Spoke with a local performance shop here (Atlanta) and inquired about some work, mainly put in the metal headjasket, tap the oil pan for the turbo lines, and install my turbo kit. Here are the labor estimates that they gave....

Tap oil pan - $400
Put in metal headgasket - $800
Labor to install turbo kit - $1500

Dude, that just doesn't seem right, even if they charge $78/hour for labor.

Talk about a major bummer!

 

seems about right to me, u should see how much it is to get a tune up at the dearlership

 

for tapping the oil pan at $75/hour, $400 sounds about right. keep in mind it takes a few hours to remove and install the oil pan. if u want to save $, just drill the oil pan carefully and don't remove it. some places may do the headgasket for ~$500, but make sure they check that the head surface is perfectly flat. Usually, a professional cleans, and flattens the surface similar to sanding a mateial..this is very important.

 

I hope your suggesting to "drill" the oil pan and not remove when the engine has no oil and there is no intention on driving the vehicle and it is being towed to the shop for the rest of the work!!

Drilling the pan while it remains on the engine is dangerous. All you need is 1 filing that falls into the pan, gets sucked into the pickup, past the filters and VIOLA!! Motor is toast!

Removing and drilling the oil pan should take no more than 1-1.5 hours. Do the tapping yourself and at leats save that $400

 

Oopss, I meant drilling + tapping. Umm, MANY NA-T persons have done the following:

1. Drain oil from the oil pan.
2. Carefully drill the oil pan with lithium grease SLOWLY by regreasing cutting saw to catch shavings.
3. Flush oil pan with cheap 10w30 oil
4. Put in new oil filter and new desired oil
5. Drive the car a little
6. Drain oil & remove oil filter
7. Put in new oil filter and new desired oil (<-- if ur scared, do this step, but not necessary)

I've never done the above method, but I'm about to because I don't want to pay a shop $400+ to do it. DaveH himself has drilled the oil pan without removing it along with many other persons who daily drive the turbo'd 2JZ-GE cars.

Mkorsu,
have you removed a 2JZ-GE oil pan in 1-1.5 hours? Several shops including the dealership quoted me a minimum of 3 hours labor for this to be done properly. Which method do you use? lowering the crossmember, completely lifting the engine, etc?

 

This is what the lady paid to do her 90K service 500 miles before selling the car to me....

 

Completely my bad!!!!! I'm a 1UZ guy and that's what I was picturing!! Sorry about that!!!