COST
 

Can someone "ballpark" a price for a blueprint rebuild of a stock 389. Rebore, pistons, rings, bearings, and a rebuild of the heads using new valves, springs, lifters and pushrods.

If a machine shop is doing all the work including assembly plus other new internals such as cam, lifters, oil pump, fuel pump, gaskets, etc then you're probably looking at $3000-3500. Less if you can assemble it yourself.

Hi,
I paid $3600 for a rebuild of my 455. Bored 0.030 over, new pistons, resized stock rods, turned and polished crank, balancing of rotating mass, reworked heads with new valves, new cam, springs, valve guides and stem seals, machining of pushrod passages, screw in studs, polylocks, overhauled flywheel, clutch and pressure plate. New oil pump. Drilled and taped for exhaust manifolds bolts. Hot tanking, painted, bearings and gaskets included. Received it as an assembled long block.
Mike

Better be clear with the shop about what you mean by "blueprint rebuild".

"Blueprinting" means different things to different people.

To me, it means CNC machining so that EVERYTHING is in the correct locations--which can mean re-locating the lifter bores, cam tunnel, etc. In general, it would mean correcting the sloppy machine work done by the factory on most every machined surface. You are looking at LOTS of money for that.

I have the impression that you want a stock-type rebuild, done to factory specs and using factory tolerances. I would say that $3500 seems low even for that, but again I'm guessing that you want a turn-key engine, sitting on a pallet ready to install.

I am rebuilding a '61 389 right now and these are the costs with me doing the disassembly/reassembly and cutting new valve seats using equipment at a tech school here.

Vat block and install cam bearings 80
bore and hone 96
turn crank 60
balance 185
pistons, pins, rings, bearings 505
valves 160
valve spring/retainer set 117
valve keepers 6
rockers 60
push rods 24
lifters 50
cam 80
oil pump 40
timing set 27
freeze/gallery plugs 8
gasket set 100
assembly lube/sealants 10
engine paint 10
shipping 25

total 1643

The prices quoted above are from the current PAW catalog and represent stock replacement components and their brand name products, not high end racing quality components. I am not actually buying all of this as I have collected most of these items over time. I'm using the PAW prices as examples. The machine shop prices are from a shop in SE Texas that will use a Pontiac torque plate when boring the block. The machine shop has been in business over 30 years and has a very good reputation. I called a number of shops and was surprised at their prices; especially the bore and hone price.
Obviously I also have quite an investment in engine building tools that isn't shown, but they will all be available for the next one and all that follow.

Well, up here in Fairbanks, Alaska, I just had my 1966 389 re-done at the local machine shop, 30 yrs in the business. It is an GTO XE block, bored .060 over, new pistons, tanked, 093 heads re-done, 068 cam, full assembled, new bearings, crank cleaned up, timing chain, and so forth. All painted with intake on, including a 3 year unlimited mileage warranty, $2250 out the door on a pallete. I thought that was good.

1800 for the short block over here
and as much as you want to spend on the heads, extra