LB7: Head Gasket Repair Time

[durallymax]

Ive got an LB7 That i need to do headgaskets on for a guy. Was wondering how much actual time it usually takes people. I know Gm says 36hrs which i think is ridiculous. Ive never actuall done them with the motor in the truck so I dont know, but tearing my motor down inside the truck halfway gave me an idea. Still not thinking its gonna take too long.

Just need to know so I know what to quote him for labor.

Also, for a parts list I have.

Headgaskets
Head Bolts
Injector Return Line Gaskets
Right Stuff
Lower valvecover o rings, gaskets whatever you wanna call em.

Anything else I need to replace while In there. I know the lower valve cover gasket doesnt always need to be replaced but for the little money it is im sure its cheap insurance

 

[TrentNell]

Cant help on the time ... but when i do a side job i allways go of the "quoted hours" , where i sell myself is i only charge about 30-40 bucks an hour depending on how shitty the job is . so its a third of the labor cost of the dealer and 1/2 the cost of the ma and pa shop .

 

[durallymax]

I dont charge a whole lot either. But Do know 36 hrs is a lot of time for me to sit around looking at it. I usually do between 30-50/hr too if I go by the hour, a lot of stuff its just by the job, some days i make more money this way, other days it allows me to get sidetracked if its not a rsuhed job. So 36hrs at 30/hr would be $1080. Which would be a nice chunk of change in my pocket but still sounds a little high. We agreed on $40/hr and he was just going to pay me whatever it ended up at. I told him I figured around $1,400-$1,500 so with parts (400-500) that comes up to about 25hrs@40hr which I think sounds reasonable.

I suppose anything is better than the dealers $5,000 charge.

 

[TrentNell]

I dont charge a whole lot either. But Do know 36 hrs is a lot of time for me to sit around looking at it. I usually do between 30-50/hr too if I go by the hour, a lot of stuff its just by the job, some days i make more money this way, other days it allows me to get sidetracked if its not a rsuhed job. So 36hrs at 30/hr would be $1080. Which would be a nice chunk of change in my pocket but still sounds a little high. We agreed on $40/hr and he was just going to pay me whatever it ended up at. I told him I figured around $1,400-$1,500 so with parts (400-500) that comes up to about 25hrs@40hr which I think sounds reasonable.

I suppose anything is better than the dealers $5,000 charge.

i try not to worry about high or not , honestly they are usually getting a great deal i work as a mech for a living and i am ceritified so they get profesional work @ 1/2 the cost , i stand behind my work all my biz is word of mouth but i am pretty selective on the jobs i do i dont have much time and try to pick the $$ makers, i end up giving a ton of work to a few friends i have that do the same thing on the side . my side buisness( other than car repair ) takes up alot of my spare time .

 

[Josh2002cc]

Have you done this while the engine is in the truck?

 

[mytmousemalibu]

i try not to worry about high or not , honestly they are usually getting a great deal i work as a mech for a living and i am ceritified so they get profesional work @ 1/2 the cost , i stand behind my work all my biz is word of mouth but i am pretty selective on the jobs i do i dont have much time and try to pick the $$ makers, i end up giving a ton of work to a few friends i have that do the same thing on the side . my side buisness( other than car repair ) takes up alot of my spare time .

Me too, BMW tech by day and "At home repairs" on the side, I charge alot less and keeps customers. Course good word of mouth goes round and cha-ching, more work for me! Its kinda satisfying running a lil side repair biz! I dunno if i have the time/patience for a full shop of my own

Sorry for whoring your thread buddie:hug:

I use a combo of factors to decide my fee, actual book labor, how hard i deem the repair, how urgent,special conciderations, how much of a PITA it is, customer relation. A first time customer, i'll cut some slack and show them the bargain they got by choosing me, next time they need my services, i'll bump it up a touch but still very reasonable price. Im not tryin to make a killin off them, just supplement my income a bit. I also pre-approve the job and needed suppliesand explain everything very clearly so theres no surprises

 

[durallymax]

Have you done this while the engine is in the truck?

Never done a true headgasket repair while in the truck, but tore mine down to the block while it was in the truck.

 

[FMOS]

I did my LLY in the truck. PITA!!!

I will for sure pull the motor if I need to do it next time around. I'd say it can be done in the same amount of time, and with less stress by pulling the motor than in the truck.

I'm going to say it took me 60 hours... but I am at a savage disadvantage because for starters I had to drive 5 hours or fly an hour to even get to where my truck was, and try and do all the work on the weekend when parts places etc. are closed. So I'm going to say 40-50 hours for the regular joe blow. Anybody who has done it before could probably get it done around the quoted 36 hour mark.

Too bad it wasn't an LLY, I could tell you exactly the parts that were required and approx cost. But the lb7 is fairly different.

 

[durallymax]

The only hard part having it in the truck is the clearance between the firewall and some of the valvecover bolts and the head bolts. But I think if I just unbolt the trans from teh cross member and jack it up to tilt the motor forward some.

 

[FMOS]

Other big piss cutters from what i can remember are... unbolting the accessory plates and getting enough clearance to take off the water crossover, which is a HUGE pain. Once you get that done... getting the heads off safely sucks because of the studs in them for the cross over and manifolds, and its almost impossible to take out the studs while its in the truck. Getting them back on and aligned on the alignment pins is a bit sketchy... setting them down and make sure you dont slide them around on the gasket face. Then putting the studs back in.

I think tilting the motor around might be a bigger problem than solution, but definetly worth a try. I got the headbolts out fine and the headstuds in fine with it all bolted in there. For the drivers side rear studs I had to put the stud pretty much in the head and then drop the head on while holding the stud in it... there is not enough clearance between that and the master cylinder do drop that stud in. Pretty much all of the exhaust and uppipe bolts.

Putting all that accessory BS back on was stupid.

And the part that seamed to suck the most and make a lot of it difficult was leaning down into the engine bay to work on stuff. hurts your back and legs and pretty much everything. My truck is lifted though, so maybe it will be better at stock height.

It can be done fairly decently both ways. Next time I would be inclined to pull the motor rather than do it the way I just finished doing it haha.

 

[durallymax]

Sounds like you made a lot of work for yourself.

I just remove the front clip and radiator, doesnt take much time and makes things 100 times easier.

 

[FMOS]

Removing the front clip looked like a semi-big job when I scoped it out. I actually originally wanted to remove the front fenders and the whole nine yards. Would have made it wayyy easier, but that looked like a massive dick around.

Also, the front of my truck was pushed right up against a wall so that the back of the truck made it into the garage for clearance... when I wanted to get from once side of the truck to the other I went through the box, rolled underneath or walked across the front bumper hahahaha.

How does a guy take the front clip off? I'm thinking about back flushing my radiator and intercooler and stuff this summer and knowing all this could come in handy.

 

[durallymax]

Pretty simple just get some body clip removal tools it will make life a lot easier.

Heres the basic rundown

Remove both front tires. Then remove both fender liners

Now drain the radiator. There is a little plastic plug on the pass side. It comes out fast and makes a mess.

Remove the upper cover deal (the thing with the belt routing diagrams on it).

Remove teh grill. It basically comes out with a tug you will see the 4 spots that hold the middle on, then behind each headlight there is a nother tab that holds them in, again just a tug will remove it.

Then remove all of the lights. Then remove the light towers.

Now remove the hood latch and air temp sensor wiring.

Now remove the tranny cooler.

Now remove the upper fan shroud. To do this you need to remove the TCM and the other 2 bolts that hold it on as well as the 4 body clips that hold it on.

Now remove the big A frame bracket

Now your back to the A/C condensor and the radiator/IC. Two bolts and the A/C condensor can be swung out of the way.

Now remove the IC tubes. I like to just remove them and get them out of the way.

Now disconnect both of the tranny cooler lines from the radiator

Now remove the upper radiator hose and lower radiator hose.

Now remove the upper radiator support brace. It has 3 bolts underneath at each end behind the headlights. And the 2 bolts that hold the IC and radiator to it.

Now your radiator should be free. To make it even easier to wiggle out Ive found it easiest to remove the intake and the air box support to make more clearance.

and there, your done. Its not too bad takes a first timer about an hour. You can do most all of it with a 10mm. You will need a torx for four of the headlight tower bracket bolts(2 each side) and you will need a 13mm for the radiator bolts. Also will need an 11mm deep well for the IC tubes and a special pliers or adjustable pliers for the radiator hose clamps.

I may have forgotten something but thats pretty much it.

 

[RPM Motorsports]

You guy's are all saying "Pull the motor". Would it not be faster to pull the cab?

 

[juddski88]

You guy's are all saying "Pull the motor". Would it not be faster to pull the cab?

x2....i have wondered the same

 

[FMOS]

Motor disconnects fairly easily, if the front clip was off... I say 2-3 hours you could have the motor out. And once the motor is out you have full access to wrench on everything. I think you could have the heads off, gaskets changed, heads back on and ready to go in a day or so. I guess overall I'm saying it can be done in 2 full days (14 hours) if your prepared.

 

[durallymax]

Motor disconnects fairly easily, if the front clip was off... I say 2-3 hours you could have the motor out. And once the motor is out you have full access to wrench on everything. I think you could have the heads off, gaskets changed, heads back on and ready to go in a day or so. I guess overall I'm saying it can be done in 2 full days (14 hours) if your prepared.

you mean one day??

The front clip isnt much work and removing the motor isnt much either. 3 grounds a couple brackets, the P/S pump, the two bale connectors, disconnect the front pipe, get the front clip out of the way, remove the intake and unbolt the trans. Takes me 4 hours not working too hard but i also choose to completely remove the trans so that the truckcanbe rolled out of the shop if needed.

 

[FMOS]

I was saying 2 full days you could have head gaskets changed and up and running again if you pull the motor out of the truck.

I'm thinking it will take longer to do in the truck. Plus when its in the truck, one little problem can turn into a big one fairly easily and take quite a bit of time.

... Kinda of like the stupid transmission dipstick. That dipstick BD sends with the install kit is pure crap! I spent about 2 hours bending the shiot out of that thing trying to "tweak" it into place. Finally I just grabbed the stock one, threw it in with no bending required and carried on... I folded the BD one up and chucked it in the garbage.

 

[smith6.6]

I only pull the radiator, I don't pull off the front clip and you can get all the bolts out with out tiping the engine by the trans It's not that bad to do. I will usually pull the exhaust manifolds off it makes it easier to pull the heads.

 

[durallymax]

Front clip takes all of 20 minutes to remove, so why not do it to make it easier?? Besides its brittle and leaning over it could break it.