Whats a cam install going to cost?

[shallowreef]

Hey,

I am looking for a shop to do a cam install and i found one that is really close to where i live and i got an estimate as to how much it would cost for Springs and cams (mild Comp Cam) they quoted me around $1500 for install and a SCT tune for my car. I thought that sounded pretty good for what i was getting done.

They also quoted me $550 for a rear gear install with parts and labor. Now i am just starting to look at other shops but i was curious what does an average install for what i want to do cost? Does anyone in illinois (near chicago) want to install my cams and help a stanger save some bucks? I will make sure you get food or something out of the deal. My family supplies resteraunts so i could get you anything you wanted.

Nick

 

[COramprat]

You just have to decide if 1500 is worth 40HP. Is the price including cams and springs? If so that is a killer deal. If that is labor it is on the high end of average.

 

[Dusstbuster]

Yeah I was thinking that sounds very high if it's just the labor for $1500. For a professional shop i'd bet a cam swap + spring change would be like a 4-6 hour job. @ $50 an hour that's only $200-300. I'm not sure exactly what labor prices have factored into them though, maybe its $50 per hour per person...who knows, not I.

 

[COramprat]

Yeah I was thinking that sounds very high if it's just the labor for $1500. For a professional shop i'd bet a cam swap + spring change would be like a 4-6 hour job. @ $50 an hour that's only $200-300. I'm not sure exactly what labor prices have factored into them though, maybe its $50 per hour per person...who knows, not I.

The average labor is around $1200.

 

[merc123]

I paid $300 for gear install @ a dealer. That was just labor, gear lube and a shim kit. I paid $169 for the gears. So $469 total.

 

[steveb24]

umm.. cam and spring install in 4-6 hours. yeah right. most shops got 1 guy working on that kinda stuff, and its def not $50 an hour anymore, unless your really lucky. the one shop around here that was $50 an hour..which was 2 years ago.. hopped on the bandwagon and now he's at $75. coudnt imagine what it would cost to have cams installed and being realistic about it. those guys know how much of a pain those springs are, and 1500 is just labor. if u cant do the install for cams yourself, dont get them because its simply not worth it.
lets do the math: 1500 labor+600 cams+tune+ the tuner itself unless u got it = $$$2500 ish! = supercharger and forget cams.. oh yea. 200 for valve springs!!! hot damn! u see what im sayin

 

[miller766]

Not to steal the post or anything but how hard would it be to just do it yourself? I mean it may take longer of course but I'd be willing to bum rides while my car was down for a week or two if it was going to save me $1500 or so.

 

[Yellow2002GT]

My Mechanic is charging 350.00 for install with valve springs.......it all depends on what type of place you go too! This guy used to be a ford mechanic and now is the head mechanic at a chrysler dealership. Has his own shop at nights and weekends.......the tune.......100 bucks for a retune of my custom tune! Shop around some more! 500.00 is a fair price but 1500.00! Not if doesn't include the cams and springs too! I have assisted on a few modular rebuilds too! Really easy to put back together! People just get scared of the OHC motors!

"ED"

 

[d98gt]

I'm looking into the cam/intake install myself and some of the $200-300 claims on here have me wanting to call around and get a quote. If it's going to be that cheap, i'll pay to have it done rather than not having a ride because I can't figure it out.

 

[csledd]

Well, speaking from experience here, since me and my dad installed my VT Stage 2's and valvesprings in our garage at home.. if I were going to do the install for a friend, I'd charge them at least $500 if not more.

4-6 hours.. ROFLFOLFOFLFOL! Yeah.. not gonna happen. Think about it. You have to tear down the CAI, Plenum, fuel railing, COP's, valve covers, timing cover, take pulleys and belts off, take cam bolts out, came gears off, timing chain off, cams out.. depending on how you do the install you're either talking about removing the heads from here (which can also mean uninstall/reinstalling exhaust headers) and then doing the valvesprings, or you're talking about doing the most tedious job ever of removing and replacing valvesprings in the head while still on the car. Which is not simple, which does take time. And there's no certain time period to how long valvesprings will take. some of them go right on, some dont. the keepers is the hard part, because they have to go back on perfect. and once you finish putting 16 valvesprings in with 32 keepers total you have to put everything back together, you have to put the timing back just right and make sure you're not going to bend any valves. and then you have to put everything back together along with an oil change.

4-6 hours, good luck with that deadline! lol maybe if the shop has more than one person doing the job and they pull the heads

this is how I think of it.. a lot of times you're not paying for just labor, you're paying for their knowledge because they know how to do it and you don't

 

[Mike97gt]

Well, speaking from experience here, since me and my dad installed my VT Stage 2's and valvesprings in our garage at home.. if I were going to do the install for a friend, I'd charge them at least $500 if not more.

4-6 hours.. ROFLFOLFOFLFOL! Yeah.. not gonna happen. Think about it. You have to tear down the CAI, Plenum, fuel railing, COP's, valve covers, timing cover, take pulleys and belts off, take cam bolts out, came gears off, timing chain off, cams out.. depending on how you do the install you're either talking about removing the heads from here (which can also mean uninstall/reinstalling exhaust headers) and then doing the valvesprings, or you're talking about doing the most tedious job ever of removing and replacing valvesprings in the head while still on the car. Which is not simple, which does take time. And there's no certain time period to how long valvesprings will take. some of them go right on, some dont. the keepers is the hard part, because they have to go back on perfect. and once you finish putting 16 valvesprings in with 32 keepers total you have to put everything back together, you have to put the timing back just right and make sure you're not going to bend any valves. and then you have to put everything back together along with an oil change.

4-6 hours, good luck with that deadline! lol maybe if the shop has more than one person doing the job and they pull the heads

this is how I think of it.. a lot of times you're not paying for just labor, you're paying for their knowledge because they know how to do it and you don't

agreed..

4-6 hours is way to low. your best bet to ge tit done cheap is a guy doing it as a cash side job, like the guy who posted about the chrysler tech. if you can get a guy like that then he might do it for 300 or so because that would be about the same pay he would get if he did it in the shop and the shop charged 10-15 hours. at my work to do a cam swap with springs would be about 15 hours at 93.00 a hour, I know that might sound high but 90+ per hour is normal in eastern massachusetts.

 

[Pennywise2]

agreed..

4-6 hours is way to low. your best bet to ge tit done cheap is a guy doing it as a cash side job, like the guy who posted about the chrysler tech. if you can get a guy like that then he might do it for 300 or so because that would be about the same pay he would get if he did it in the shop and the shop charged 10-15 hours. at my work to do a cam swap with springs would be about 15 hours at 93.00 a hour, I know that might sound high but 90+ per hour is normal in eastern massachusetts.

Yep, I agree they charge 100 per. hour here.
My mechanic told me he would install PI cam replacements
in my non-pi cylinder heads without installing valve springs
for 250-300 bucks.It pays to know someone.

 

[RedHorse04]

Me and a buddy put my comp cams 262s in my car in about 10 hours, but that was only because we ran into a few valve cover problems. The only recommendation I will make is to degree the cams, I went back and degreed them because you cant tell how bad they are off unless you check them, my cams turned out to be 4 degrees off but I know people who have been alot more than that. Anyways there are alot of threads telling you how to do the cam swop on ************.

 

[steveb24]

basically what i said 3 days ago in my post. 4-6 is bs and so is 350 for an install.. i did mine with a friend in 7 hours

 

[merc123]

I think Modular Power House charges quite a bit too for stage 2 (needs valve springs replacement). I wanna say it was close to $1,000 because they set the heads up outside of the car which they say is the only way to do it right.

 

[san~man]

Hope you got some of this:
View attachment 437010

I think Modular Power House charges quite a bit too for stage 2 (needs valve springs replacement). I wanna say it was close to $1,000 because they set the heads up outside of the car which they say is the only way to do it right

I would gladly pay Tim 1k to install cams. One guy here wants like 3k for labor and a tune.

 

[d98gt]

The cam install scares me since I haven't done such a thing, but im not wanting to pay $1000 for an install either

 

[lvmustanggt]

I just got my cams done few weeks ago , cost me $ 1200.00 for cams and valve springs

 

[Dusstbuster]

Tearing down the engine isn't as bad as it's made out to be. Now I know my install got f'd up just because I mislabeled crap, but besides that, it wasn't that much of a problem at all. I could tear the engine down to the heads in under an hour now, and another 30 minutes for the valve covers MAYBE just because of the awkward angles some of the bolts are at, this is by myself and i'm by no means a car expert nor do I have much knowledge when it comes to cars. If we would have had all the necessary parts and attempted to swap cams/manifold from beginning to end nonstop it'd probably have taken us 6 hours. Now you'd have to let the RTV cure and stuff like that but the actual labor-intensive stuff would take 6 hours probably with 2 uneducated people...springs are another thing though I guess.

 

[Yellow2002GT]

basically what i said 3 days ago in my post. 4-6 is bs and so is 350 for an install.. i did mine with a friend in 7 hours

4-6 hrs yes....if you want to run into possible mistakes! But $350.00 for install! lol Yea! Just took apart, VAT'ed, rebuilt, and reinstalled my tranny for 400 to include adding a shift kit and redoing the valve body! I helped a little but he has been doing this stuff for 15 yrs! Already rebuilt tons of modular engines and with the proper tools.....its not hard at all! I was shoping around for someone to install the cams and springs and some people quoted 2000.00, 1200.00, 1500.00, 750.00, and then found 2 places that specialize in modular engines....one of which just made the magazines.......and is charging 350.00......the one doing my car said he would match thier price. But usually just installs cams for 350.00.....usually more with valve springs because of keeping the heads on the car. If you search around you will find honest people who are willing to work and help you instead of ripping you off! Really would you want to take your car to a place where they charge 1500.00 for labor because they havn't really done thoses before! come on!

"ED"