Silverbullet951

I need to have my head gasket replaced and I was told that I might as well have a valve job done since the car has some mileage on it. Do you guys know what the average price a mechanic charges for this type of job? Thanks guys.

User 41221

They charge too much... do it yourself, if you have a bit of time and a place to work on it. With the help of Rennlist, there is very little you cannot fix on your car. KC Wrenching Society is a good example of that, we get together regularly to work on our cars and help each other out. Talk about it with the 944 folks in your area, I bet you can do it no problem.

As for the valve job, yeah, get it done, have the guides, valves and springs checked, and get the head decked while you are at it. If you get it done at a local shop, it will cost somewhere from $175-350, depending on what all you have done. If you have a shop do it, I bet you will spend around $1500 or so for the whole thing, or $350 in parts plus the head work if you do it yourself and replace the water pump, rollers, seals and belts at the same time.

Regards,

crazyracer

If you give your car to the shop they will charge you a lot for parts, like head gasket, timing belt kit etc. I don't think you will be able to get it done below 2,500 inc. the head job. Be very careful, no need not to do it your self. Ask any "stupid" question and I am sure that the people here will walk you through.

Silverbullet951

Thanks for the replies guys. Also I forgot to mention, that I'm also replacing the water pump for a new one and I need a new water pump for the turbo. I am most likely going to get all the parts and just give them to my mech. so he can do the work. I wish I could do it; I don't have any time, but I do have the money. I will also say that my mech. is a frigin genius, and he charges dirt cheap. He's not any regular mechanic.. That's why I'm curious as to what a normal mech would charge for all this work. So the total work would be water pump, HG, WP for turbo, and valve job.. Maybe about 2500? Thanks again guys.

3 Turbos

With all those parts and labor - your pretty close - ask me how I know

Silverbullet951

Wow, 2500? seems pretty pricey. I'll see if my mech can do any better on the price. Thanks a lot guys.

lart951

you should be looking at $ 1400.00 -1700.00
15hours@60.00 = $ 900.00+ parts
20hours@60.00 = $ 1200.00 + parts

$ 2500.00 is way too much.

Silverbullet951

Yea, that sounds more resonable to me. Well, I'll let you guys know how it goes. The thing is, my turbo is pretty old and it's running out of steam. I would need to replace it. I wanted to buy the vitesse kit so I could install it while the motor was being worked on, but I don't have the money. Should I stay with this turbo I have now and run it until I get the money, or should I just replace it now with a newer stock turbo?

evil 944t

I would just fix the Hg and save for the kit. You can always rebuild your turbo. Do a search, I think it's like pretty inexpensive. I would run it till you have a problem..but thats me

johne

What were your symptoms of running out of steam? Are you burning a lot of oil or is there just not the top end power that you want? If it is just a power problem I would wait until you can afford it and then go with the vitesse kit. If you are loosing a lot of boost pressure at the topend that is usually a boost control failure. AKA wastegate leaking. It's very common with these cars and most people upgrade to a Tial 38mm or 46mm wastegate.

Good luck,
John

Epic2112

Siverbullet, who is your mech and where is he?

Silverbullet951

Johne, I am losing coolant and it's not leaking anywhere, plus the car doesn't run right. It overheats and it is leaking oil from the head. It's not 100% blown, but I'm going to fix it before it gets worse.

Epic, My mechanic's name is Joe. We call him joe presto presto. He is located in Inwood. I have taken my car to mechanics that only work on porsches and Joe does better work. He builds his own engine parts. He creates performance connecting rods and performance CF intake manifolds for his drag cars. He's a little sloppy but he gets the job done. He finds the root of the problem and fixes it. He'll fix my car whenever I have a problem, be it the weekend, or until 3-4 in the morning. By far the BEST mechanic I have ever known. I went to get a price quote on how much it would cost for him to install a vitesse kit. Turbo, intake, computer installed. I told him all the parts involved. All work complete with the car fully tuned...250 bucks.

3 Turbos

To Lart951 and Silverbullet951;

You have to remember a couple of things;

1) different areas around the 50 states, mechanics will have a different hourly rate, so the cost of a HG replacement will vary and cannot be a fixed amount, i.e.; it will always cost $xxxx.xx to repair this item or that item.

2) yes you can do the headgasket and other things yourself if you have the time, money, place, tools, and information on how to do it.

3) if you do make a mistake doing it yourself, you will have to redo it yourself, since you won't have any warranty, while the frustration rises.

I could go on, but you get the idea. When I was younger and could simply work on the car anytime, doing it yourself is fine. Now that I'm older, if I break it, I want it fixed as soon as possible, and I don't want to get my hands dirty anymore.

You guys on this board must be young'in's!

I wish I was a young'in again!

Silverbullet951

Uh, I never said I was going to do it myself. I'm bringing it to my mech. because I don't have the time. They have different rates but they are all basically the same price. If I wanna get ripped off, i'll go to rudtners racing. If wanna get a great deal and have my problem fixed, i'll go to joe. That's basically it, I just wanted to know what an average price was.

TonyG

I highly recommend NOT milling anything off the head unless the head is not flat. To do so will only raise the compression ratio, change the cam timing, and alter the designed squish area.

Secondly, you do not know if the head has ever been milled (or decked, or surfaced, or any other name you want to call it), therefore you could be takign off more than what might have been taken off one or more times in the past.

Lastly, it's not necessary unless it's not flat. And with the quality of gasoline only going down, your chances of detonation go up.