LB7: Rod Upgrade Cost
- Thread starter diesel53
- Start date
Well considering carillos are about $2600, machine work will be 2-3000, labor would be roughly 3000, gaskets etc, 500-1000..
At that point you should check and replace any other bearings in the engine and rebuild it..
Id say if you just did rods and bearings woukd end up close to 10k all said and done
rods, fingers pistons, machine work, bearings, gaskets, completely rebuilt and pressure tested heads, and other work has ran between 8-9k last few i did.
you can really cut cost in alot of areas but you loose out on potential weaknesses that can wreck a new build. cutting out having the heads re done saves 800ish bucks. then you could go no new oil cooler or oil pump, no new thermostats or no new water pump. probably get you down around 6-6.5k assembled. just a rough guesstimate though. really depends on how the block is though.
DISCLAIMER: this is what i see for cost with me building them, other shops may vary in pricing by a few thousand dollars due to other factors so dont use this as ammo in a bargaining situation
yep you don't just throw a set of rods in a motor and run it. I had 10K into my shot block and am now wishing I had done main caps and possible dowel the main caps and maybe even a girdle.
Is that just engine machine and assembly? Not r&r engine correct?
If he is taking it to a shop his labor bill will be high.. If he wants to do a lot of the engine work his self he can save $$
thats not pulling engine or installing. yes, the more he does, the cheaper it is. specially depending on how much he picks up parts for.
im trying to watch what i post since i am not a vendor. Josh, Kat, Mike, Rob, Dale if im over stepping, please let me know. Nick, you can suck it
Why does everyone say it's necessary to replace the oil pump and cooler?
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Is it necessary to drink my own urine? No, but it's sterile and I like the taste. :roflmao:
I would at least do the oil pump, other stuff is external. Better safe than sorry. I suppose if you do your own labor you wouldn't be losing much except time.
I would at least do the oil pump, other stuff is external. Better safe than sorry. I suppose if you do your own labor you wouldn't be losing much except time.
i havent seen anyone state "its necessary". its just insurance to the old part failing. thats not to say new parts dont fail but they are less likely to.
And here I am with my stock 315k mile oil pump and oil cooler, rollin like a boss :cool2: I might be king cheapskate lol. I did everything myself except the machining on the block, and I got out the door under $2k on that.
I failed to see how an oil pump, a pump that pumps lube, could wear out. Mine looked brand new, so I left it alone. Oil pressures are great, right where they should be for the bearing clearances I run. I think I've seen more people complain of an aftermarket / replacement oil pump failure than of a stocker failing.
The water pump, on the other hand, I did replace with a clipped & pinned unit, mostly because I want to spin the motor fast regularly.
And honestly, I hadn't even heard of people replacing the oil cooler before it failed. Again, mine looked brand new (coolant always changed on time, so no corrosion), and I re-used it.
If you want to cheap out, you can. But "cheap" is relative. By the time I was done with my build (cam, heads, pistons, rods, injectors, bearings, machine work, incidentals), I had still gone over $10k. For that same $10k you can buy a good used car and make it stupid fast. Keep that in the back of your mind...
I failed to see how an oil pump, a pump that pumps lube, could wear out. Mine looked brand new, so I left it alone. Oil pressures are great, right where they should be for the bearing clearances I run. I think I've seen more people complain of an aftermarket / replacement oil pump failure than of a stocker failing.
The water pump, on the other hand, I did replace with a clipped & pinned unit, mostly because I want to spin the motor fast regularly.
And honestly, I hadn't even heard of people replacing the oil cooler before it failed. Again, mine looked brand new (coolant always changed on time, so no corrosion), and I re-used it.
If you want to cheap out, you can. But "cheap" is relative. By the time I was done with my build (cam, heads, pistons, rods, injectors, bearings, machine work, incidentals), I had still gone over $10k. For that same $10k you can buy a good used car and make it stupid fast. Keep that in the back of your mind...
Just FYI dave, when I did my engine way back when, I reused the original oil pump and cooler. They are still on the truck as of now too. Doing things on my truck is a bit different that a customer paying for things done on their truck and taking what I say in trust.
I've done alot of builds in my days(none were a DURAMAX), and more often than not, replacing everything bit me worse than reusing and only doing what was neccesary. For small blocks I did oil pumps, but that was only because I ALWAYS upgraded to a Mellings select oil pump in them. Other engines I only did as neccesary after having a few new out of the box oil pumps die early deaths and cost me alot of money in warranty(I warrantied all my builds out of my own pocket). To many part failures on new parts was why I stopped doing them as well.
Didn't Trent Nell do a super cheap, rod swap and balanced delipped pistons then proceed to run 10s? And then dynoed like 1200rwhp before something let go - piston? I might be dreaming on the last part?
Serious question, why not just stab a set of rods in a good low-ish mileage engine? 10k is nuts if you're just a dude that wants to put the squeeze on a engine a little harder than stock rods would be happy with. Pull the engine down, insert rods, go have fun. I've actually always been a little surprised I don't hear of people doing this more often.
I'm obviously paraphrasing to a degree but you get the point. Never understood why when you want more HP capability out of your rods you have to rebuild the rearend, "just in case".
I'm obviously paraphrasing to a degree but you get the point. Never understood why when you want more HP capability out of your rods you have to rebuild the rearend, "just in case".
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Not sure on the HP it made, but I think he stuffed a set of rods in and didnt even balance the assembly and let it eat.
If I ever "build" my engine, that's all it will be. Throw in a set of rods, delipped pistons, and a cam. Probably wouldn't even bother studding it. Be happy sitting at 700hp max, trans won't hold more than that anyway.
10k short block means you have quite a bit in it, not just rods FYI. you can do it for much less and have an engine id be comfortable to 800rwhp, more if your not worried about loosing a piston sooner than later.
i have wanted to do this for the last few years, your not the only one thinking of this lol. the problem i see is reliability and alot of people see it as "well since its apart, why not just have it balanced and do the block up". if i had a spare engine/truck to do it in, i would have lol.
the other issue is carrillo rods are almost 100g' s lighter than stock LBZ, more so with LB7 so the balance goes even more off from what stock would have been unless you run a crower, manly, ect rod that is heavier. So the main worry comes down to how long the crank would last.
i think i posted this before but id love to throw rods in a truck, throw h bearings in it, delip pistons, throw new rings on it and do a quick hand hone down the cyl and a few other tricks, stud the heads and go play.
You probably could, as long as you kept the torque output sane.
There is a guy on YouTube who does basically exactly that with gas motors. Sloppy Mechanics is the channel, and he does the bare minimum (or less) to make more power out of a motor. Sometimes it works ridiculously well, sometimes it blows up.
My biggest fear was another part failing that takes out my 2800.00 dollar rods, heads, block and crank.
Also dont see the point in delipped pistons. By the time you buy new rings, pay shipping and machine work why not spend the little extra for plain mahle cast pistons?
Also dont see the point in delipped pistons. By the time you buy new rings, pay shipping and machine work why not spend the little extra for plain mahle cast pistons?