spinlock

I ran into in add in craigslist for a shop in Petaluma, CA called jeepspeeshop that offers a turnkey (parts, labor, smog) new 5.7L Hemi for $17.5.

Has anybody heard of these guys? Fly-by-night of legit?

willypapooh

seen the same add as well, not sure if it is or not. if your close by givem a visit. i found a guy that says he could do a 6.1 hemi in TJ for 12 grand. i said not thanks, no way my jeep is going to mexico!

Thejmack

for $17.50 i'd go for it...

Screamin Lizard Customs

Man that sounds way not the way to go. We do them and the money involved in parst adds up and then the job needs to be done right. We are Mopar and Nissan techs as well as off road techs. I would say no way Jose.

Gerry

Spytec128

A small shop has to get started somehow. You can get a kit from AEV for $5000 and a brand new 5.7 engine and 545RFE transmission for around $7000. That would put the labor cost around $5000. I would ask alot of more questions with it being an unknown shop. However, the cost seems right. These other well known guys are just making a killing on profits or they have large overhead cost.

07armygreen

Have to agree with that. I still think it is INSANE what is charged to drop an engine and transmission in a JEEP. I'm not hating on these shops for doing it.....if people will pay that, by all means charge it. But, I can buy a SICK jeep or whole other car for the cost of dropping a HEMI in. If Chrysler would just offer it from the factory they could make a killing themselves.

Littlejon

Since they are an authorized AEV distributor I would say that they seem pretty legitimate. They are getting $3,500 in labor, conversion kit is $5,500 which leaves about $8,500 for the engine and tranny which on Mopar Parts America when I priced each component needed a while back and came to $8,683.97.

Spytec128

I did the same thing and got $3059.44 for the Mopar Transmission Kit, $159.79 for the Mopar Exhaust Kit, and $3931.97 for the Mopar Unique Kit-5.7. I did not price the Manual to Auto Conversion Kit because I have an Auto. I used the Bill of Materials from the AEV install sheet.

Plus the more you buy the cheaper they get. So you know those big stores got them even cheaper.

sdhexpert

What you are forgetting is most of these shops get 20-30% off the parts from the dealer .... Hell even my local Jeep club get 20% off retail, my local low volume installer gets 30% .... then add on the wholesale AEV discount ... 20-30% maybe (really guessing here, hell may be more) and now their parts cost is considerably less.

I agree that you need to pay these businesses for their knowledge, experience, labor costs, after the sale support and reasonable profit, but to the uneducated, it does seem there is some large $$'s being made here. I think AEV has made it so easy now you are going to see more companies getting into it. I heard about a shop the other day in PA that does it for 3k flatrate. I will be checking into that lead soon.

N30EX

I did the AEV conversion in my garage, body on the Jeep, and with no prior JK or Hemi knowledge (although I am a descent wrench). I did the conversion in about 35 hours without any help at all. Adding about 8 hours to the build was a lot of rework of my long arm lift to allow the AEV exhaust to fit. If not for this, I would have been able to come in under 30 hours as a first-timer.

What I learned could probably save about 5 hours if I were to do it again. The total build time would be about 25 hours. This does not include the time to prep the engine, run to the auto parts store, etc. Adding all that back in, you're probably coming in just over 30 hours. Many specalty shops charge $95 an hour--that's about $3,000 for that amount of time.... Much over 3K to 5K in labor is probably excessive, but then again, a reputable builder with a warranty is worth something.

Me? I bought a used engine and trans on eBay that had 17K. Doing it myself was under $9K including the AEV kit, the Hemi and trans, and parts. I tore the Jeep down and had it back on the road in eight days.

-Randy