What does it entail? Unhooking everything from the engine and removing it.

However, I'd question why they are charging you $150 for a new oil pan? Did your old one get busted up driving through the water? $50 for an oil pan gasket (that's a $20 part, and with a reasonable markup, still not $50)? $240 for a timing belt kit (they are currently $93 on Amazon)? $250ish for a (one) new piston, pin and rod? The labor time to remove and replace the oil pan and gaskets is just a tad over an hour, and they are charging you almost $225 to do it? That's essentially $225/hr labor for that one part. To remove and replace the cylinder head gasket is 6 hours, so that comes out to under $100/hr labor. Not sure why the oil pan is an extra $125/hr labor rate. I got the labor time from the same place they gave you the quote from, so I'll be surprised at what their answer is. I had a local shop try to charge me double the labor for something. They said six hours, and Mitchell said three. I asked them why the difference (since they used Mitchell too), and the guy was speechless as to why they were going to charge me double. His answer started with, "Ummmmmm."

IMO, you have some questions to be asking said shop.

 

Thanks darth. I think I'm going to send that estimate over to another shop and see what they think about it.

 

Send the estimate minus the prices.

 

I was looking at the cost to rebuild my engine eventually and as a DIY thing it would cost me about the same and that's with 10.5:1 or 12:1 compression pistons, crane cam, header and everything else. That's crazy the parts and labor they're charging you.

 

Thanks again guys. Hey can anyone tell me what it should cost (parts/labor) for a full engine swap of the 2.0? or even an upgraded engine of whatever type I can get in there? I've heard the engine itself should run about 800, it probably isn't too much labor to swap, considering they have the machinery to do it... maybe 2 hours? After tax and reasonable replacement parts that go with tearing it apart, i shouldn't spend more than 1300, right?

ugh... this is becoming a very expensive car...

3300 for the car + 200 in fees + 1200 in suspension + 2200 in engine repair = almost $7000... Yikes.

 

A used engine will run $300-$500 (that's even out here in Kalifornia), and it's like 7 hours labor to R&R the engine assembly according to Mitchell's online. So, say a shop charges $80/hr, that's $560 labor plus the price of the engine.

 

huh. 7 hours. well hey that's still half the price. I wonder if i can find a used engine that isn't **** though... you know? and won't I still have to replace all sorts of belts and other bells and whistles?

 

So i had them break down the labor and remove a few things...
$570.00 CYLINDER HEAD GASKET R&R M (6 hrs)
$218.50 OIL PAN &/OR GASKET R&R M (2.3 hrs)
$47.50 (Combination) CONNECTING ROD BEARINGS R&R M (.5 hrs)
$10.50 COMPLETE LUBE, OIL AND FILTER SERVICE (.3 hrs)

$846.50 Labor / 9.1 hrs = ~93/hr

We got rid of the water pump and timing kit as that is not necessary... my new total is about 1,900 for what you see there ^ + $765.56 Parts

Questions: Is 95/hr a fair labor charge?

 

How many miles are on the car? If it's getting close to a timing belt change, I would probably have them do it. The timing belt is a four hour job by itself, so you could save yourself some money down the road.

95/hr is a definitely high, but it's not outrageous. Just make sure it's a reputable shop and there's no chance that they're going to have to charge you more.

 

When I first read inital post the only thing that went through my mind was hydralock, water in small amounts and misted and even better mixed with alchohol will beat any carb/choke/intake cleaner/solvent.

Large amounts of water = dead engine.

Do yourself a favor and make friends with craigslist.

Quick parts search on craiglist in my area with the search term neon.

http://providence.craigslist.org/pts/2616335053.html

Even if this engine is no good, the parts are still good