big bore kits

[silverspirit]

i have asked around at some of the motorcycle shops and to get a 1200cc bore kit with every thing including the pistons rings and the valve job would cost around $1900. i was wondering if this is a resable price to pay for everything.
thanks,
dan

[TopCatGr58]

Hey there SilverSpirit,

It would depend on whether they will do all the work/labor or if you will be doing most of it. The big bore kit should be had for around $400, then the cost of boring the holes was $40.00 a hole in my part of the country 2 years ago. I also did my valve lapping job myself, others will say you should have the valves and seats actually machine shop ground, but mine seems to be working fine after 2 years. I also replaced my valve seals, can be had for ~$4.00 each, plus a few other gaskets will be needed, and perhaps some valve shims. I went back with my OEM cam chain, but you might need to replace it also??

You might contact Merriam Cycle and see what kind of price they quote....they're supposed to be very good, but kinda pricey, so if their price is close to what you can get local, then if you're not into wrenching, then what you were quoted may be a fair ballpark price for the amount of work required to rebuild the topend!!?? HTH.

[Shuriken]

I think $1900 is too much. That must represent expensive labor or complete replacement of all upper-end parts. I guess if you have them do everything, perhaps that price is typical.

I have been figuring $1k if I did the work myself and didn't have to replace too many valvetrain components. I have two motors, perhaps the older one would serve as a better starting point for head rebuilding.

[Snow]

That does sad a tad high to me, but I did all my own work except the boring/honing.

Boring/Honing ran me about $160 (which comes out to be $40 a hole). My 1196 kit was just under $400 including shipping. When I was in there, I threw in a new cam chain ($30 from partsnmore) and adjusted my valve shims ($80 for shims). Also needed a couple tools - cam chain breaker (get a good one, unlike me) and good ring compressor (again, unlike me).

So for me, it was $670 in parts and machining, the right tools would be under $150 (dont forget a new rubber mallet and lots of WD40).

If you do all the labor yourself, it should be around $820 I believe. Also, I think you can keep the motor mounted during the whole process if you are only doing the bore kit. So, $1900 minus $820 = $1080 in labor. A rough guesstimate of time it took me would be 12 hours, including prepping gasket surfaces and pulling the motor apart in the first place.

So, $1080 divided by 12 hours is $90/hr for labor. There is no way in he** I would pay anyone $90/hr for something I could do myself.

Of course, I didn't do valve job - the machine shop quoted me something like another $250 for that.