Grey motor reconditioning costs

joelm · Post by **joelm** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 8:09 pm

hi there,

just got a quote for a full rebuild.

anyone had work done by GEM- $2200 GST inc, Rocker to sump- or RE Engines in Bayswater- $1900 GST inc, rocker to sump.

any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks.

PS: just checked my engine number, begins with a "B", that makes it from the FB series right?

Thanks

EK-179 · Post by **EK-179** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 8:33 pm

what was included for $1900?

were they fitting all new gear in the heads?

doesnt sound to bad. have a talk to Fb 60 and ask him what it cost for him to rebuild his motor. if you just get the machining done, and you get the parts yourself it will work out cheaper again.

joelm · Post by **joelm** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 5:12 am

these quotes included "everything from the rocker cover to the sump" in the rep's words. inc head reco etc.

EK-179 · Post by **EK-179** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 7:50 am

sounds like a fairly good price. what does everybody else think? i do know that FB 60 rebuilt his grey fairly cheap, maybe you should shoot him a pm...

yeprat1 · Post by **yeprat1** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 5:27 pm

personally i like to stay with smaller engine builders i have known people who have had problems with gem and better built engines.they seem to mass produce them and u will probably find your local builder might be around the same price with a bit more care but im no expert.

FB MAD · Post by **FB MAD** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 7:23 pm

FB's and EK's both had "B" as the engine number prefix.
FB engines started at B 1001.
EK engines started at B175814.

So for example if your engine number was say B 50147 then you would have an FB engine and if your engine was B 203146 then you would have an EK engine.

Hope this info helps you identify which model engine you have,

Terry.

EK283 · Post by **EK283** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 9:01 pm

HI fellow fans,

I have built approximately 10 engines including greys reds and of course the mighty chev. Believe it or not the chev is probably the easiest. My advise to anyone is to stay away from the mass production engine recoers such as Gem etc. A small engine shop with experience in old greys should not be to hard to find. There is a lot of little tricks and secrets that go into engine building and ive found the older guys are only to willing to help. $2000.00 by any means is cheap and you will only get what you pay for.
Key factors for a good reco engine are
Block bore hone and sonic test (40 years of rusting inside the engine can make the cylinder walls very thin). decking and hot tanking.
Crank grinding. New bearings
Engine balance.
Rods close and hone new rod bolts if needed.
New pistons and rings (new rings are about $250.00 alone for the grey).
Cam and lifter regrind.
Head valve guide reco, valves recut and head recut, inserts for unleaded if need be. Head face to deck machined.
Oil pump reconditioned with correct clearances.
Timing gear replacement
Push rod and rockers checked.
Assembly, gaskets and adjustments of rockers.
If you dont know the engine you should have everything crack tested especially the crank. The grey crank will crack and break if abused.
You could easily spend the $2000 just in bits and machining so I would hate to think what you would actually get from Gem etc.
Ask the engine builder if all of this comes with the price tag?
Hope this helps Greg
EK 283.

FB MAD · Post by **FB MAD** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 10:23 pm

In addition to all that Greg said:-

In general most rebuilders will measure your bores and advise on what oversize to go to.Don't bore the cylinders until you find the neccessary size pistons and rings as its no good reboring to say 40 thou and then trying to find 40 thou pistons/rings as sometimes certain piston/ring sizes can be very hard to find and this will hold up your rebuild.

Also as Greg said,replace the cam timeing gear.They are one of the weak links in an old grey motor(red motors as well) as they are a fibre type construction and will become brittle over the years from heat,wear and stress.
Replacement gears are available.I think the fibre ones are around $160 from rare spares and aluminium ones are around $250 or so from J.P Pistons (check J.P. Pistons for your new pistons but I think they will be around the $500 mark )
Steel gears are around but not sure where to get them from.

Balancing the engine as Greg said will do wonders for an old grey motor and you will be surprised as to how smooth a well balanced and well built old grey will run.

Terry.

FB 60 · Post by **FB 60** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 11:21 am

Hey jolem

I agree with the other guys in that the exchange motor is not always the best deal.

We rebuilt our grey with repcos help - block only as we scored a new head with the car.

We dropped the motor off and waited a day or two for them to do the crack test once it had passed that it took another three days for the machining and new parts to arrive.

What they did -

crack test
acid bath
bore out .004
supply new pistons and rings
fit conrods to pistons
grind/balance crank .020" big ends - .01." mains
grind cam shaft
grind lifters
grind flywheel
supply all bearings to suit grind
fit cam shaft bearings - not a job for the backyard
supply rebuild gasket kit
and supply alloy timing gear - fit new gear to crank shaft

Total cost $1306

The only special tools required are a piston clamp and a tension wrench.

To align the timing gear cover we used the harmonic balancer

To reco a head it will cost you another $300 to $500

I reckon that this was the best way to go for us as we knew what we were getting.

As Greg and Terry say you get what you pay for, we could have done it for less then a grand if we reused the old pistons and stayed with a fibre timing gear.

joelm · Post by **joelm** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:06 pm

ended up costing about $2700 including full balance, mild cam grind, alloy timing gear, etc.

hanging out to get it back in the car...

Thanks for all your help.

trobbins · Post by **trobbins** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 3:34 pm

got my EK grey full reco from RPM Engines cost 2,500. Flywheel machining was extra. Had to wait a few weeks as the 'oldie' in the custom machining section was on holiday. They didn't provide a breakdown of all the activities.
Tim

Dr Terry · Post by **Dr Terry** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 6:05 pm

Hi Guys.

I agree with the comment about finding a smaller shop where the owner is experienced in Grey motors.

One item that hasn't been mentioned so far, is the rocker gear. A common drama is that they wear where they fit around the shaft. They often need re-bushing and in bad cases the shaft replacing. Also they often need re-facing where they rub against the valve stem tip.

All this leads to noisy tappets or difficulty in getting consistent adjustment.

Dr Terry.

rosco · Post by **rosco** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 9:29 pm

Just my thoughts,
mention has been made to an alloy timing gear - I would suggest the full steel, failing that the original fibre type - i know of people who have fitted the alloy one with steel insert and had trouble with slop developing between the steel centre and the alloy gear............

frats,
Rosco

Brown Bear · Post by **Brown Bear** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 12:57 pm

Mine came to $2300 through an independant workshop, which included reco head & unleaded conversion, rocker refacing, new rings / bearings and crank grind. Block, head and crank were acid bathed and crack tested, which luckily identified a cracked head.

Motor now runs extremely well, having a twin carb kit, stage 1 cam, extractors and 2" exhaust into the bargain. Regularly returns 180 miles on 30 litres

fbekholden.com