was thinking of having a cam put in my 1996 5.7 vortec,about how many hours in labor should i expect to pay for this ? was going to have new springs installed too. one place i called wanted to pull the heads to install the springs ? cant they use a air comprssor in the spark plug to hold the valve up so the spring can be swaped out ? oh and the motor has 48,00miles . thanks trying not to get ripped off . If you know a good shop in cali let me know..

 

where in Cali are you, Cal Speed Performance in bakersfield does great work.

 

Either works. Some like to pull heads to swap springs or in car (which can be a pain, but the right tools help). The air compressor method does work tho.

If I'm doin the job, it'll cost u $1 billion, cause I'm not a tech, & lost my shirt doin my cam & springs. But then, this is new ground for me, so since I'm learning, I'm OK w/. it. I've learned from my mistakes & could do it faster if I had to do again, but I'm in no hurry to do so.

I'd guess in the 5-11 hr. range, depending on if you've done it before, & have the right tools. IMO, hardest part of springs is fighting the keepers.

I'm curious what u get quoted, please post when u find out.

 

ive seen people on here say 1000 but in my area i think u can find shops to do it for around 500 bucks if you have all the parts already. it varies. my swap took like 17 hours but we were taking alot of breaks and had alot of distractions going on around us we could have got it done alot faster

 

i am not too far from them about 3 hours i will give them a call thanks

 

I would think that your average shop would charge about 6 hours labor to do a cam and springs on a small block Chevy...no need to pull the heads to replace the springs, as you mentioned, compressed air can hold the valves up while the springs are compressed. Add another 2-4 hours plus more in parts to pull the heads if going that route though.

 

where in cali do you live?

 

If I was going to do a cam/spring swap on a Vortec 5.7 I would quote close to $1000.00 It is not necessary to remove the heads. Having the job done right the first time is priceless.

 

i live in ventua ca . yeah getting it done right is priceless for sure . its hard to find trust worthy shops now a days .

 

I agree Cal speed and Performance does great work. They are a sponsor over on tech if you want to search them. Lee (SLOXCAB) lives in Anaheim, I am sure he knows somewhere closer to you to do it if you dont feel like coming all the way to bako.