I'm looking for suggestions on shops to build my 4b11, I recently discovered all my cylinders are right around 90psi and cylinder 4 has 15+% leak by. I had the cylinders scoped aswell looks like 3 and 4 have some significant scoring. I live in the south eastern US. I had a local preformance shop look at it, they're asking roughly 11-12k in parts and labor. Is this reasonable? Is there a way to mitigate huge labor costs? I don't have the time or knowledge to do the build myself or the proper tooling for that matter. What are some of your experiences?

 

If you can't build it yourself, you're going to pay labor, simple as that. And trying to go cheap on an engine WILL cost you a lot more money in the long run when the engine eventually fails and the cut rate shop you chose doesn't behind their work.

11-12 is probably about in the ball park for a fully built and installed engine. Make sure you're getting a sleeved block. And make sure you're going with a reputable shop so you only have to spend the money once.

 

A brand new long block from Mitsu costs 5-6k. Installation of the long-block can be done in one day if the shop is competent enough. Short-block is about 2.8k from Mitsu. It really depends on the shop rate.

 

I would assume he's not going factory.

 

No I'm not going to buy another stock block. I'm thinking an overbore will be the way to go. At this point I'm not sure wether or not to go ahead and sleeve the block or just go with oversized pistons. And I'm also thinking the head will be built while the motor is out of the car.

 

AMS Performance

 

I went through a full rebuild last year. A high quality build with lots of new parts, new valvetrain, cams and and a properly sleeved block will cost approx $8,500 with labor to assemble the short block and cylinder head individually but NOT to put both together with all the bits and deinstall/install in the car.

Like others have said, for a high end high quality build, expect $11-14k out/in.

 

So I'm assuming you cut some of your costs out by removing the motor and doing the install after handing it off to someone else to build? I was thinking that this might be a good idea. Who did you choose to sleeve your block? And did you use the same shop to machine your head aswell?

 

Razorlab did some of the work himself, and had some trusted shops also do some of the other work.

If you're taking you're car in for a "one stop shop" type of build, make sure you're taking it somewhere good and reputable, and let them spec everything out and use the machinist they usually use. That way if there is a problem, it's on them.

If you want to do it yourself, RED (Race Engine Development), or Golden Eagle MFG are great companies for sleeve install.

 

How did go about doing this? Did you pull the motor yourself and then ship your head and block to separate shops? Or did the same machine do both your block and head? Also who did the assenlmbly of your block and heads? Im interested to know because I'm thinking this will be my best options in terms of savings, also I feel fairly confident that I can pull the motor, at that point I would be scared to do anything else.

 

How far away from Rock Hill, SC are you? There is a place there call Shift Fast Motorsports. I have a couple of buddies back east that have taken their evos there and have really good luck with them.

 

I would have if I had the time and space, but I currently have neither. I had a local shop that I trust pull everything. I then personally shipped the bare block to RED (Race Engine Development) for the Darton sleeving. If you check out his site, he is one of the best for sleeving. The shop I trust sent used a local machine shop for stripping and building the head and building the block once it was back from sleeving.

Then the shop I trust put everything back together. I also had him do the lash adjustment on the head with the new cams which came out great. (no valvetrain noise).

It is a two person shop so from dropping my car off to picking it back up took about a year. It was a bit frustrating time wise but the work was top notch. I requested the machine shop redo the bearing clearances on the block because they did it before I was able to request custom clearances so that added a month but over all it took A LONG TIME.

Prepare yourself. Also notice I put shop I *trust* many times on purpose.

 

The trend that has always existed with fast cars is you either have to have a lot of money or a lot of knowledge/skill. If you have both, even better and you deserve it! If you have neither, you should not buy a fast car because it will put you in severe debt.