Quote:
Originally Posted by Pure Automotive
We just finished our shop car:
It's a much bigger project than you realize and it gets really expensive to do it right. If someone off the street came to me and said "LS swap my FRS/BRZ" it would start around $25,000. You probably just spit out your drink when you read that but let me break that down: $8000 Swap Kit, $8000 (Average) for a low mileage full LS2 Droupout (Engine, trans, ecu, gas pedal, wiring harness, etc.), About $1000 to properly prepare the engine, ie: new head gaskets, new valve cover gaskets, new timing cover gaskets, new oil pan gasket, new timing set, new thermostat, new water pump, etc. You also need a clutch, new trans fluid, and new oil and filter, so there's another $1000. You need around $500 in miscellaneous hoses, clamps, brackets, belts, etc. You're going to need a proper tune which will cost you around $500. Now we're talking $19000 just in parts and that's if you don' want to improve the engine at all. Let me tell you once it's in there, its a bitch to get it back out so if you want to do head work, cam, valve train, etc, you gotta drop that money too, so there's another AT LEAST $1000 if not way more. That plus $5000 labor give or take a week and bam there you have it. |
I do agree the price is a little absurd. I have done quite a few swaps myself, I'm in the middle of an LSX swap on my FD RX7.
I can get a painless harness for 800 or less that's brand new. A 6.0l for between 1500 and 3400 depending on miles and iron short block vs aluminum. Head gaskets and arp bolt setups 450, cam and supporting mods 650. T56 from an fbody 800 to 1100. T56 from the harder to find now GTO 1300.
The swap kits price is what gets me. 8k. The RX7 swap kits are less than 6k many under 5k. The RX8 swap kits are under 4k. So 8k is up there.
My total build for even adding 243 heads and having them milled (450) means I bought most every part and a 80 dollar ecu for less than 8k as mentioned.
My Breakdown:
LS2 2950 Complete
T56 FBody 1000
Painless Harness 800 New
Cam, Gaskets, Heads (243) PCM 1500
Clutch Setup 500
Total: 6750
That price doesn't include deciding not to buy 243 heads because a GTO 6.0 will already have them thats 350 off. You also might choose a different clutch setup or not to mill the heads thats more in gaskets, arp hardware, etc saved. So 8k is overkill.
5000 to install it in a 40 hour work week lets say means an hourly rate of 125 that's above many dealer hourly rates not to mention most performance shops who don't top 95 an hour.
So while I agree people over look the costs to do things I also think people know the cost of finding things themselves and doing it themselves.
Sent from Spaceball 1