Okay, so I brought my car into a mechanic to have the engine checked out since a different mechanic said i needed a new engine. Well, they said that I needed new intake & head gaskets & it would run me about 800$.. I've been checking out prices for intake gaskets & whatnot for a 1995 Monte Carlo Z34, 3.4L V6 & it's only about 100$ for the gaskets.. Are they overpricing me on labor or what? & is it really THAT impossible to find a rebuild engine for that kind of car? They're exuse was "It's a high-performance machine & that's why they're so hard to find".. I would just like to know if I'm going to be paying too much for this. If anyone has an idea.. Get back to me ASAP! Thanks.

 

make sure they put intake manifold gasket #'s MS98003T thats the problem solver kit from felpro, if they dont put them on then you'll just be doing this again in another 20-40k

there's people up here that will do them for about 300-500$ not including parts, but they work in their garages, but they're still good

if your doing the heads too get this part # instead

HST9071PT1 make sure its got the T in it so you get the improved intake problem solver kit in it, basically they have metal inserts instead of plastic

 

the problem is it takes some time if you dont know what your doing. they know itll take you 15 hours to do, so they say it takes them 12... even though it might take them 10.

 

i think thats what book probably says, but a good mechanic should be able to do it in 5-6 hours, i dunno though

thats the problem with going to a shop rather than finding a mechanic that does work on the side, if you can find one of them they'll do it for a sum of money instead of charging by the hour, or their rate will be 1/2 what the shops are

 

Mitchell book on my '99 Z34 w/the 3800 is 7 hours for just the intake gaskets...$800 sounds like a fair price for me working on a 3.4 DOHC....Those are a hard motor to work on.....not to mention it is recommended that head gaskets be replaced with the intakes on those...but I'm sure Z34Phoenix and MRL390 will have a better answer than I. ) For those who read this and don't know, I just learned this yesterday, and I guess this is true, the guy who told me is a mechanic...Mitchell book is like a "blue book" for labor rates and times.

 

yah, i think the 3.4's are a lot harder to do than the 3.8's for work anyway, however all i'm saying is there's the possibility you could find a mechanic that works in his garage on nights or weekends that will do it for half the price that you can have it done @ a shop

 

go to a mech. shop and find one that is there and pull him off to the side and ask what he would do it for on the side at his place or even yours.
tearign the motor apart is not that difficult it is a matter of puttign it back to geather in the right way that is tuff.
tear down is pretty much start pulling things off and LABELING EVERYTHING if your goign to do it your self .

get a book and go for it .

this is how i learned stuff on my cars . if you pull it apart and follow a manual you can get it back togeather.

 

This is a quote from the shop I used to work at. I still have the quoting program. It will majorly depend on the labor rates in your area. It is $65 an hour around here. O'Reilley's has a head set for $109.99. So add shop supplies and your right on the money with the quote ya got.

Total Operations Listed Below (with Features) Operation (Feature) [align=center]Labor/Diagnostic Time[/align] [align=center]Remove[/align] Cylinder Head Gasket, Replace (1991-95)
9.5 Labor Hours @ $65.00
Total Hours 9.5
Cost For Labor $617.50
Cost For Diagnostics $0.00
Total Price $617.50

 

My `97 Monte with the 3.1 had the intake gaskets done about 3 weeks ago at a cost of around 1000 bucks parts and labor at a chevy dealership.

 

and @ a chevy dealer i bet they didn't put the problem solver kit in, you should ask them about that, because with just the regular ones or the delco ones the problem will happen again