Cost of a refresh for hp500
 

Just curious what a stock refresh of an HP500 (carb, not efi) would cost from a reputable engine shop. Any experience or ideas??

Are you talkin a .030 over rebuild or just a hone and rings type rebuild?

I guess I'd be interested in the cost of both. I'd rank reliability and cost effectiveness higher than big increases in power.

advice-- trust no one with your engine.
see my post on texas builders.

you're lucky though because michigan has some of the best builders in the business. go with a guy you can trust and will stand behind his work. get what you paid for.

Dredgeking : this is an international problem.its same here...

Bill272,
Rebuilding an HP500? I know your boat doesn't have 500's so you must be repowering yours or looking at a different boat... details please :D

I know a few shops that would be trustworthy. If your interested PM me.

Now are you going to R & R the motors or just deliver the boat to a shop and say "freshen these please" ? That will effect the price quite a bit.
Especially if they have to haul the boat out of the water and shore it up.

Chuck - check your pm...

Between 4K-6K, depending on which new parts you put in, you also may want to replace coolers, starter, alt, etc.

Good luck !

Refresh HP500
 

Bill,

Is the motor in need of refreshing?
How many hours on it?
Have you done a leak down and or compression test yet.
The cheapest way to go is to pull the motor yourself tear the heads off, see what the cylinders look like, if the bores are good, not scratches and the motor was not pushing any oil you may not need to re ring it.
Freshen up us a broad term, it could mean just pull the heads and do a valve job and put it back together.
Spend some time evaluating what you have before you start tossing money at it.
Another issue is finding a qualified engine shop to do the machine work for you that stands behind there work.
Good Luck
Post what you decide to do.
Brian

We offer a rebuild for the 500 HP, we do it in two different stages.
Stage I: complete re build, new bearings, rings, Magnaflux crankshaft, and rods. Check valves, and replace if needed. Recondition heads completely. Replace camshaft and lifters with upgrade package. This makes about 575HP. The cost is about $5000.00

Stage II: All of above, new forged JE pistons. Canfield aluminum heads with Manley valves. This makes 625+HP and costs about $8500.00

I'm with Big Boy's Toys on this. Serious engine problems usually stem from running an engine with a weak top end a season too long. The top end redo may be all you're looking for. Do your oil presuure and temperature checks (use an infrared temp unit) along with compression check and cylinder leakdown test to verify the condition of the crank/bearings and cylinders. It's easier to do the top end now rather than doing the whole engine next June 30.

We're just in the looking stage and found a boat with Hp500's and around 500 hours. I was just trying to get a ballpark as to what it would cost to get them back to new or like new condition. I wasn't sure if it was a 2k job or an 8k job. Thanks for the info.

SuperV had under 4K into freshening his engines. That was new everything except blocks (went to +.030), cranks (they were reground), rods (reconditioned), and heads (new valves, springs, retainers, keepers). That 4K also included MSD ignitions.

Crazy, are you talking about 4K for BOTH engines or just one?

The 4K was for both engines. And while going thru my file cabinet I found SuperV's dyno sheet from Tom Earhart. Now remember, these engines have ALL Federal Mogul parts, including cams, in them and have performed flawlessly all season.
1500rpm------------375torque--------107horsepower
2000--------------431----------------164
2500--------------466----------------222
3000--------------503----------------288
3500--------------499----------------333
4000--------------509----------------387
4500--------------506----------------433
5000--------------510----------------485
5500--------------482----------------505
5750--------------428----------------469

At 500hrs its a .030 over.
No where do I see a carb mentioned...800Holley=500HP.
Upgrade to an 850, 310 Canfields, ROSS pistons, CR to 9.5:1, 228/238-.553/.587-112* Hyd. roller and you will see a solid 600HP, no more no less.

I did both of mine last winter I ended up doing some extra work (heads and cam) ended up with around 10k for both! These were bare block rebuilds. The thing that I could not figure out and still have not got a straight answer on was the cost of the piston rings for a hp500carb. Around 260.00 per motor! This price came from the machine shop,Summit and another source! The only for sure answer was that they are a metric size. Scott

You can have the ring grooves cut for 5/64 rings. Any competent machinist can handle this for you.

Crazy,
Good point but look at the costs for the work compared to the ring cost. What I don't understand is why were they like this from the get go and why do they seem to be so specialized. I guess the answer may be in my face;) gee lets make a non standard piston and ring combo so we can charge more$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$:eek: :D
Scott

That I can't answer. But the ring grooves should be checked at re-ring time. Chances are you'll need to have ring groove inserts installed to recondition the grooves. So, just have the machinist cut them for 5/64 rings, which are about 40 bucks a set. It's really not that much to have the grooves cut. Just my opinion, and we all know that my opinion and a buck will get a guy a cup of coffee.