sage

How do you guys go about finding a machine shop to do basic work for a rebuild? Not looking to do anything spectacular with the engine but hot tank, spec checks on block and head, hone, valve job, etc. I would walk in with the head and stripped down block. Do you actually walk in and interview the owner and/or the machinist? How much ballpark should I expect to pay? The one shop I've looked at advertised all those basic operations for a grand which I think is insane.



Are there things I should be looking out for that might be specific to a hyundai beta (this is for my swap)? My friend had head work done at a shop that turned out to be incompetent and it was a long sad story.....I'd like to avoid a repeat. Any advice is welcome.

Stocker

There are very few genuine machine shops out there which are easy to find online. Your yellow pages might be a good place to look, as well as asking any local enthusiasts you know. Going to a shop in person *is* a job interview.



I spent an hour shooting the breeze with my local machinist, and most of it was after closing time. He let me watch and didn't act like a jerk when I gave him some ideas when he hit a tough spot in the work. I know his stuff well enough to know he knew his stuff. He was obviously into what he did and took pride in doing good work. The shelves in the office were full of incoming and outgoing work and the quality on the finished pieces was good. They had a collection of tools sufficient to the work they advertised doing, and a pile of "we could have rebuilt these but it wouldn't be right" waiting for the scrapper out back. Plus they did their own street cars' engine machine work.



I'll be going back when I finally scratch up the money to finish my head.