[Traveler]

How long should it take a competent mechanic to do a PI swap? He's a good mechanic, just hasn't done a PI swap before. I want to make sure that the time I get charged for is at least in the ball park. (I'll get the bill tomorrow)

 

[IcemanV8]

A whole motor swap, or just heads/intake/cams? If it's the motor swap, that could lead to different problems if he isn't good in understanding the wiring, depending on what vehicle the motor is coming out of.

 

[dDUBb]

If its just the heads and intake, it would be the amount he would charge for a head gasket replacement .. Cams alone would be less.

- Dan

 

[Traveler]

LOL ooops. Guess I wasn't very clear. Just an intake manifold swap.

 

[General Zod]

depends what method he is using

 

[firescout211]

JUST an intake swap should take under 2 hours easily

 

[General Zod]

keep in mind, this is a PI intake on NPI heads.....its not a direct swap, like it would be replacing an NPI intake for a another NPI intake....who knows if he's using RTV, or adapter plates, or welding the coolant ports, etc.....

 

[Traveler]

Rtv

 

[Black4point6]

well when my npi intake busted, I was charged $350 in labor. So in a normal garage, shop fee for labor is about $75 so that would be 4.666666666667 hours. It took me 6 hours to swap it by myself in 100 degree weather and no help.

 

[Chris_Murder]

I helped my friend do his and it took about 3 hours, and I've done it before.... we used ultra-copper rtv and let it set as per instructions which was over night or 12 hours or something rediculously long, but he hasn't had a problem with it.... ultra-copper = greatness when used correctly

 

[Black4point6]

yep i used ultra copper too. i let it sit for about 6 hours and then proceeded to beat the **** out of it to see if it would leak.

 

[Chris_Murder]

and my bet is it didn't... lol ultra copper is the best

 

[Black4point6]

ah, it leaked from the water pump and the feul rail leaked but not the rtv

 

[Traveler]

Well the grand total for labor (I supplied all parts) was 250.00 or somewhere in that neighborhood. (that included an oil change) So I think I did all right. It runs good, but it was missing out this afternoon, and early evening. I drove to Joplin and it ran terrible (when under a load, it cruised ok). I was thinking bad plugs or a loose plug wire but they all seem tight. So I had decided to change plugs tomorrow, and put the plug wires from the LE on it. So naturally on the way home from Joplin it smoothed out and ran great. Even did a few "acceleration runs" on a back road in the area that everyone uses for that purpose. It ran great, no misses, and very little traction. I'll probably take it out tomorrow and see if it misses out again, then change the plugs and wires anyway.

Oh yea, no leaks so far.

 

[DScruggs]

well when my npi intake busted, I was charged $350 in labor. So in a normal garage, shop fee for labor is about $75 so that would be 4.666666666667 hours. It took me 6 hours to swap it by myself in 100 degree weather and no help.

I can't believe that! I got so good at these in our Police fleet that I could changed a cracked 4.6 Plastic intake From Drive it in to drive it out in 45 minutes easy.

Did one once on a dare in 20 minutes from hood open to hood closed. On that one I'll admit I laid out all my tools and parts ahead of time.

Was this to replace the NPI with another NPI? Or did you mean to state it was an upgrade to a PI.

 

[Traveler]

No, it wasn't a direct NPI - NPI swap. It was swapping from the cruddy, cracked Plastic NPI to a nice aluminum crossover PI intake, and I've got the climate control to so we had to fab up a place to mount the temp sensor for that.

 

[DScruggs]

Cool. That makes so much more sense.

 

[Traveler]

Ok, PI Intake swap is done and and paid for. I think he did a good job. However, it was missing out last night. It ran like S**t for a while, but on the way back from Joplin (Joplin is an hour drive one way) it smoothed out and ran right. Testing it today and it isn't missing out that I can tell, but it seems to starve for fuel at the top (close to 5,000) I'm going to put a new fuel filter on it and see if that helps. The guy who did the work said that it is possible that some crud in the Fuel rail got knocked loose during the swap and just had to work its way out. Sounds reasonable, but I'll keep wondering till it runs smooth consistently for a while.

 

[General Zod]

but it seems to starve for fuel at the top (close to 5,000)

are you trying to say that it doesnt pull as hard around 5k, or it starts to hesistate/sputter at that RPM?

 

[Traveler]

Well, the problems come and go. Right now its sputtering when its under a load between 2000 and 2500. Dirty fuel or dirty injectors. It just doesn't pull as hard between 4500 and 5000, probably just my imagination or I'm comparing it to the LE. It pulled well up to 52-5300. Right now I'd just be happy if it would pull smoothly up to 4000 without any of the hesitation at 2-2500. Since it isn't dying, or even running that badly, I'm going with the dirty gas or dirty fuel injector theory and just hoping it runs it course. I had the shop run a can of high powered cleaner through the fuel rails/injectors. We'll see what that does. In the mean time I'll go ahead and put new plugs and the plug wires from the LE on it just in case its an ignition problem.