Cost of head work
Turbo Mini Forums

I'm trying to get my 12G295 head ready to be put on the new engine, but it needs unleaded valve seats, a skim to clean the face up, and possible new guides.

I rang a local company, we had a quick chat and he quoted me £200 for that work!

I thought that was a bit steep so declined, is that a high price? or just the norm?

If not, can anyone recommend anywhere in herts/beds/bucks/essex that would be a safe bet?

Thanks,

Mike

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I thought that you were going to say sounds a bit cheap!

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A man without a project is like a like a woman without a shopping list.

If you're having new guides fitted the seats will need to be recut as well, in which case the price is quite fair.

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Okay, so when would the guides need replacing? There's a small amount of play in the valves when they are in?

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I really cant believe how tight some people are tbh

I seriously doubt it!

well £200 is a lot of money when you're a student? I was just making sure i wasn't getting ripped off? As i don't know the going rate for headwork, i thought i'd ask, before i unnecessarily spend that money.

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It's the unleaded seats that are the cost....

The machining involved and the proper way to fit them is expensive.

Guides are just a fact of life, it would be foolish to spend money on unleaded inserts but use the old guides to centre them for machining...

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

I didnt mean it as a criticism as such, but its only a few hours labour plus theres parts to buy. £200 is a lot of money to all of us, but if building a Mini you need to look at it as £200 is very cheap

I seriously doubt it!

And it's for this reason that I'm going up be running my n/a 998 for a few years yet. As if your going to do it, you may as well do it properly first time around. Which equals £'s and plenty of them.

one day boost will be mine!

Okay, well thanks for the pointers, i'll do a bit of shopping around and see what i can find.

would it be better to source things like guides and seats myself?

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Best bet is find somewhere that can supply parts and machining for cash - no VAT

I seriously doubt it!

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

I know i cant fit the seats myself, i was just talking about providing the people who do the work the parts needed.

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Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

Thats fair enough, i'll go in tomorrow and have a proper chat with the guy.

The only alternative is petrol additive isn't it? Which i don't really want to do.

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£200 is slightly cheaper than normal.
Last 12G295 I had done was £320ish but that included crack testing and broken stud removal.

Metric is for people who can't do fractions.

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

well I might as well do a proper job of it, it'll just have to wait a bit longer than i hoped..

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Ive been running my race head for 11 years now and only had relap the valves 4 or 5 times, I dont see the need for seat inserts really aslong as good fuel is used

I seriously doubt it!

good fuel with no additive paul?
i ran my first 998 for well, i did about 35k in it before pulling the engine, never used additives it was well used when i pulled the head

Yes i moved to the darkside

Instagram @jdm_brett

My old engine had what I thought to be a leaded head, and i only ever filled up with 98ron, from BP or Sainsburys (bp fuel) and it never got any worse than when i bought the engine, same with the 998 before it.
No point in replacement/repairing unless they're going properly knackered. My head was rattly but was perfectly fine.

On 23rd Apr, 2012 Brett said:
good fuel with no additive paul?

I seriously doubt it!

I paid around 175 for an unleaded conversion before christmas so yeah be about right. That was at southam mini metro centre - awesome guys

Some good news, got a reply from a lecturer saying he'd be happy to help design and build a custom manifold, so that should save me some money on buying the mirage kit, which i can put towards this head work :)

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Paul, 4-5 times in 11 years is still every 2-3 years.

Acceptable for an engine that is expected to have regular rebuilds, but a modern engine should last the whole of its service life with no work at all on the valve train (apart from consumables like cambelts).

For those of us old enough to remember, back in the early 90s when 4 star leaded was being phased out, the FBHVC (Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs) carried out tests at the MIRA (Motor Industry Research Assciation) labs mainly to see which addatives actually worked. Ironically most of the testing was done on A Series heads (which shows how common they were at the time).

The results were widely published back then - and you can still find summaries on some of the Classic vehicle websites/forums - but the general outcome was, leaded petrol, next to no valve seat recession; some (not all) of the additives, acceptable recession; plain unleaded, unacceptable recession.

That research is obviously 20 years old and a lot has changed (especially petrol) since then. Also it has been partially dis-credited by some people as Leyland/Rover provided FBHVC/MIRA with new heads for the tests whereas used heads would have both "lead memory" and (depending on the cast iron grade) some degree of work-hardening on the valve seats, both/either of which would give better life.

From my own experience I ran two Metros into the ground for a year each on unleaded (they would never have got another MOT) for a cheap work commute and for the engine/gearboxes to rebuild afterwards. The 998, the valve seats were totally shot afterwards, compression was so low at the end, it would hardly start. The 1275 (MG Metro) survived very well, compression slightly down on two cylinders and minimal pitting of the seats. Both have since had inserts fitted.

IMO it's worth the extra cost and the price quoted is about right - inserts alone are ~£30 per valve around here.

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???