#17863, "1st time attempt to do the bottom end..."
well i did my compression test and yes one of my pistons are crap. cylinder #2 was 82. the others are 167, 167, 167. sucks...but hey that's life. anyway i'm going to order the Howell bottom end kit on April 1st so i hope no one buys it,they still got it in stock. now what i'm going to do is attempt doing this on my own, i'm kinda iffy in doing this, but i have no choice. i live in keywest with one shop that's able to do this and they said they'll do it for $2000, and i'm like forget that. i'll try. i so far have done every mod myself so i would rather do it and let it be my fault if anything goes wrong. but whoever here has experience rebuilding the bottom end please gimme pointers on what to look out for. i know this should be done with more experienced people but like i said i'm under water with money, and i have no car to drive. also if you guys are in the miami area/south florida area, and that would help that'll be cool as hell. i'll even pay for expenses for you to come down here. especially keywest is the place to be with all these college girls that are here for spring break. so guys i need your help. peace out!
#17864, "RE: 1st time attempt to do the bottom end..." In response to Reply # 0
You should be able to find a local engine shop that will do the complete rebuild for like $500 - $700 or so. I would love to come down there from Tampa and help you but my work schedule makes it hard to travel around and shit. Good luck to you and keep calling around and maybe you will find one of the shops I am talking about. If Ray (PuRe RaGe) was still around, he could tell you some shops in the area.
#17865, "RE: 1st time attempt to do the bottom end..." In response to Reply # 0
your only a little ways from Miami, theres 1000x shops that will help you out. I would highly reccomend Mesa Balncing, they do awesome work and have done the machine work on everything from turbo-d saturns to 800hp supras. South FLorida Performance is another good shop, but i think they may sublease a lot of their work (not sure tho)
labor for a decent rebuild w/ nothing major shouldnt cost more than 1200 tops (closer to 600-800 range)
if you do it urself, unless you already got everything, your gonna end up buying prolly 200 worth of tools anyways, then theres the added downtime and the "well, i think that looks straight" factor, lol
I believe dino did his himself, so hell really be able to help you out there.
another option is to hae a shop do the machine work, but you do the assembly yourself. thats what a buddy of mine just did w/ his car
#17866, "RE: 1st time attempt to do the bottom end..." In response to Reply # 2
yeah i'm having second thoughts doing this...after reading into it, it takes an experienced person to handle this. i know there's plenty of machine shops in miami but my problem is being able to start my car. i can't drive it at all. what i thought of is getting a dolly and my dad takes my car to miami to a machine shop. hopefully it can be done, i'll keep you guys posted. thanks fellas!
#17867, "RE: 1st time attempt to do the bottom end..." In response to Reply # 3
yea, if your looking to save some $$ and gain a little experience, pull the motor yourself, and just take the motor to a good machine shop and let em know what you want done. you could save a little on labor by just havingt he shop do the machine work, and then assemble everything yourself.
my buddy just put a new motor in his saturn (hes going to turbo it). he just had mesa balancing do the stuff he couldnt, then he did the assembly himself in his garage. his labor cost were cheap (i wanna say something like just $300-400)
#17868, "RE: 1st time attempt to do the bottom end..." In response to Reply # 4
Seriously. I watch monkeys put together engines every semester. It really is not rocket science. Read a book. Learn about the parts. Get a well known machinest to help. The toughest part is all the tedious measuring. If you have a question, go to your machinest. They are smart people believe it or not. Buy plenty of plastigauge(not the American stuff, metric) Everyone has their own ways of building. I'm a lube, lube, lube kind of guy. Some don't bother b/c they say you get better/faster break-in/seal time. If you want to do it, go for it. Your going to spend about 200-300 at a machine shop anyway. Get stuff balanced, pistons will need to be pressed onto the rods, the crank will need a good look over and maybe polished/lightened. This is also good time for MILD headwork. Have the head checked and milled if nesessary. A helpful part for the machinest, is to have the pistons, rings, and block bored all together. My machinest goes ahead and even checks ring gap clearence and does a final hone and marks excactly what pistons go where. Give it a try- you'll surprise yourself.
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