Machine shop revisted...

raroz28

raroz28

Forum Member
The last thread I made got a little off topic when motorcity motorsports got brought up.

I am still looking for a shop that is familiar with the LT1 and I am very leery of just going to any shop. What I need is fairly simple but I want the peace of mind of not worrying after it's all put together that I won't be wondering if the guy I took it to did something wrong.

I need cam bearing r&r, ARP rod bolts installed (rods need to be resized), and a crank polish.

It seems like since the last time I've needed machine work done, the shops have dropped like flies. I'm totally out of the loop as to where to go and there are probably 5 bad shops to every good one.

If anybody knows a person I would be willing to drive from Dearborn to the east side.

I talked to Greg's cylinder head in Wyandotte and he seemed very cool but in giving me pricing for what I wanted done he was telling me all these other things I will need done and before I knew it my bill was at a minimum of $600 and that is without him seeing it and then all the little odds and ends parts adding up. That quote didn't even include the ARP bolts.

I'm not looking to spend that much money right now.
 
smooth said:
He used to do work for Mayfair, shop is next to an old gas station directly across from Tim Hortons
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What have you had done by him? You have a phone number?

I talked to Livernois and they want $200 to install rod bolts but then they said they do not have the equipment to recondition rods and that they only sell new rods. So I'm wondering how they would resize them? And why is it $200 just to press them in and out when every other shop charges $1 per bolt to install?

Anybody know exactly what Livernois does? And apparently, they don't do anything anymore. They don't polish cranks or do any kind of machine work from what the guy told me yesterday. They're switching over to selling and installing all new hi perf. parts.
 
I had a cheap 347 built by him about 12 years ago, in my early 20's. I bought the stroker kit and he did all the machine work/assembly (bore,notch block,deck, etc) - end price was about 1100
 
What about thompson automotive? I've seen them in hot rod magazine, and when I called for prices, they seemed reasonable. Also Gregs cylinder heads is a good full service machine shop.
 
Justindwright said:
What about thompson automotive? I've seen them in hot rod magazine, and when I called for prices, they seemed reasonable. Also Gregs cylinder heads is a good full service machine shop.
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X2 for Thompson Automotive. I have them do all my machining on all of my blocks and they never screwed anything up. They only thing I had done at Gregs Cylinder heads is have my heads flowed there years ago but I would consider using Greg if I had too, he seemed right to the point.
 
raroz28 said:
What have you had done by him? You have a phone number?

I talked to Livernois and they want $200 to install rod bolts but then they said they do not have the equipment to recondition rods and that they only sell new rods. So I'm wondering how they would resize them? And why is it $200 just to press them in and out when every other shop charges $1 per bolt to install?

Anybody know exactly what Livernois does? And apparently, they don't do anything anymore. They don't polish cranks or do any kind of machine work from what the guy told me yesterday. They're switching over to selling and installing all new hi perf. parts.
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They started making this move a long time ago. They farm out the work i believe. They get new kits, and do installs and assembly.

I have had rays do a bunch of motors for me, from Oldsmobile stuff to BB chevy, and 347 SBF's. He's easy to talk to, does exaclty what he's asked, and is honest. He lost some parts to my last jet boat motor build, and he replaced them befor he even told me there was an issue. And he replaced them with better parts than i gave him. In the 15 years i've been dealing with him, i have not had one complaint. When i worked at Ramchargers, i sent alot of people there, and not one came back to tell me he did a bad job.

As a side note, i haven't been there to have work done in 4 years. Still send people there, and have not heard one complaint.

Thompson does nice work too, got a buddy who gets all his stuff done there.
 
there is a reason why *(Rays)* is still in business after all these years
he did my work in the late 70's /early 80's

he does good work &
he stands behind his work!
hard to find today
 
Rays is a tad pricier than the other shops I've talked to but with all the positive press, I decided to go with him. I texted my buddy Matt Reese and he said Rays does good work, and I usually trust his opinion cause he's been around this crap a lot more than me.

I'm looking at about 340 out the door and that includes rod reconditioning/resize, ARP bolts, ARP bolt install, crank polish, and cam bearing R&R.
 
I'm not sure who you spoke to here, and I apologize if you got incorrect information.

We definitely polish crankshafts and do machine work. The video below will give a good idea of the work we perform.


If we were going to press the old bolts out and press new bolts in and hone the rod ends to a nominal size, it would be roughly $150-200.

If we were just swapping bolts, the pricing you noted would be accurate, but as busy as we are now it likely wouldn't be something we would take on.

5+ years ago, we would take on anything from a flathead to a Pro Stock. Today, we focus on late model Ford, GM, and Chrysler. Lately it seems like everything we see is 2004+. We no longer tune LT1 vehicles or do much with LT1 engine builds. We still do SBF Ford and olger engines, but we are probably priced higher than most. We specialize in LS-Series, Modular, and Hemi.

Thank you,

Rick
 
99SaleenSpeedster said:
I'm not sure who you spoke to here, and I apologize if you got incorrect information.

We definitely polish crankshafts and do machine work. The video below will give a good idea of the work we perform.


If we were going to press the old bolts out and press new bolts in and hone the rod ends to a nominal size, it would be roughly $150-200.

If we were just swapping bolts, the pricing you noted would be accurate, but as busy as we are now it likely wouldn't be something we would take on.

5+ years ago, we would take on anything from a flathead to a Pro Stock. Today, we focus on late model Ford, GM, and Chrysler. Lately it seems like everything we see is 2004+. We no longer tune LT1 vehicles or do much with LT1 engine builds. We still do SBF Ford and olger engines, but we are probably priced higher than most. We specialize in LS-Series, Modular, and Hemi.

Thank you,

Rick
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His name was Sean. He said they don't recondition rods they only sell new ones. He also said they have the equipment to polish cranks, but they do not do that anymore either, they sell new cranks.

Perhaps that was his way of saying what you put up there - they don't have time to take it on so unless I want new parts they're not doing it.
 
raroz28 said:
Rays is a tad pricier than the other shops I've talked to but with all the positive press, I decided to go with him. I texted my buddy Matt Reese and he said Rays does good work, and I usually trust his opinion cause he's been around this crap a lot more than me.

I'm looking at about 340 out the door and that includes rod reconditioning/resize, ARP bolts, ARP bolt install, crank polish, and cam bearing R&R.
Click to expand...

I worked with Matt for a brif period befor leaving Ramchargers. I believe they did one of his firs big blocks.

99SaleenSpeedster said:
I'm not sure who you spoke to here, and I apologize if you got incorrect information.

We definitely polish crankshafts and do machine work. The video below will give a good idea of the work we perform.


If we were going to press the old bolts out and press new bolts in and hone the rod ends to a nominal size, it would be roughly $150-200.

If we were just swapping bolts, the pricing you noted would be accurate, but as busy as we are now it likely wouldn't be something we would take on.

5+ years ago, we would take on anything from a flathead to a Pro Stock. Today, we focus on late model Ford, GM, and Chrysler. Lately it seems like everything we see is 2004+. We no longer tune LT1 vehicles or do much with LT1 engine builds. We still do SBF Ford and olger engines, but we are probably priced higher than most. We specialize in LS-Series, Modular, and Hemi.

Thank you,

Rick
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Good to know Rick, there has been so much speculation on what LIvernois does, and does not do for the past few years. In the last conversation with some of the guys on the sales floor (a year or more back) i was under the impression you guys weren't machining for customers anymore beyond doing the machine work for your own builds.
 
Billydroveit said:
I worked with Matt for a brif period befor leaving Ramchargers. I believe they did one of his firs big blocks.



Good to know Rick, there has been so much speculation on what LIvernois does, and does not do for the past few years. In the last conversation with some of the guys on the sales floor (a year or more back) i was under the impression you guys weren't machining for customers anymore beyond doing the machine work for your own builds.
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That's the impression I've gotten too. They won't take walkins off the street but if they were building my motor they are fully capable of doing it all. Can't say I blame them, I'd rather do business that way and if they have the volume why the hell not?

The guy I spoke to was very nice and just kinda said "We can do it, but it's not something we do."
 
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