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thornleigh cylinder heads at thronleigh: 99809454 (heard great things about this mob, haven't used them though, but looking at getting my next head done there)

Indy @ IS motor racing at rockdale (i think it is, don't have their number though. Indy really knows his shit, good guy.)

OR Greg @ Autosport Engineering in Kirrawee. Hasn't done internals or anything for me yet, but does some good work, has done most of the work on my car, good bloke: 95211388

whats dart like with tunning? what do they prefure? price wise are they reasonable? any experiences?

From what I've seen his tunes are pretty awesome. Brad (blk180) had his engine built and tuned there and it runs absolutely perfect. Knock levels are basically non existent, power curve beautiful, etc etc.

JB race engines do a fair few RB's, they do alot of work for other high profile workshops as well.

45 George Street Granville (02) 9897 1720

http://www.jbraceengines.com/

yes ill second that....JB's are the gun's in Sydney

They wouldn't give a price of any kind until I delivered the engine to them so I didn't go there. I found it quite strange.

I also felt that DART were only interested in full house type rebuilds. They were not interested in what I wanted from the engine. They basically said they build it their way and that's that.

I tried heaps of places in Sydney and while a lot if not all of them would build a good engine, I never felt from what they said that I could trust them so I ended up going to proengines in Queanbeyan.

It's a bit hard to quote a price until a motor is stripped, I think it will only bite them in the ass if they quote a job and then find major internal damage.. either way the customer will be annoyed the price has gone up or they are left copping a loss. Or they could quote a high price that would cover any additional work, which they don't do.

well the assembly itself is not a big deal, I paid $900 from memory.

but even if you supply the parts they need to:

clean and test block and rods (xray crack test whatever)

check bearing clearances main and big end

check crank straightness

modify crank nose for oil pump

deck block

bore if necessary

hone bores

check piston/bore clearances and ring end gaps

replace all welsh plugs

check head for straightness/shave head....and check out all the top end there is always something needed (valve guides, stem seals, springs etc)

It's a bit hard to quote a price until a motor is stripped, I think it will only bite them in the ass if they quote a job and then find major internal damage.. either way the customer will be annoyed the price has gone up or they are left copping a loss. Or they could quote a high price that would cover any additional work, which they don't do.

I know what you mean. I guess I was basically after a price list but I didn't want to give them my engine to get one. Other places were happy to provide one and then once the job was commenced we were able to look back at the quote and go, 'ok this bit and that bit are unnecessary but this bit still is and so is this'. As it happened there were a few things that weren't necessary to do on mine and I ended up getting some extra machining done to the head and still came in under the quoted price which was quite reasonable in the first place.

I mean I'm not an expert in engine building or I would have done it myself but I know a fair bit and I'm not an idiot. Nor do I expect anything unreasonable from businesses.

If there is a next time I will pull the engine apart before asking for quotes. If you are careful with your labelling you can take pics and ask on here what's wrong, then when asking for a quote you can get a pretty good idea. One thing you can't do at home is pressure test the valves. I don't know what the proper way to refer to it is but basically they are testing how well your valves seal. If good, leave the head alone, if not, recondition it.

I don't mean to say that either DART or JB are crap. Far from it but I'm just saying that they might not suit you depending on what you are doing exactly and what you expect.

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