Hello guys. I just wanted to get some of your past experience to help me out.
First this is what i'm putting in.
Toda A cams
Toda cam gears
Toda Headers
carsound converter
Apexi vafc
mugen headgasket

my home is ATL but i havent been here much, since i was in the military academy and such. Now i'm in Ft. Benning for Ranger school. i asked few friends of mine back in atl and they told Balanced performance does good job. Some of you who live in Atl might tell me different, if thats the case where is better place.

here are the prices he listed:
Cylinder head gasket, cam & gears, t.belt
Replace (b)-----------------------------------------($75labor/hr)---------$525.00
includes: Remove carbon and make all necessary adjustments
Timing belt--------------------------------------------------------------------$62.50
headers & catalytic converter------------------------($75labor/hr)--------$112.50
Install V-tec Controller--------------------------------($75labor/hr)--------$225.00
tune V-tec controller----------------------------------------------------------$300.00

labor= $1162.50
parts= $62.50
Total= $1228.75

That seems too much to me. That is a lot of money i can spend on something else.
I'm thinking about just doing it myself and just get it tuned, but i havent done this before so that is why i wanted shop to do it.
Give me some advice and suggestion plz.
thanks.




[Modified by IntyTypeR0798, 9:34 AM 12/10/2002]

 

Cost of labor will kill you every time. Things that COULD be done in an hour, sometimes takes shops 2, 3, or 4 hrs to do. There are a lot of R owners down in the ATL area, there has to be someone willing to help you out or refer you to another place. Good luck

 

I can install everything with some help and even tune V-AFC if I have to... they are charging way too much. Hope you won't spend that much money alone in labor.

 

Thats way too much for labor, get someone from around there that knows what they are doing to give you a hand its not that hard, then just spend the money on tuning

 

$75.00 / hr labor cost is same as Acura dealer fee.
Honda dealers charge $50/ hr

 

I think 75/hr is too high its 60/hr around here

 

i might have to pull out some books and do it myself. maybe Cosworth can help me out.

 

Going rate for a cam/gear install is about 100-200 bucks. the other stuff shouldn't be too much more. If i were you, i'd send a PM to willard. he works for money and beer, great guy too.

 

there you go right there, get a book and some tools and take at it, just get someone with some experience just incase you run into a wall

 

$75/hr

 

vtec controller is a 30 mins job......................jessss

I need to open a shop

 

IM sent.

 

Those prices are outrageous.

Get together with a few friends who know cars and cook them some steaks and buy beer. Then you can watch, learn and help out while making a good time out of it.

 

One little piece of advice. Make sure you do the installs BEFORE the and steak go into the system.
Glad to hear that you guys have a nice network of people out there. It's pretty tough to find people that do good work in Cleveland.

 

why are you taking off the head to install cams?

 

because he's putting in a headgasket. You can do all that yourself rather easily with time, patience, and a helms manual. Then get on a dyno and the v-afc is super easy to tune. Don't pay that much for installation, that's crazy expensive and i'm sure they'll charge you for more hours than it actually took.

 

Yesh, take your business to Harris Acura in Charlotte. Excellent work at fair prices

Yack = his tuning skills are legendary.

 

Yup, I could lend a hand, but Willard and Jack's got the stuff covers better than any Honda/Acura dealership.

It's only 2 hours driver to Willard's "Harris Acura" and it'll be well worth your time and money.

 

yeah but still i would charge 150 to install it!!!

hehehe.....

if you don't know how to work on your car you shouldn't bitch about labor prices....i have close to 15000 in tools!!! that is worth the extra labor!!!!!if you don't think so....then go make your own investment in tools you only charge 20 an hour for labor!!! we'll see if you want to work for 20 an hour!!

 

please don't throw that money down the drain. I installed my vafc header, cat, exhaust all by myself, with no lift, no power tools. They are ripping you off. they are probably going to install everything in like an hour and a half, and then go party while you are paying them for five hours of work.

It really is not hard to do any exhaust or header mods yourself, they are just bolts. And I would trust my fellow HT peeps over any shop any day. The vafc is simple, a kid could do it. what was it like four wires that you need to hook the vafc up to. I sautered it just in case, but that still only took me like 25 mins. Good thing you asked here first.

 

You can save so much doing the easy stuff.

 

does putting in head gaskets take the same amount of work as putting in pistons?

 

harris acura:

 

 

I would pay to get the cams and head gasket installed by a reputable shop, take your time and find someone your happy with. The rest of that stuff you can do, and with the money you'll save on labor you can buy more mods.