Unfortunately a week ago my timing belt snapped on my way home from work. I made the mistake to try and start it thinking it was my starter or spark plugs that went bad or got wet since I drove over a puddle of water. Long story short, I got some bent valves and now need to replace them or get a new motor. The shop I took the car to quoted me $1890 for a low mileage LS swap including labor.

I'm not knowledgeable on what motor swaps run these days but seems like a reasonable price to me. Am I getting ****ed in the *** by these guys or is it a legit price they are charging me? Lol ... Old motor had about 180k miles on it and leaking oil anyway, so I figured I'd get a swap than just fix the valves which might run me just as much as getting a motor. Any input/advice appreciated. Thanks

 

****ed in the *** hard man.

can you work on your car at all? know anything about it? i would pull the head off and inspect it. im sure you got some friends near by or something that can help you. pull the head and inspect it. if its just a few valves, buy some new ones and take it to an engine repair shop. not a mechanic. and have them put them in and seat them properly. there are tons of write ups on here on how to do it if you feel confident. i did mine myself and had never any experience with it prior. just make sure you follow the directions carefully. might only cost you a couple hundred at most in the long run. if you need a new motor, check out hmotorsonline.com im sure they will ship you a 40k motor for like a grand. get some buddies to help you put in in for free or for beer/food whatever. save yourself the money. 1800 is a ripoff.

 

jdm ls is $599-699

timing belt $50

labor $500

should cost you around $1200

 

ive never had a shop do any work for me except **** i couldnt do because i didnt have the equipment or i knew i couldnt possibly do. and even then i made sure i wasnt being screwed. you made it sound like that guy thought you were a dumbass girl and he wanted to rape you.

 

$1890 for an LS Swap = Non-lubed **** Rape. You can get it for ALOT cheaper OR you can repair the head by replacing the valves, springs, retainers, seals, and maybe even get some mild cams and still save a good amount of $$$ left over.

 

idk how the OP's name is boostedeh3 and yet doesnt realize hes being raped...

 

he said inlcuding labor
their basically charging him 1000 for the motor 1000 for the labor
i think its high
get a motor yourself from ebay or whatever. they go for 600 for a low mileage jdm motor
we got a jdm b20 clean as hell for 700


then get someone to slap it in there
work out of my garage and swap these things alot. i charge 300 bucks takes me 4 hours if it has no ac

id say labor should be around 700 bucks and the motor should be 500-700
so 1200 sounds right.

 

ALWAYS change the timing belt, most these engines are 10 years old +

 

how do you/they know you bent valves?

 

noise.. also this typically happens when you bust your timing belt. and also OP tried to restart his car which probably smashed a piston into a valve.

 

YC I'm on my brothers account, he lives no where near me or I'd ask him to help me do a swap. He's been out the game for a while anyway. No im not that knowledgable mechanically wise to do it myself without screwing anything up. I've done minor repairs but nothing as complicated as this. Plus I don't have the necessary tools/equipment to do it myself. Living in an apartment doesn't help either lol. I just posted on here to get you guys opinion and input which I appreciate so far.

 

I would definitely shop around, a low mileage LS engine should be well under $1000, [$500-$800] for one in good condition, an engine at PicknPull up here is under $200 for a long block.

Also as stated, labour should not be more then 4 or 5 hr, max if it is a direct swap and that's if they have to swap the transmission. 94

 

noise? i'm not sure i follow
and it actually typically doesn't happen on an ls. these aren't close interference engines. if the engine is revving at a relatively low speed during the occurrence, chances are it didn't
and trying to restart the car isn't going to bend valves in an ls because the valves will default to a nearly closed state without the belt in tact. close enough to closed that they will not make contact. in an ls.

my theory is that the shop didn't do **** all for testing, and are just trying to hose you for a motor swap that may or may not be necessary.
you can try turning the crank and seeing if you get piston to valve contact on a valve that's hung up/bent. otherwise, try slamming a new belt on and cross your fingers. or hell, pull the head off and have it pressure tested and resurfaced. still cheaper than replacing the whole engine. and this way, you get a true surface, new head gasket and timing belt. much better than just tossing in some "low k" engine.

 

x2
if the timing belt snapped at low rpm or you got lucky the valves should be ok. you can check with a leak down tester. but i prefer to take the head off and see if there was any contact with piston.

also correct the valves are closed once the belt snaps. i dont get why people always say well since you cranked it the valves are all bent now

ive had 3 incidents where hondas snapped the belt. all 3 incidents left the engine unharmed and i changed the timing belt and started it right up.
id hate to see a good engine scrapped

 

you can supply your own parts..but if for some reason the swap isn't 100% functional...the shop could be like "well we did our work properly it could be a faulty part that we did not supply"...if they supply the parts it is their responsibly for them to work properly...if you supply the parts it becomes YOUR responsibility

 

ive had a bent valve from timing belt snapping so it does happen..

well op do this. buy a new timing belt. and put it on. you dont need a lot of tools for this. there are write-ups so look them up. if everything runs perfect, you just saved yourself $1700

 

you could opt to do this, but you'd run like **** with bent valves and eventually a damaged one could completely break and drop into the cylinder...goodnight.

$1800 is pretty fair, does the swap come with any sort of warranty/guarantee?

 

i was saying that assuming there really where no bent valves. if there were, obviously he would hear it and then take motor apart and proceed to either fix head or buy new one. i would never in my life pay 1800 for an ls plus install.

 

and so what does he have to lose? he'd be in the same predicament as the shop is saying he's in now. (although this is all rhetorical, because even if he did bend valves, he wouldn't need to replace the entire motor. or at least, unlikely for piston damage to occur. and pulling the head to find out would only take even an incompetent mechanic an hour to do)

my point was this: don't take solely the word of one single shop that the motor/head is toast. especially one that wants to charge, what is in my opinion, a sizable sum for the job. but hey, i don't know how much an ls runs you in your area, but like fcm said, up here you can find them for 2 bills easy

and here's something you can do that will save you time and the possibility of damage to the bottom end.
just install the belt to the point that you can run a compression test manually. which is basically just slipping the belt on with proper timing set.
turn the crank by hand and see that you are building at least some compression. even by hand, you will build some. if a valve is bent, it will likely show as 0 compression in that cylinder. if they all build pressure relatively equal, slam it all back together, fire it up, and pat yourself on the back. if not, pull the head and have it serviced
there. quick and safe..and cost effective

 

$1800 is the price installed..labor rates for swaps usually are around 800-900..so basically he's paying $900 for motor and $900 for the labor..

I would never pay a shop to swap a motor for me..but for those who can't do it/don't want to do it..

true..although if hes leaking/burning oil bad enough and wants a fresher motor he could get the swap done...or oem rebuild..but I guess spending the $xx for a timing belt is a good way to determine how bad it is..plus you could use that fresh belt on the used motor if you follow through with the swap

 

guess that all comes down to how much he cares about the car and whether that care is in the reaches of his pockets

 

how sure are you that u have belt valves? i had two belts snap on two different hondas and not had an issue after putin a new belt on

 

$1800 is way too much. I got a buddy who bought a Del Sol with an LS in it and he forgot to put oil in it (duh). He doesn't know which way to turn a wrench and his mom wouldn't let me put a new one in so he took it to the shop. It was $1200 for a low mileage LS and installation, into a car that it did not originally come in.

 

i hate parents that swear we don't know anything about cars. =____=

 

I know right?
And he was afraid to let me put a new one in and then split the $1200