Thursday, September 15, 2005 - 10:52 pm, by: Stephen Hille(9zero)
I called a company in Perth today (Precise Suspension) and I asked them how much to fit the new valvebody from MV and they said with an oil change it would cost $175 I am no mechanic but I just cant see how the hell it can cost that much, unless they charge about 120 bucks an hour labor?
Also I spoke to them about headers and they said that there's are so much better than Neils which automatically got my back up, they were saying something about the cats near the headers, he just asked me to go in and have a look for myself. Has anyone seen their headers or know anything about it, I would definitely prefer to buy off Neil as I am sure most of us would but you do have to keep your options open I guess.
Thursday, September 15, 2005 - 11:16 pm, by: Shane Ilich(Ferret)
i think i got charged $140 bucks to fit the valve body, with a fluid flush....some mob in gosnells, cant remember their name but i can find out if you want it.
Thursday, September 15, 2005 - 11:34 pm, by: Stephen Hille(9zero)
Gosnells is a bit out of the way but I am happy to do it out of principle more than anything, I will need a filter change too which I know will add a couple bucks, are you happy with the work they did? If so might aswell go where we know that they know what there doing
Friday, September 16, 2005 - 01:28 am, by: Karl Hassan(Karl_hassan)
Stephen, Ive had a bit of work done by Precise. They know their Soarers(4 others when mine was done). 1 thing I found with them is you need to shop around (some things they are reasonable others a bit pricey)I have also used X-Speed(O'Conner) and T&R Green(Cannington).Most of my family and friends use T&R Green (very honest mechanic and he also has a dyno)The reason I know he's honest is I worked with him for a few years(he sub-leased his workshop off us at a servo). A guy come in 1 morning and dropped off his car(was running crap)ended up just being a spark plug lead that fell off. When he picked up his car in the arvo Terry didnt charge him nothing. This was at a time he was starting out and not much work coming in.You might say all mechanics would do that but from the 8 or so mechanics we have leased to he was the ONLY honest 1. I have a tt so I cant comment on the headers but I got my dumps from Precise and whoohoo best $$ I have spent.
Friday, September 16, 2005 - 02:11 am, by: Karl Hassan(Karl_hassan)
also I got quoted $600 for shift kit fitted from Precise so if you take away $175 that leaves $425 for the shift kit.Is this what you paid for your kit??At the time I was told it was too pricey but havnt had any other quotes as yet.
Friday, September 16, 2005 - 10:32 am, by: Shane Ilich(Ferret)
karl - i got my shift kit delivered to my door for about 400 bucks, maybe just over, exchange, from MV autos in adelaide. as far as i'm aware, there is currently a bit of a wait, due to a shortage in original valve bodies for them to modify.
stephen - yeah, i'm happy with the work. although, i dont really think that there's a lot of "work" involved in fitting them, just an hour or two and some specialist tools. still havent gone and looked at what they were called....but if you're wanting to look them up, i originally took it to a place called "WA transmissions" or something, in gosnells, possibly on carol st/ave....they didnt have the tools to do it, so sent it round the corner to this other transmission guy. if you rang them, and enquired about getting your shift kit fitted, they'd remember, was only about 2 months ago i got mine fitted.
i know i've heard good things about x-speed as well.
neil have a look on the lextreme website in the v8 forum under exhausts thread title is "headers are finally ready" i think thats what they would look like. id post a pic but i have no idea how to do it.
Friday, September 16, 2005 - 01:52 pm, by: Peter Nitschke(Pen)
Steve Williams bought a set of headers s/h from WA, they are very short compared to the ones Neil is selling. Might be very worth checking out and getting pics if possible.
Friday, September 16, 2005 - 02:03 pm, by: Andrew Ferres(Peewee)
You can't just state that one set of headers are better than another (unless its obvious one is crap).
Two of the things that it depends on are length and diameter. Changing these will change the power/torque delivery.
Some designs are suited to not reducing low down torque too much, while providing some more up top power. Other designs reduce low torque a lot more, but provide great gains up top.
There won't be many much better than Neils, especially for the price.
The only bad thing about Neils is that the passenger side configuration is wrong, but I doubt this would make much of a difference under 400hp.
Friday, September 16, 2005 - 02:38 pm, by: Andreas Niaouris(Andreasn)
G'day Stephen, I've got those headers fitted. Never dyno'd before/after, but will hopefully dyno in october. Had a bit of noticeable gain. Best thing is if you want to have a drive and see for yourself. My exhaust is, coated headers (they're short, made of welded pipe sections, not tuned length)into a single st.steel 3" pipe to a large body cat (same as the 5.7 holden)then 3"into 2x2" pipes cut out middle mufflers, remaining is stock pipe and mufflers. Sounds good. I had my choice again i would go Neil's way.
Friday, September 16, 2005 - 03:37 pm, by: Phil Gibson(Sciflyer)
I cant comment directly on Precise as i've not had any work done there however my old man (ex-mechanic) has visited them heaps of times, says the guy there is friendly and knows his Soarers (theres always a few in there)
Neil Griffiths Trader NSW 1 x JZZ30,2 x UZZ31,1 x UZZ32,1 x UZZ Track Car,1 x AeroCabin,1 x Crown V8,1 x Celsior
Friday, September 16, 2005 - 08:59 pm, by: Stephen Hille(9zero)
I wouldn't mind having a look Andreas, maybe you could get some pics or post some old ones so Neil can get a good look at them? I will send you a message before I get back to Perth next to catch up so I can have a look
Saturday, September 17, 2005 - 11:44 am, by: Robin Giles(Rob)
Stephen you might find the some of the difference in the products that Precise use they are a big fan of Redline products and I've had no problems. I've been getting my car done there since I've had it (July 04), they might be a bit pricey but I believe they have a good knowledge of the the cars and to some degree thats what I'm paying for. I see it as swings and merry-go-rounds lose a bit here gain a bit there but over all break even. Sure you can chase savings all over town but at the end of the day a good long term relationship will probably pay dividends. As to the headers did you ask if he thought the ones he did were better? Its understandable that he would say that if he believes in his product. Maybe they are just different. Its up to the customer to decide which one suits them. They did some very good warranty work for me too. I wouldn't write them off.
Saturday, September 17, 2005 - 08:19 pm, by: Stephen Hille(9zero)
Thanks Robin, sorry if it appeared that I am slagging them off thats not what I am doing, as I said I really dont have a very good mechanical knowledge but I have read the tutorial on how to change the valve body and I cant see how they can justify 185 bucks for what I assume to be a filter and oil change and probably at most an hour labor. Before I bought my car the guy that owned it had a service done at Precise and they wrote up a list of things that were wrong with the car, I took it to my mechanic that myself, friends and family have used for years and he showed me some of the things they had written down and then showed me the parts they were talking about and things didnt quite match up.
I didn't ask if the one's he did were better, he told me he believed they were, he was being very convincing which I don't blame him for. I am not trying to save money and buy a lesser product, I will pay whatever is neccesary for decent parts however I don't want to be boned for the installation costs. It would be interesting to see what the difference between the 2 headers are
Sunday, September 18, 2005 - 08:11 pm, by: Robin Giles(Rob)
Stephen, posts sometime don't read like they are supposed to sound but that's OK. It's up to you how you feel about who you use and if you think its to much then chances are you will resent it so go with your gut.
I'll be interested to see the different set ups on the Dyno day (I'm hoping to be there) and have a chat.
Monday, September 19, 2005 - 02:29 pm, by: Andreas Niaouris(Andreasn)
No worries Stephen, The soarer is at the panel beaters for the whole week after that I'll have it serviced and when it's up on the hoist I'll take some photo's and post'em up on the forum.