My friend is going to have an engine built and he was asking me what should he expect to pay for the assy cost only. This engine is not a stoker motor or anything exoctic. It is a basic steel headed motor, 30 over with a solid cam BB. Going in to a street car, not a restored numbered car. Here are the option i wouild like to find a cost of:

1) The guy assy and building the engine is a heavy equipment mechanic that has owned an 8 second drag vehicles, and he always has built his own motors and basicly was working on his race motor every week and had a very compeditive vehicle every week. He will build motors for local guys that he knows and all have been very satisfied with his work. He uses guy 2's machine shop for all the machining.

2) This guy has a local machine shop and builds high end motors. Puts a motor together and takes it apart once or twice or more checking every little thing on the motor and is very anal, not that guy 1 doesnt make sure everything is correct also. Of course guy 2 has over head of his shop.

So what kind of assembly cost should he be looking at from these 2 types of builders?

thanks

In my mind the ASSEMBLY time should be the same assuming equal skill level of the builders. The partial mockup the machinist does insuring everything is correct ( i.e. setup for line boring, square decking, bearing clearances, CC heads etc) should be part of the machine work if you elect to pay for those steps.

There is a lot a variation in shop rates depending so depending on where you are located at may make a big difference in price.

Lots of variables in this one, the first being WARRANTY,
IE: I put it together but the machine shop screwed up, go talk to them, The second and third being, You must have done something wrong during the install, No or low coolant, didn't prime it, Didn't break in the cam properly, abused the motor before the rings seated and a ton of other excuses.
Myself its reputable crate mootors all the way or A local guy that machines them, assembles them and Dyno's them. Have a shop with credibility machine, build it etc, Buy a repuitable crate or Do it yourself. I as a shop owner wouldn't touch this with a 10ft pole, UNLESS I sourced the machine work, assembled it and installed it.

That's like asking how much for the baseboards on a 2000 sq. ft. house.
It all depends!!!!
Are you supplying parts? Will they have to wait (and stop/store/start) for you to get the right stuff?
Will they do the teardown so many things can be checked as it comes apart?
Will they do all (and bill) machine work and fitting separately, or is this part of the "assembly"?
Do you expect them to clean all the parts before assembly?
Do you expect critical tolerances to be measured during assembly?
What if a tolerance is off? Will you pay to disassemble, fix, clean and reassemble again and recheck? Or will you expect the clean and reassemble to be no extra charge?
Will you get a checklist from each before any work is done to compare? Will you get the sheet filled out after work is done?
Will either offer a warranty?
Will either offer engine stand or dyno break-in to make sure it's broken in properly and has no leaks?
A good experienced person can give you a figure on how long it takes to bolt the parts together, that's easy.
It's all the careful fitting and checking along with the possible blow-back if the motor comes apart that requires more time, money and skill.

My machinist, who has a reputation for being expensive, charged me another $300 to assemble the motor. All the measuring and double and triple-checking everything he machined was part of the cost for the machining work itself. The $300 extra was for the final bolting it all together.

My guy charges 250 for final assembly.

My machinist charged me 1200 total for my 440.That was everything from cleaniing the block etc to final assembley.It also included some parts he supplied.Mine had everything from borin deckin etc to having all the rods resized and ARP bolts installed.Balanced ,blueprinted etc.He is super cautious and triple checks everything at the least.One man shop so he isnt fast but very thourough.I installed the heads and intake.Rocky