Swap cost from people who paid a shop to do work

[jrockbk]

So made a couple of phone calls to some shops in the area about doing this swap I found some reasonable engine tranny options even found a couple of whole donor cars like a 99 m3 runs and drives crashed in side frame damage $3.5k from that car I can get just about everything I need to complete swap including 5lug conversion with exceptions like
Oilpan
Motor mounts and bracket
Brake booster
Drive shaft (not sure)
Ecu ewe flash out
Radiator (not sure)
Full custom exhaust
Even if I'm forgetting some things those extra parts can't come to more than $2k-$2.5k
So far that's around $6k just to estimate plus labor (don't know how many hours this takes) but I estimated this entire process would cost me $7-$8k

According to the last shop I spoke to "you smoking crack if you think you can get an s52 swap done between $5k and $8k"

Am I smoking crack? $15k-$20k for these swaps? Or are these people buying them for that price on crack? For real what's the deal what should this cost me?

[2mAn]

shop labor rates are usually around $100/hr and I was quoted ~30 hours to do the swap. this included pulling the old engine and doing all of the wiring. I wish mine was done under the 40 hours, but its gone beyond. be ready to pay, but 15-20k... not likely. BUT you are anticipating the labor to be only a grand? no way they can do all that work in 10 hours

[ME30W]

ultimately you will get what you pay for. If you don't have the expertise or time to do it yourself, you are better off saving up so a great shop can do the job, rather than tossing a couple grand to someone who thinks they know what they are doing.

There are a couple good options in the general area, but I doubt any of them would be inexpensive.

[Deadskittles]

Do it yourself and learn. Save money and be able to fix it yourself, Bam.

[MrSlacker]

You really get what you pay for. So you estimate $6K for parks alone (pretty close to reality give or take $500-1000). Then you leave $1000-2000 for labor? No shop in their right mind would touch it for that money if they have done it before. There is a million little things that go into a swap to make it right. If you want a shop to do it right and have no issues, be prepared to spend $10-12,000 including parts and labor. FYI, we have done 3 swaps over the last year and not a single car ever came back with any swap related issue.

[2mAn]

I wish I had just done it myself, but I moved into a place that I thought I couldnt do the work in because of the lease agreement. After moving from WA to CA I realized that others are working on cars so I couldve done it myself after all :(

[dude8383]

You really get what you pay for. So you estimate $6K for parks alone (pretty close to reality give or take $500-1000). Then you leave $1000-2000 for labor? No shop in their right mind would touch it for that money if they have done it before. There is a million little things that go into a swap to make it right. If you want a shop to do it right and have no issues, be prepared to spend $10-12,000 including parts and labor. FYI, we have done 3 swaps over the last year and not a single car ever came back with any swap related issue.

What he said. We're the ones that built the three. I replied to you in the other thread as well.

We've built three swap cars. The first one was done on a shoe string budget that was around 7k. The two after that? 12k and higher.

If you do it yourself then yeh, its cheaper but when you have a professional doing the work the costs go up.

The reason is because many parts are bought new. If you really want to cheap out on this stuff you can... but don't expect everything to be great afterwards. Working on an E30 with a swap is no longer as easy as it is with a stock motor.

E.G. the blower motor. you have to remove the bloody intake manifold to get to the cowl!! It just makes sense to do things right the first time around!

At the end of the day, you get what you pay for.

[2mAn]

At the end of the day, you get what you pay for.

thats exactly it.

Even though mine has gone way beyond my original budget (dont they always?!) Im still happy because I have a solid mechanic doing solid work.

[jrockbk]

shop labor rates are usually around $100/hr and I was quoted ~30 hours to do the swap. this included pulling the old engine and doing all of the wiring. I wish mine was done under the 40 hours, but its gone beyond. be ready to pay, but 15-20k... not likely. BUT you are anticipating the labor to be only a grand? no way they can do all that work in 10 hours

Why does it take that long besides fabricating an exhaust, A/C hoses if you want to keep and brake booster solution doesn't everything else just bolt up?, if I spend the $400 for a useless (useless=unnecessary) harness adaptor will it speed up the swap hours, I'm not a mechanic but I've worked in a shop and see how fast things can be done with the right parts available. It's when you run into roadblocks that make it expensive. You guys been doing this for years now isn't it streamlined? $4k in labor cost really? Seems crazy, is there a way a shop could do the major stuff and I tackle the minor things to save cost? If this gets to crazy I will soon have an 91 318is for sale and use my cash to buy an e46 m3 that makes more sense from what y'all are saying.

[fresh_TD]

Just turbo that shit and you'll save lots of money this way, unless you just want a e46 m3

Sent from my GS4 Active

[MrSlacker]

Why does it take that long besides fabricating an exhaust, A/C hoses if you want to keep and brake booster solution doesn't everything else just bolt up?, if I spend the $400 for a useless (useless=unnecessary) harness adaptor will it speed up the swap hours, I'm not a mechanic but I've worked in a shop and see how fast things can be done with the right parts available. It's when you run into roadblocks that make it expensive. You guys been doing this for years now isn't it streamlined? $4k in labor cost really? Seems crazy, is there a way a shop could do the major stuff and I tackle the minor things to save cost? If this gets to crazy I will soon have an 91 318is for sale and use my cash to buy an e46 m3 that makes more sense from what y'all are saying.

[10Toes]

shop labor rates are usually around $100/hr and I was quoted ~30 hours to do the swap. this included pulling the old engine and doing all of the wiring. I wish mine was done under the 40 hours, but its gone beyond. be ready to pay, but 15-20k... not likely. BUT you are anticipating the labor to be only a grand? no way they can do all that work in 10 hours

Done it in 11 hours for everything, they are the easiest engine swap ever.

Pull M20
Refresh M50 (reseal/swap clutch and pan)
Swap Booster
Install M50
Build transmission mount
Wiring
Build Exhaust
Bleed and test drive

[jrockbk]

What's so funny please school me.

Just looked at a bunch of cars for sale from e30 24v swapped cars and e36 m3s to high mileage or rebuilt title e46 m3s all for under $10k I like my car but it's slow gonna trade it or sell it

[jrockbk]

Just turbo that shit and you'll save lots of money this way, unless you just want a e46 m3

Sent from my GS4 Active

Turbo m42=powerless money pit

[kevvve]

if it was going to coast me 15-20k to get the swap done at a shop I'd just do it myself. It's really not that hard. there is endless amount of info and knowledge on the web for a first timer to get it done. i speak for from experience.