Engine rebuild? - The Cost?

[BackBone]

Hey guys. Been a while since I started a thread. Reason being is that my Mountaineer blew a freeze plug on me and overheated. It has been sitting in my driveway for about a year because I lacked the room to work on it. - single car garage. So anywho, I was going to get rid of it - on craiglist as we speak - but I am hoping to move to a new house with a two car garage and plenty of room to mess around. Because of this I am thinking of pulling the motor and rebuilding it.

This rig has 260+k miles on it. Trans has about 200K. I did a 4406 swap and 33's.

I want to do just a basic rebuild. Not sure of original cam or new but I am not planning on spending a lot of money on this. I plan to do all the work myself except for any boring or honing that may be necessary and having the block cleaned up.

I see a rebuild kit from rockauto.com here: http://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/ford,1997,explorer,5.0l+v8,1119697,engine,engine+rebuild+kit,5316

With that said, what extra cost would I be looking at? I just want to plan. I will replace the head bolts.

I had considered getting a grand cherokee but I like the mounty plus the full frame. Also, they say it's cheaper to keep her....

 

[SWIGIN]

My big block machine shop bill was $1200 if I remember correctly. That was boring, hone, decking, head decking and inspection, checked for line honeing (didn't need it), main and rod bearings,crank turned, pistons fitted to rods and balanced, cam bearings installed and new freeze out plugs installed.

This was back in 2002.

 

[CDW6212R]

If you stay with the stock computer tune, maintain the same compression and the mild heads/intake cam choices. You can use a 302 HO cam if one turns up cheap, but the stock truck roller cam is very good. Those two are excellent choices given the stock compression ratio and PCM etc. Upgrade the rod bolts from stock and have the rods resized and balanced(pistons/crank too). Aiming at the stockish level that will make a nice smooth engine, the exhaust still being the horrible thing that it is. You might have to break or cut the collector bolts off so be ready to do extra work on the manifolds. Replace the cat pipes, that mileage is a lot and it's time to replace the cats. OEM types are way too high, I hope where you are you can use universal cats.

Buy the steel/rubber valve cover gaskets, and the same kind of oil pan gasket too. Buy very good gaskets and seals etc.

The last machine work I had done was in the late 90's $300 for the shortblock work, for a 302(91 HO). I reused near new heads I already had. By now costs might be bear $1000 including heads, and that's everything, cleaning, checking, balancing, hone with plates etc.

Have fun with it, building an engine is cool.

 

[Josh P]

Another option would be to find a low mileage unit from a junk yard, here in phoenix you can find them with under 100k miles for $400-700.

 

[BackBone]

Thanks for the replies!

I have also been thinking of just finding another lower miles mounty and swapping the t-case and tires over. Might be less of a head ache!

 

[96firephoenix]

The kit you linked to only contains the main and rod bearings, pistons, and rings. You still need all the gaskets for a full tear-down, as well as incidentals like the water pump... you're looking at around $1500 for all that.

A long block is only 1800...