Wonder if anyone here can help me out with a question?? Today I went and picked up my BBC at a local machine shop after we couldn't come to an agreement on the price to machine block..(There was a 2000 dollar difference in pricing he wanted 3500 for what 3 other machine shops told me would cost between 1350 and 1500 )When I went to pickup block there was a 360 bill waiting for me...For disassebling block, removing oil plugs, freeze plugs and magnafluxing block and heads.. I went and took block to another machine shop...And explained to them that the block and heads were already magnafluxed and showed them receipts for what was done... First thing the guys said was that the block and heads couldn't have been magnafluxed they were never cleaned of carbon or oil??? Second thing they said was that the most I should have paid for a tear down was two hrs and that includes striping block down bare(freeze plugs and cam bearing removed...Which he charged me another 110 dollars for... So the question is this.. Can a block and head be magnafluxed without being baked or cleaned??? Is the price he charged me a little off base?? Need opinions
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You will find reputable machine shops will want to clean them selves even if everything has been done before.
They dont want to ***-u&me it has been done correctly. These sort of 'deals' always tend to come back and kick them in the butt.

You need to sort prices and work etc out BEFORE anything starts

Ask yourself this...

Can you see cracks through grease,carbon,or dirty oil ?
:noway:

Yeah.. Thats what I thought parts needed to be cleaned.. The guy ripped me off...

see of you can get the new shop (whihc is hopefully more reputable) to give a statement about the proper way it shoul dbe done...take photos showing that it was not done, and send th ephotos and receipt to your attonrey General's office with an official complaint...

Honest people should not have to put up with dis-reputable businesses ripping them off...

File a small claims court lawsuit. Guys like this should be screwed back. When he recieves the court notice it may force him to negotiate with you. You have nothing to loose.

Did you pay with a credit card ? Call up and stop payment...may do with the bank too if you used a Debit card or check :yes:

I would go back immediately and talk to this guy.

He is hoping that you don't understand anything about magnafluxing parts.

I supervise work on steam turbines and we have to blast-clean every part before it's mag-particle tested for cracks. Wiping off a greasy block doesn't cut it.

Don't blame him. Tell him you think one of his employees is mis-leading him. That will give him room to give you a refund without accepting the blame personally.

Good luck. Sounds like you are dealing with a toad.

Speed,

Like the others said, you really cannot magnaflux a dirty block. Hourly rates vary from area to area, around here $100 is in the ballpark so a couple of hours labor would be $200. The $360 might be in line if he actually did all of the work.

One thing that I would suggest doing before you go any further is to spend a couple of dollars and purchase one of the good "how to rebuild my Big Block Chevy" books. There are several and they all go into pretty good detail as to what you should expect from your machine shop. If you spend $20 and read a book first, you will educate yourself a little about the subject and be a lot more prepared as a consumer. Otherwise you will be at the mercy of whoever you bring it to. Even if you have no desire at all to build the engine yourself, if you understand the process you will be much better able to communicate with the builder / machine shop that you choose.

One thing that I would suggest doing before you go any further is to spend a couple of dollars and purchase one of the good "how to rebuild my Big Block Chevy" books.
Yep
And what I cant figure with so many threads like this....join the local rodders club...heaps of info, often they hve libaries....and the guys who to deal with locally...most of the reputable guts actually belong to local clubs...good business
And rodders tend to take no crap..call a spade a spade...
Well thats how it works in this country.

Shop rates typically $50/hr
$2000 to machine a BBC?
Is it a raw casting?



Bore and hone , new freeze plugs, new cam bearings, cleaned is only a $200-$300 at most around here.

I normally pay from 7-$800 for a completely prepped block. This is not a race prep. I would think you could get a complete block and all machine work done to heads, crank, rods etc.. for 2k unassembled.