Can anyone give me some insight to how much the average rebuild cost is for a 360 motor?

 

That is a pretty broad question.

Are you going to take it somewhere then pick it up?

Are you to pull & reinstall the engine?

Are you going to be hands on tearing down & rebuilding?



John

 

Doing everthing by your self, after the engine is pulled, the price of the engine kit, the maching shop charges for boring the cyls, going through the heads, turning the crank, hot tanking, there is always something thats needed that you didn't expect, like plaining the heads and manifold sides as well as the manifolds, extracting some twisted off bolts, and if its a standard trans, figure on replacing the clutch package too. Figure on spending $1800. you may get some change back.

 

Well I just got mine back today. Rebuilt 360. It cost me $1500. But... I dropped it off. The garage would work on it when they had extra time. I didn't give them a date to have it finished.

Fast... Cheap... Quick... (pick 2.... The other one is what you get)

 

Actually. It's Fast. Cheap. Good.

Pick 2

 

I'd budget at least 2K, the machine shop time adds up quick.

 

so best option is to pull it out myself?
And it would be me picking it up and dropping it off

 

"Best"? That depends on you.

Pulling it out yourself is the least costly option. Unless you're okay paying a shop upwards of $90 an hour to do something you could do yourself. I'd rather put my money towards quality parts and workmanship.

2X with Montana_highboy. The machine shop won't know what needs to be done until they inspect and measure the crank, rods, pistons, and block. Talk to a few machine shops and have each of them itemize the cost of the following - some procedures are optional:

• Turn the crank
• Polish the crank journals
• Fillet the crank journals
• Deck the block
• Line hone the mains
• Resize the rods
• Bore (with a torque plate installed)
• Install cam bearings
• Fit the piston pins
• Chamfer oil holes
• Balance the rotating assembly (crank, rods, pistons) with bob weights
• Assemble a shortblock

Heads.. sometimes it is a better value to get remanufactured heads than to rebuild your own... Treat it to some simple port matching with a $30 abrasive roll kit from Summit Racing. That's cheap HP and torque you can do yourself.

With it being rebuilt, consider stepping up to a 390 or buying a complete reciprocating assembly from <a href="http://www.survivalmotorsports.com/index.html">Survival Motorsports</A>. For a few hundred dollars more, you might be able to step up to 445 cubic inches with a properly prepared block.

Btw, machine shops tend to appreciate it when ya don't bring them oil-caked parts. Make clear of your expectations but don't expect them to drop their workload for your timeline. Like as is commonly stated, "Your lack of planning does not constitute my emergency". Be reasonable.

 

Thank you I will be sure to keep all this in mind
would it be cheaper to have the shop acquire and install performance parts (such as intake manifold, cam shaft, etc) or for me to purchase them before hand.

 

Shops can sometimes get better prices, usually on parts they use most often like rings, bearings, pistons (if needed) and some are able to get deals on performance parts. It really depends on their connections.

I would wait until the shop tells you what the block needs before going off and buying parts. A friend of mine got all excited about rebuilding his 390 from his dad's T-bird that had been sitting for like 15 years. He bought all the extras before he brought it in to the shop... then the shop told him his block was toast due to a crack from a freeze plug hole to the deck surface. He went through three blocks before he found one that had never been bored.

Again, you're paying for the labor to install an intake manifold which is so easy a caveman can do it. In my previous post, I suggested getting a quote from the shops to assemble the shortblock cuz the heads, intake, etc. are assemblies you can do yourself.

 

Yea I will end up installing everything i can to save the money
Hmm one of my freeze plugs broke during installation of a starter. A piece of the plug stayed in the block and I was told the engine would need a rebuild. Is the machine shop the only one that can tell if i have a cracked block?

 

my $0.02
if 360 is running find a 390 and have that rebuilt , while still using truck
search craigs list for a used 390 and go fast parts (intake ,carb)
i did this and i am very happy with my budget built 390

 

When I used to run a shop and someone came price shopping the first thing I asked was if I had to be the cheapest to get the work. I would tell them that I did an expert job, stood behind it for a fair price but I had no intention of competing pricewise with the cheapest estimate he got.
Cheap and good just don't generally come in the same package and if price is your most important criteria, you will end up dis-satisfied probably very dis-satisfied plus you will have to spend way more money to get the mess straightened out. And never, ever deal with anyone who wants a bunch of money up front, not beyond a reasonable deposit anyway.
Don't go cheap on the heads, plan on all new giudes and springs and maybe even new valves, plus new seats if the heads are old enough to not have hard seats. I'm not sure but I think the D2 prefix FE heads are hard seats.

 

Thanks guys.
I'm going to search now for a parts truck and/or a used engine.
And yea that's the drawback of trying to save money but I'd rather have quality over cheapness

 

But remember there are the little known "value added items" (as my machinist told me when we did my 416) that the shops will know about and probably be able to get you a little cheaper than you can get them yourself. case in point, my 416 currently wears a set of Enginetech cast pistons, best option if you spin it to 5500 and pull a lot, nope, fine for my pretty near daily driver that pulls a rather light trailer once a week or so and the pulling truck to the events aabout once a month, and may make 3 passes a year? Perfectly fine. best bet is to talk to your machinist and their take. Also, scrounge ebay, you'd be surprise what you can find when trying ot put a motor together on a budget.