The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop cost of line boring 216/235

@ $80 per hr, $300-$400 is what it cost...

A bit steep. I believe I'd find another 235.

Or find a different machine shop that's not run by crooks.
$300-$400 is way too high for just a line bore, should be able to get the entire block redone for that. I only spent just under $500 to have mine done, that included cleaning the block, head, bellhousing and all the tins, boring the block, checking and installing the pistons to the rods w/new pins, head milled .030", all 12 valves replaced w/new guides, resurfacing the flywheel, posishing the crankshaft, and installing new thrust plate and gear to the new cam.

Here in the Kentucky,Missisippi,Tennessee area it should be $100-$150.I could give some phone #s for reference but probably too far away to help you.

well if you live in seattle thats how much it costs.

I'm not line boring an engine, thats just how much it costs. everyone says its expensive, but no one has given me the actual cost. So I am sharing the info. you may have gotten all that work done for $500, but how much for line boring? and it should be $100-$150 is a guess, I called several machine shops including one of the recognized premier engine builders,and that is how much it costs if you live in seattle. I will have $500 into the crank alone when I am done, although most of that work was done by crower cams, I had them drill a 216 crank for oil, grind the crank, and tap a hole in the snout, plus shipping, Crower cams is a pretty reputable company as far as I know

It's been my experience that some machine shops will price a job unreasonably high because they don't really want to do it; it's something they don't do regularly and takes some new thought to do. Maintaining the correct timing gear clearance on a Chevy 216/235/261 is not something most machine shops deal with on a daily basis. I'm not even sure it can be done using standard size gears; with under size gear/gears it wouldn't be a problem but where to get the gear/gears. You'er better off finding an old machinist who is knows these engines and loves them.

That's what I did. doesn't hurt that he only lives a block away from me, either

Boy Bill, I gotta start bringing my stuff down to Danville. Just got my short block back and that was about $2,500, head was close to $500. Of course I had everything done except for line boring and crank grinding. Bored with new alum .020” over pistons, rods mach. for inserts, crank polished only, flywheel resurfaced, new exhaust valves, seats, guides and resurface. This included the bake out, all the new parts and assembly of engine. I’m a machinist myself but I don’t work with engines every day so I think it just makes good sense to let them finish the job. I’ve seen to many botched engine rebuilds where the back yard mechanic figured he know more than the guy that worked with these close tolerances every day.
And that’s about standard pricing for this part of the country.


DG

Denny,I agree with you on the prices.I don't know how they are doing all that work for under $500.I have $400 in my head alone,these engines are very expensive to rebuild.I think this is why a lot of guys go with the sbc 350,they are more pocket book friendly.

Tim

Yeah, I'm sure that's the reason, Pete and I have talked about that many times, because we both have friends that are into street rods.
Egge supplies most of the engine parts for the Stovebolts, like pistons and bearings. About half the parts for my rebuild came from Egge.

DG

I'm wondering how many people who have expressed opinions on pricing are actually able to do a line bore? First, all the bearing caps have to be milled or ground .005" undersize to give the machine fresh metal to cut. Then the boring mandrel has to be set up precisely on center of the bearing saddles in the block, and moved EXACTLY .002" toward the top of the block. The actual cuting operation takes .003" out of the caps, and .002" from the block. Even with an engine that does not require four different diameter cuts, the setup time is about 2 to 3 hours. Resetting the cutter four times- - - - - -add an hour or more to the average machining time. On a gear-driven cam like a stovebolt, moving the crankshaft centerline .002" toward the top of the block, which is the normal amount of change after line-boring, does not usually make the timing gears bottom out. If I were going to use $10,000.00 worth of specialized equipment to machine main bearing bores, I certainly wouldn't discount the price because some cheapskate didn't think it was low enough.
Jerry

The useful life for that tooling should be at least 20 years,you don't have to try to pay for it in one job Jerry.

True, but I can still do 5 valve jobs at an average profit of $100.00 each in the time it would take me to set up and line-bore one stovebolt engine. That's just considering labor time, not amortizing the cost of the equipment. Why do you think most machine shops go out of business? Hint- - - - -it's not lack of skill on the machinist's part!
Jerry

OOPS! I made a mistake- - - -here's a well-used line bore machine, on sale for only $19,500!

http://www.rtsalesinc.com/web_quote..._2500_Line_Boring_Machine_STOCK_0216.htm

Jerry

Good to see you on here HOTROD

"Resetting the cutter four times" ?????

The Line boring machines I am familiar with have a cutter for each main bearing bore, each set up per the job requirements; all bores are cut at the same time to assure alignment. I don't understand the resetting you reference.

It depends on the design of the machine. Some types have multiple cutters, others have a sliding collar on the main shaft that is repositioned for each bearing support. On a block such as a Chevy V-8, one cutter setting is used for all the bores. Since the stovebolt engine has four different bore sizes on the main bearings, The cutter either has to be reset, or more than one cutter holder must be used. The alignment of the shaft in the block determines the straightness of the holes, not cutter diameter.

Align boring is not an operation that is done often, even in a busy machine shop. The place I worked did an annual business volume of several million dollars a year, and specialized in heavy-duty Diesel engine work, in addition to a lot of automotive machining. We used the line bore machine four times in the 5 years I worked there. The procedure is part of block prep on every race engine I build, but it's extremely rare to need it on a normal rebuild.
Jerry

X2

Jerry, If you get into the business of reconditioning valves, pumps, gearboxes, compressors, etc. you could play on a line boring machine everyday but would have to get used to calling it a horizontal boring mill. Would you attempt to size all 4 bores at once in this application?

The cost for mine did not include any assembly work, other than pressing the cam gear, installing the pistons to the rods, and the valves in the heads. I did all the other reassembly myself.
BTW, the shop I use is Phil's Machine Shop, which is now in it's second generation of ownership.

If the machine can be set up with four different cutters at the right spacing, making all the cuts at once is the best choice, from both an accuracy and labor time standpoint. Line-boring is also done on big-truck rear end housings, fitting the carrier bearing saddle bores after welding repairs are made. Jasper engine/transmission exchange does a lot of that type of work on heavy duty transmissions and rear ends.
Jerry