Head Stud labor time???

J White · Apr 20, 2012

well finnally got the extra $$ to do the head studs, erg delete, gaskets...ect..how long will it take a shop to do this?? (cab off) time is pretty short with being in school and all just trying to get a good grasp of how long it should take if my heads arnt warped/cracked...

bluedevilslax · Apr 20, 2012

the labor is roughly 29 hours according to all data to get the done. But good shops you are probably looking at a couple of days.

hawgdoctor · Apr 20, 2012

We normally plan on five days for our stud jobs due to machine shop time for the heads. We always send ours out. I don't even bother checking them by fords specs. EVERY set we have sent takes 5-7 thou to straighten them out. And yes 30 hours to do everything is pretty much the norm.

Worstenemy453 · Apr 20, 2012

hawgdoctor said:
We normally plan on five days for our stud jobs due to machine shop time for the heads. We always send ours out. I don't even bother checking them by fords specs. EVERY set we have sent takes 5-7 thou to straighten them out. And yes 30 hours to do everything is pretty much the norm.

This.

Your heads are warped.

Moremph · Apr 20, 2012

Machine shop Time is the killer, If we have heads sitting on the shelf and ready to go, It can be in and out in two days easy.

Travis

Worstenemy453 · Apr 20, 2012

Our heads only take a day at the machine shop. we usually take 3 days but we plan for 5 just in case.

UNLIMITED_DIESEL · Apr 20, 2012

Moremph said:
Machine shop Time is the killer, If we have heads sitting on the shelf and ready to go, It can be in and out in two days easy.

Travis

:whs:

Moremph · Apr 20, 2012

Machine shop time here in the cincinnati market seems real sporatic. Some times they are quick sometimes they take a week and a half. Thier are lots of machine shops that are quick but i am pretty picky on who i let do my work. I thought about buyin all the tooling and equipment to do em in house, till i saw the price tags of all the equipment!! 60-80k for new equipment to do it right!

Travis

Marty · Apr 20, 2012

I plan 1 headstud job a week to be able to handle my work load in the other bay as well.

Customer drops the truck off, I completely flush out all the old coolant. Pull cab, pull heads, take them to machine shop. That is day1.

Day 2 I clean/tank/wire wheel anything that is needed, get the new parts in from the dealer and prep the block and pull coolant plugs and drain.

Day 3 hopefully get the heads back. Put it all back together and put the cab on. Maybe start it if I work fast.

Day 4 Start the truck, continue to flush coolant, reinstall with CAT. Test drive the truck. Take it home that night.

Get a bunch of hot-restarts on it, a few cold starts on it.

Tell the customer to come get it.

That's how it's supposed to go... or scheduled to go for me. If there is warranty involved, the customer is constantly low-balling/pricechecking/lowballing/nagging you it takes longer and disrupts your abillity to get the job done.

The absolute best thing to do is talk to whoever you're taking it to. Get comfortable and let them have the truck and complete the job.