# Engine rebuild labour costs?



## aki (May 1, 2003)

What’s the going rate for an engine re-build by a reputable tuner? Bottom end only at the moment and roughly how many hours labour do they normally quote? Would they be ok with me supplying my own parts, pistons, conrods, oil pump etc?

I had spoken to a well known tuner a while ago about getting my engine rebuilt but at the time I think he quoted some where in the region of £3.5k. I just want to get a ball park figure of what people pay for engine rebuilds for an RB26?


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## pupsi (Aug 29, 2006)

For an engine refresh its about £1500, including the parts, last time i checked. So it'll be similar plus the parts.


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## gts-tom (Jun 14, 2010)

I asked this a while ago because I thought I was going to need one and including all parts bearings/gaskets and forged pistons it was going to be around £3500 with labour


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## pupsi (Aug 29, 2006)

Sounds about right, forged internals aren't cheap.


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## aki (May 1, 2003)

Ok, maybe I mis understood the original quote I was given, sounds like the going rate for an engine build is about £1.5k (excluding parts).

The tuners that built your engine would they mind if parts were supplied by the customer (pistons, conrods etc) or would they only fit parts purchased through them?
Don’t mind paying a good engine builder money for their skill and technical expertise but I don’t see why I should pay a mark up for parts they're just going to order over the net if I can order them myself and save a few bob in the process.


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## gtr-loz (Feb 10, 2006)

best thing to do is give them a ring ron at rk is very helpful


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## roguejackal (Jul 10, 2004)

A reputable tuner quoted me £6000 just for standard but that included all parts, I've managed around £7000 including new turbos and a gearbox refresh for around 500 bhp at the fly (to be confirmed)


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## scoooby slayer (Jun 13, 2009)

tr did my engine for £6k all in, i trailered it to them they removed the engine, overbored and decked the block, brand new crank and wiseco pistons / rings, trust sump extension, stripped checked and refitted jun oil pump, tomei rod bolts, head checked and didnt need anything iirc, then assembled with acl bearings and tomei gasket set, all new belts, new oil cooler modine, rocker cover inlet and turbo pipe painted, they ran it in (fuel in the price aswell) mapped it and even delivered it back to me, over 3k miles on it now and still sweet as a nut at 580 bhp. the labour was £2k which i think was very reasonable.


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## aki (May 1, 2003)

scoooby slayer said:


> tr did my engine for £6k all in, i trailered it to them they removed the engine, overbored and decked the block, brand new crank and wiseco pistons / rings, trust sump extension, stripped checked and refitted jun oil pump, tomei rod bolts, head checked and didnt need anything iirc, then assembled with acl bearings and tomei gasket set, all new belts, new oil cooler modine, rocker cover inlet and turbo pipe painted, they ran it in (fuel in the price aswell) mapped it and even delivered it back to me, over 3k miles on it now and still sweet as a nut at 580 bhp. the labour was £2k which i think was very reasonable.


Sounds like the kind of spec I would go for. Did you uprate the conrods or stick with stock items?
For the amount of work they did £2k seems very reasonable when you consider they had to carry out machining, fabrication and mapping.
However I think that £4k for parts seems a little expensive as you already had the Jun oil pump and the major components you purchased were the pistons, crank, trust sump and oil cooler?


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## scoooby slayer (Jun 13, 2009)

aki said:


> Sounds like the kind of spec I would go for. Did you uprate the conrods or stick with stock items?
> For the amount of work they did £2k seems very reasonable when you consider they had to carry out machining, fabrication and mapping.
> However I think that £4k for parts seems a little expensive as you already had the Jun oil pump and the major components you purchased were the pistons, crank, trust sump and oil cooler?


on stock rods as there strong enough for my tune. parts were reasonable too i think, i have it in front of me now exact bill was £5647.

labour £2000
new crank £750
new wiseco pistons / rings and block bore and deck, acl bearings £1000
trust sump conversion £400
oils/sundries/gaskets £500
tomei rod bolts £150
map £300
total fuel cost £200
oil cooler modine £347
so £5647 all in which i think was an exceptionally good price. 

i was lucky though as jun oil pump, garrett -5 turbos and the ported head with hks 9.1 cams were all in as new condition so didnt need any money spending on them.


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## _dan_ (Jan 24, 2010)

I was at TR Racing today, and they said they charge 40 hours labour for a rebuild (and you know it'll be good!). Obviously plus parts. Think they're around £55p/h.


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## MIKEGTR (Jul 8, 2005)

For the figures being quoted I'd prefer to buy a rips engine


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## asiasi (Dec 22, 2007)

MIKEGTR said:


> For the figures being quoted I'd prefer to buy a rips engine



Yeah but no one ever posts the actual cost of fitting a RIPS bottom end,including all mods to piping etc.
I think you will find its £10k at least.


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## Samwest (Feb 23, 2009)

MIKEGTR said:


> For the figures being quoted I'd prefer to buy a rips engine


I thought of the same thing, why not just buy a rips engine?.... if you can fit it your self and use your old pipings and turbos etc, if im not misstaking the price for a rips engine is pretty good.


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## Cris (Sep 17, 2007)

asiasi said:


> Yeah but no one ever posts the actual cost of fitting a RIPS bottom end,including all mods to piping etc.
> I think you will find its £10k at least.


I have wondered this myself. My thought was surely you could buy a complete engine from Rob. The head isn't that expensive and I'm sure he could fab up some new pipework/extend the existing.

Additionally it would free up your current engine to be sold complete (surely worth more that way) and thus recoup some costs.


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## MIKEGTR (Jul 8, 2005)

asiasi said:


> Yeah but no one ever posts the actual cost of fitting a RIPS bottom end,including all mods to piping etc.
> I think you will find its £10k at least.


Ok but i bet his price for an RB26 is around the same price as the RB30's that he does, so in my eyes a better bet


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## aki (May 1, 2003)

scoooby slayer said:


> on stock rods as there strong enough for my tune. parts were reasonable too i think, i have it in front of me now exact bill was £5647.
> 
> labour £2000
> new crank £750
> ...


Thanks for the price breakdown, it will be very helpful when I'm budgeting for a rebuild.



> _dan_ I was at TR Racing today, and they said they charge 40 hours labour for a rebuild (and you know it'll be good!). Obviously plus parts. Think they're around £55p/h.


Thanks for the feedback, so tuners should be quoting 40ish hours for the job.


When weighing up cost of parts and labour it seems almost to be more cost effective to buy a 2nd had engine (which has already been moded) that sometimes come up for sale on the forum?


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## SteffanChyzak (Sep 12, 2010)

My engine rebuild cost £7,000. but a lot of that was labour. £300 to take engine out, £300 to add the parts, £300 to test, £300 to put back in etc etc etc etc etc


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