He said top ends were done 200hrs ago. My post was assuming lifters were replaced then.

Lifters, valve springs, rockers are the killers, not a question of if...just when...1200hrs buy a lottery ticket...the pin has been removed

It's been my experience, (with the HP500), that the valve train is the weak link, Specifically, the valve springs. You can run for hours with a broken valve spring and be completely un-aware, until you have a lifter failure, much like you've seen in the pics. Valve springs seemed to have about a 50 hour life, assuming you like to "open her up" once in a while like most performance boaters tend to do.

For those of us not so mechanically inclined, what would be the going rate for a top end and a total rebuild on a 500 EFI?

Assuming of course there is not a major defect that needs replacing?

I have no prices for you, but will add, merc springs are stupid $$$$ and basicly junk, some say the setup was incorrect, I do not know, I just threw all of that crap away, went with PAC springs and their matching retainers and set the installed height

If nothing is broken for two top end refresh jobs u are looking at around 6 thousand. That was ruffle my quote before finding the problems.

I will be doing them my self next time with the help from a few friends and will save a tone of money.

every time I do something myself that I don't already have the tools for, it ends up costing me twice as much and my wife gets bent about all the cool tools I had to buy.

She also hates the amount of time I spend researching the task that I should have just hired someone that already knew how to do it RIGHT the first time.

Been married 30 years and need to stay that way, its cheaper to keep her.

Budget for 8k-9k then if you come in under you will feel good.

If you budget for 6k, and it goes over you will be pissed and drink more....lol. Always bet the over when it comes to engine work....also, budget lots of time......

That's what happened to me I was told 6 and was like ok. Then it went to 8 then 12 and was like what..... and then no more then 18 and then when I picked it up was a little over 20.....