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I am going to get my 1.8 that came out of my 79 4x4 rebuilt.

It was pretty sad calling the machine shops in my area (Santa Maria, CA), they pretty much all said "not worth it".

So I called a few places in Oxnard, CA and the first place said $1300-1400 (you can get a rebuilt one online at many places for $1500) and the second place I called said $975. So it looks like I will be getting the long block rebuilt for $975.

So I would really love to hear how much this is in your neck of the woods?

Be careful where in Oxnard you go. I live in Camarillo and know of horror stories from a few places there.

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Certified pilots, looking down on people since 1903.

Oh really?

The place I talked to is called Santiago Engine Supply.

Can you recommend somewhere to get my 1.8 rebuilt in your area since the guys in my area won't/can't do it?

Or does everyone just order a rebuilt crate engine for $1500?

I really hate to say this but that was the company that came to mind in my post. I have several friends with issues with them. Please do your own background check and make up your own mind, please don't take my word for it. I use Barbers auto machine shop in oxnard, I don't know if they build engines but he does great machine work. I build my own engines and I have never had to return for bad work and I do plastigauge all bearings and even check piston clearance. I also have never had a issue with his piston ring end gap. My friends shop uses precision Cylinder head and machine in Santa Paula and has great luck with him in the 5 years he has done business with him.

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Certified pilots, looking down on people since 1903.

Oh that really sucks... I will call those places you mentioned tomorrow.

I wish the shops in my area weren't such bitches about it. I called a place in San Luis Obispo today who told me he would rebuild it for $3000-$4000.

I do know one guy who could do this but he doesn't have the machinery and we don't known anyone who does.

Call Joe Mondello School and ask them where to go.Ad is in back of all the Hot Rod and Car Craft magazines.

Oh how cool I just looked them up and they are somewhat local (closer than Oxnard at least) same area where I got my hood from recently. I'll give them a call tomorrow as well.

Barbers and Precision cylinder both said about $1200 and both offered to meet me half way to pick it up (I'm over 100 miles from Oxnard) which doesn't sound bad at all.

After reading the negative reviews Santiago engine supply has online I'm more likely going with one of the two above.

Mondello school has moved to Tennessee (they need to update their address) back in 2006 so they couldn't give me much help as far as something local.

Didn't know Joe moved the school.Meet him in 2002.Nice guy.PRI show in Indianapolis.

I am glad you did some follow up on Santiago's, from what I have seen and herd not much good comes from that place. As far as Precision in Santa Paula or Barbers in Oxnard it's a toss up. I have not used Barbers in a few years but they did good work for me and have a good rep from friends. Precision has done a set of heads for me recently for a 3000gt I did and I was very happy with the work, my friend owns a busy repair shop in Oxnard and uses them weekly and has nothing but good to say about them. Come to think about it another friend uses precision for all of his work out of his shop too, BMW heads can be tricky but they have had no issues to date.

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Certified pilots, looking down on people since 1903.

it may be cheaper to rebuild it yourself, the stock motors are incredibly simple my dad and i built mine as my first engine rebuild a few years back and it was more of less "hey dad what the heck is this" "i dunno look at the book" and it only took a couple days that way, it has handled 30k miles of constant abuse since then and prior to that i had never even used a torque wrench so im sure you could do it in a weekend
right now a long block from rockauto is $1130 with a core exchange
or to do it yourself
rod/main bearings, oil pump, gasket kit, piston rings and oil filter $245... you have to piece together a "rebuild kit" but they sell a re-ring kit for $190 that has a lot of it, but doesnt include the main bearings, oil pump or oil filter so i added those.

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Luvless
1980 Mikado-Sold.

1993 Lexus SC400 my Daily
2004 Yamaha WR250F my new love in life
2016 Toyota Camry my girls ride

It would be cheaper to do it yourself but he still needs a machine shop for the valve job, surface the head, clean the block, polish the crank, recondition the rods etc.

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Certified pilots, looking down on people since 1903.

I would love to try doing all the non-machine shop stuff on my own but I don't even have a garage, I had to pull the engine in front of my house on the curb.

I live on a relatively busy street in my small town and kind of hate being the neighborhood spectacle on a Saturday morning...

I'm going to end up paying about $1200 for the rebuild, I know I could have saved some bucks doing some of that on my own but it's simply not worth the included stress (the only assistant I have is my brother and he likes to sit around with a can of beer and/or cigg while he tells me what to do) for me.

I think I paid $1k on one and 11 or 12 hundred on the other I had rebuilt in Whittier.

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OK, I'm over it. Where's the beer?

Where did you go in Whittier?

Like Luvr8 says....just take it down separately[head, crank, block] and have it done. Get it bored, valves done, turn the crank. I got all my rebuild parts for the 1.8 through e-Bay. I did it myself for about $1100. It is easy to call several machine shops for an estimate. Generally the guy that does the boring has access to the pistons and rings and sometimes the gaskets. The crank guy can get the bearing inserts to match. If you'll take the time to make a one page list you can figure out your best choices. Really, it's kinda fun when it is all done and you're driving your own creation again. Don

They called me a few days ago to tell me the head needed a little extra work, so it's going to end up costing me about $1300 total.

I'm really limited on space (no garage) so I wouldn't really want to try and rebuild an engine in my front yard lol. If I had a garage that would definitely be fun to do though.

A extra $100 is not bad, usually it goes up more then that

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Certified pilots, looking down on people since 1903.

I was thinking of doing myown rebuild. Regarding the head. If I take it to a machine shope,
what would it cost for them to machine the valves, change valve guides, etc?

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1980 Luv 4x4 with a 5 speed tranny.



"When all else fails, follow the directions".

I would call shops in your area to find out, hopefully they have seen an Isuzu engine in the last 10 years and won't act like it's some impossible and super rare thing to work on (like the shops in my area). My guess is like $150-200 but I would ask locally.

When I was looking online I saw rebuilt heads for $300-400.

I know a guy with an 85 Pup who says he can get G200 heads for $200, but I have yet to call him on that.