Did I get screwed??

[unclejackrock]

92 GT needed refreshing. Tore it down and determined I could just re-ring, bearing, and put it back together. Called a local machine shop that is supposedly "The Ford" place and asked him how much to refresh the stock heads and open them up a bit. He says "We can get them to flow alright for about $300. I says "what all is that?" He says "Five angle valve job, guides, seals, resurfacing, and "opening them up a bit". I had to provide the valves and springs. Two weeks ago I took him my heads, as well as my block, oil pan, valve covers, pistons and rods for hot-tanking and cleaning. When I got there yester day to pick them up, the bill was $720 total!!!!! I paid by check and loaded my stuff...shell shocked.
Checked the stuff out closely today and I am disgusted. Had the heads inspected...ONE angle on the valves, two on the seat. Ring lands on the pistons still have crud in them. The only place the heads were ported was in the exhaust side, where they knocked off the EGR humps. He didn't even know what kind of springs were on it when I asked him....

Now you guys look at the receipt, and tell me what I should do. A $300 job ended up being $720, plus I don't believe he did what was agreed upon. So now, I have a basically stock set of heads that cost me over $550. Any suggestions????

 

[NKau]

May have some legal recourse, but I'm not really an expert. Your best bet would be to confront him, tell him you are dissatisfied, and threaten to report him to the Better Business Bureau unless he makes it right. Not sure there's much else you'll be able to do.

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Yep...

 

[Stump1000]

Typical machine shop, they know most people that bring them stuff dont know 'Kiss Me''Kiss Me''Kiss Me''Kiss Me' about their work. I dont really see where he overcharged you on anything. You can about buy a set of heads as cheap as getting them reworked... lesson learned i guess

 

[unclejackrock]

What I am so disgusted about is the fact that he quoted me $300 to rebuild my heads. I went that route because I am on an extremely limited budget. With all the cleaning on my other parts I expected the bill to be at the very most $450. If I had known it would be that high, I would have bought some 40's, or I could have even got some Thumpers for that price. Plus, the "cleaning" was piss poor. Like said earlier, the pistons were terrible. Crud all in the ring lands. Hell, the oil pan still had crud in the bottom of it.....and a $100 cleaning charge, when now I am still going to have to clean everything again!!! Not to mention the fact I will be riding around with a $550 set of STOCK HEADS!!!!!

 

[Stump1000]

And he didnt even have the courtesy to give you any lube

 

[HyPer-50]

Take it back and have him fix the problem... Dont be a p*ssy about it. Ya, you got screwed, but that doesn't mean you gotta take it. Give them a chance to correct there work, if they refuse to do it correctly, you'd be suprised at the power of word of mouth... Dunno if you are involved in local clubs or what not, but if you start spreading this story around and dont scratch off the name of the business like you did here... I'm sure they'd change there mind real quick.. If it's a big ass corporate place, then you should of never went there.. As a general rule, you should stick with individual companies, they usually take alot more pride in their work and would be more likely to fix mistakes... G'luck whatever you do.

 

[bmo37]

screw that you can buy a set of aluminum heads off ebay, for that price that new, i've seen edelbrocks go for 700 on ebay brand new for that.

 

[Ranchero5.0]

Personnally I wouldn't say you got screwed. Those prices are pretty darn cheap individiually, but the total adds up quick. you probally should have speciifed what you wanted done and then you would have had a better idea.

Best advice, learn from it.

Jamie

 

[Rick 91GT]

Personnally I wouldn't say you got screwed. Those prices are pretty darn cheap individiually, but the total adds up quick. you probally should have speciifed what you wanted done and then you would have had a better idea.

Best advice, learn from it.

Jamie

I agree with Jamie, individually prices aren't really that bad some are high...

The shop I use charges....
$50-$75 to surface the heads
$50-$100 to clean the block (depends on how dirty it is)
$24 to install cam bearings
$25 to install freeze plugs
$20 to magnaflux block
$2 to maganflux head, per cylinder
$50 for valve job, per head 3 angle
$6 to install guides, per head

The shop I use does awesome work and the parts are the cleanest I have ever received back, you could eat out of the block, heads, etc...

Most shops charge $50 to dissassemble heads, inspect them etc...
Demand the specs on your springs, if he doesn't know then they weren't set-up correctly. What kind of valve seals? Are they the same on the intake and exhaust?

 

[StreetStang37]

the price looks about right to me. I would have asked for flow numbers on the heads before he tried tackling them. ive usually heard about 200-250 per head just for valve job basically.