anything up, or "learning" on my car oh well, I fully trust him and the guys there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOHCRagtopguy Posted June 8, 2007 Report Share Posted June 8, 2007 Considering all the work that you had done, IMO that's a very fair price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White93z34 Posted June 8, 2007 Report Share Posted June 8, 2007 it is alot of money, however i have heard of people paying that for a timing belt job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ns87 Posted June 15, 2007 Report Share Posted June 15, 2007 That's a fair price. I assume financially you're somewhat well off since you spent that money on an older W body lol. I love to do all that myself, but it would have to be on a project car, not a daily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pwmin Posted June 15, 2007 Report Share Posted June 15, 2007 i would agree with matt: if you cant work on a 3.4, i wouldnt trust you with much else. i understand if youre not familiar with it if you dont work on GMs. i dont have to worry about that, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5speedz34 Posted June 15, 2007 Report Share Posted June 15, 2007 Good price IMO. Could've paid a couple hundred less, but good price none the less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toms92gpse Posted June 19, 2007 Report Share Posted June 19, 2007 The guy that I normally take my car to if its something I don't have time to mess with, like when i was working 2 jobs, said that the replacing the brake booster was more of a pain in his ass then doing the timing belt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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