Antonio

I'm thinking of having an independent P shop replace the rod bearings on my (mostly track) '86 Turbo as preventive maintainance. The car has 130K miles and it runs fine. The engine is dead stock.
Any ideas of what is reasonable to pay for this job? Thanks in advance.
Anthony

TimS

Neighborhood of 1500 (20 hrs of labor(+ -)), including parts. While there, don't forget to do the pan gasket and since you track the car, replace the pan with the updated baffle AND check (or just plain replace) the oil pickup.

Tabor

Tech-Session estimates 12 for the Turbo. You can read all about it here .

Luke

panorama had an article on it


10-12 hr.s

John.

I'd run them longer.......replace only what needs replacing, plus if you blow a motor, you have an excuse to build a real radical setup

TimS

With all due respect, Tabor, it is also humanly possbile to run 26.2 miles in just about 2.5 hours . . . Also, that same tech session suggests that the savings by doing it yourself would be in the neighborhood of $1400. I think I'll stick with a 20 hour estimate

keith

I've done them 4 times now, I say 12 hours is hard to do, unless you are a completely equipped shop and don't run into any problems (yeah right)

Tabor

Tim, in a shop, with a lift and a full gammet of air tools, I have a friend who can replace 3 timing belts a day (8 hours) on FWD cars. I can't do it, but he is a professional mechanic.

It probably took me 20 hours to do my clutch. He has done them on 944 NAs in 5. Having expierince, a lift, and airtools makes a big difference.

fletch.

Can't tell you what a good P-shop would charge, but 12 hours is low (very low) IMHO. That job would take me 3 times that, but I would probably pull the motor and do a complete rebuild at that point.

A good runner should be left alone anyway, rod bearings are a drag to do on your back.

Antonio

Thanks for the input. I got a rough estimate of $1,200 from a reputable P shop in NJ which is in line with what was suggested. I plan to track the car heavily next year and I think that I'm going to have them done as (relatively) cheap insurance along with a turbocharger rebuild. I think that I'll leave the rest of the engine stock for now and concentrate on suspension and tires.