Man I gotta raise what I charge to port intakes

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pittsburghracer said:
Gasket match on a dual plane like this probably 1.5 hours max. Prep and cleanup included but I work slow.
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pittsburghracer said:
I’m not going to say it’s a job everyone should attempt or do but man Dont charge someone 300.00 to remove less than one 1/8 inch of material. I would feel guilty charging 80.00 to do that but it has to be worth your while.
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But keep in mind that you are charging for your knowledge and experience. You are doing something that they not only can't do, but they don't have the tools to do it. $80 for a two-hour job might sound good, but it really isn't. The tools are expensive; not to mention the wear and tear on the compressor. I'd love to have my heads and Air Gap ported, but there is nobody around here to do it, and the shipping would stink.
 
LO23M8B said:
**** nobody wants to pay us nothing in this trade. But if you're a plumber you make a bunch of $$$ and you don't have 1% of the skill most of us have. (no ding on any trade here just an example) I can weld, braze, sweat pipe, fabricate, wrench etc. and I might as well be a Walmart greeter.
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I was a plumber for around 50 yrs ., I can do a whole bunch of things not related to plumbing , 4 hotrods , first one held a record for 3 months , was set with a broken inner valve spring on no.5 cyl. .
I have never paid anyone to do anything to my house , except the metal roof ,and siding , when I had my elbows operated on , and I was home to keep an eye on them , kinda proves you dont know what your talking about !
There is an old saying , plumbers do it all .
 
1MeanA said:
Yeah plumber charged me $500 to come out for an hour to unclog the sewer line to the main (tree roots - it cost $400 last year). Nobody will get out of bed for a few hundred bucks up here.
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There is a treatment to thwart tree roots , unfortunatly , I cant remember at this time ...
 
ch1ll said:
Unless your doing new construction, plumbing and electrician trades some times do nasty work in unsanitary conditions like crawling in a tight space attic in deplorable heat to work. No thank you, just say no, I am neither nor do I want to be. I can see why they make the money they do.
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Been there done that too...
 
memike said:
What !! Me ? Not me, I don't know how to Bob, and I bet watching videos on it will help , but not ever going to attempt this, having the right tools and experience would be the way to go, let @pittsburghracer do it right :thumbsup:
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Look at pittsburg racers last pics , when he was done , looks real good , you could do that too , especially on aluminum , cast iron is a whole other ball park ...
 
harrisonm said:
But keep in mind that you are charging for your knowledge and experience. You are doing something that they not only can't do, but they don't have the tools to do it. $80 for a two-hour job might sound good, but it really isn't. The tools are expensive; not to mention the wear and tear on the compressor. I'd love to have my heads and Air Gap ported, but there is nobody around here to do it, and the shipping would stink.
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I`d be willing to bet there is more than one person in the Topeka area that can port heads and intakes ,after all you do have one of the premeir dragstrips there ,,,
 
1MeanA said:
Yeah plumber charged me $500 to come out for an hour to unclog the sewer line to the main (tree roots - it cost $400 last year). Nobody will get out of bed for a few hundred bucks up here.
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What would you charge to go out and play in someone elses sh-- ??

A job I always tried to stay away from ...

I did not mean to put across that I`m and expert , was simply stating about gasket matching , but when I do go a little farther , one of my best friends has 18 Walleys , and has held the record quite a few times in his class , in the past .
And has a flow bench...
 
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famous bob said:
What would you charge to go out and play in someone elses sh-- ??

A job I always tried to stay away from ...

I did not mean to put across that I`m and expert , was simply stating about gasket matching , but when I do go a little farther , one of my best friends has 18 Walleys , and has held the record quite a few times in his class , in the past .
And has a flow bench...
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There is lots of jobs I have no interest in doing. The point is that labor isn't cheap these days and getting more expensive by the day. Don't under value your efforts.
 
famous bob said:
I`d be willing to bet there is more than one person in the Topeka area that can port heads and intakes ,after all you do have one of the premeir dragstrips there ,,,
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You may be right. I have never heard of one. You have prompted me to run an ad on Fakebook Market Place. I personally HATE Facebook. I have never posted, followed anyone or liked anyone on it. I have the account only for the marketplace.
 
mopowers said:
Stupid question, but is gasket matching an intake even worth the effort if the rest of the intake runner is smaller than the port opening? Seems like the port is only opened up for a couple inches before the gasket. Wouldn't that sudden increase in volume slow the air speed entering the intake port in the cyl head?
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Good question. My answer is no, unless the manifold ports are so far off you have to clean it up.

Going from the opening of the port at the plenum to the face of the port on the head should have taper. It should be bigger at the plenum.

Ive seen gasket matched manifolds where the port has a nice taper and then an inch or so from the flange it got bigger where they matched it. Then the port got smaller in the head at the pushrod pinch.

You never want (unless you just can’t avoid it) the port to go from big to small to big to small. That means a bulge was put in the port from gasket matching.

And that’s a power killer.
 
For that 300- bucks, a business has to have a building, utilities, employees, machinery, insurance, shipping accounts, and maintainance. There's more.
Not to mention federal, state, and sometimes city taxes.
 
MMissile said:
For that 300- bucks, a business has to have a building, utilities, employees, machinery, insurance, shipping accounts, and maintainance. There's more.
Not to mention federal, state, and sometimes city taxes.
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Plus trust. In my case people are sending their stuff to a 33 year Millwright that taught himself how to do some porting work. Who in their right mind would sent parts that they bought with their hard earned money to a Millwright. Lol. You would have to be half crazy.
 
pittsburghracer said:
Plus trust. In my case people are sending their stuff to a 33 year Millwright that taught himself how to do some porting work. Who in their right mind would sent parts that they bought with their hard earned money to a Millwright. Lol. You would have to be half crazy.
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Half cRaZy at least lol.
 
$300 these days is peanuts. I wouldn't expect to pay less. I had a forged 340 crank machined 2 years ago for $250. I thought that was a good deal. Better price than buying a new one. The thing is, I realize I'm paying for the skill of the machinist, his machines, his supplies, and his shop and electric. I dropped a set of J heads off to be gone over at a machine shop right before new year. I am curious to see how long it takes and how much it costs. The guy is my age and talking about retiring as in closing up and getting a job. This stuff is going to dry up. Machine shops will be few and far between although the guy says he's busy, he can't find good people to hire and he has back problems.
 
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pittsburghracer said:
I’m not going to say it’s a job everyone should attempt or do but man Dont charge someone 300.00 to remove less than one 1/8 inch of material. I would feel guilty charging 80.00 to do that but it has to be worth your while.
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Shoot, before I retired it would cost 75 just for me to show up and discuss what the person wanted.
300 for 1.5 hrs of experienced and proven labor is nothing.

MOPAROFFICIAL said:
No one wants to pay for power
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And those can kick rocks.
Hit the dusty trail.
Or just plain F-off.
 
Rat Bastid said:
Thats CrAzY. You need to raise your prices.

I won’t even SNIFF an intake for less than 800 bucks. A tunnel ram is 1200.

If they don’t like my prices I will send them to you.
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It really depends on where you are. Costs are higher in California for example. I have noticed, guys who are older, semi retired, aren't paying a mortgage on their shop can afford to charge less in my area. I am in Pa like Pittsburgh racer although in the eastern part of the state.
 
pittsburghracer said:
Plus trust. In my case people are sending their stuff to a 33 year Millwright that taught himself how to do some porting work. Who in their right mind would sent parts that they bought with their hard earned money to a Millwright. Lol. You would have to be half crazy.
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From what I understand porting is something that can easily get to the point where the head is ruined. I suppose if I were to have it done, I'd want a guy with a flow bench to give me a before and after report. How guys do it at home without knowing or guessing seems ridiculous to me.
 
@300 $37.50 ea. window...say anywhere from 5-15 min each. 1.5-2 hrs time.
200 is more appropriate in some cases where it's not much material removal.
I just hate that many are so far off that one side of the common wall doesnt even get touched. In those cases unless you customize the gasket a little bit as an open it up a little more you can't get a perfectly all sides ground flat window

If any of you are jealous of the plumbers rate you can experiment with pissing on the intake before delivering it to the person porting it...but I wouldn't recommend it. Jk
We get gravy once in a while.
As for plumbing I almost got stuck with a $300 house call for a clogged toilet...via visiting sons gf flushed a tampon. I even told them DON'T FLUSH TAMPONS...
After getting a quote and being unsuccessful with a plunger...i went and bought a 8 dollar 6ft snake from walmart...and whalah...got it.
8 bucks.
 
Then there's the day you get to get into a crawl-space, in a foot of water with urine and feces floating around...due to sub-zero weather. Trash your arctic bibs, coat, boots, etc. Just ad it to the bill.

Or, do work for a friend who has a contract to maintain HUD "homes" in Detroit. Never a dull moment. Toilets used for a month after they plugged up, stalactites and stalagmites growing in bathrooms, etc....
 
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pittsburghracer said:
If you were only going to open the head port entrance without addressing “the pinch” I honestly think you are doing more bad than good.
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Is the "pinch" on small block Mopar heads that area where the pushrod holes are drilled? in the center intake ports? The 340 TA heads i believe they moved them out so that area could be ported.
 
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