Engine Troubleshooting Charge

[jrobert890]

Hi Folks, My yard removed 4 injectors from my diesel and ran a compression check. 5.5 hours labor and $735. Just interested in your thoughts?

[CascadeThumper]

About right for a "full retail" establishment here in the PNW. Say $95-120/hr unless you have connections. Yards have big overhead and that can be discussed ad nauseam but the $ting remains.

[Sailmonkey]

That bill seems correct for a time and materials job. They’ve got to make a living, pay taxes and insurance as well as be profitable.

[bcboomer]

I guess it depends on the engine design and access but it seems like way too much time for a compression test.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by bcboomer

I guess it depends on the engine design and access but it seems like way too much time for a compression test.

I agree, is the boat in their yard? Some engines are a bit hard to get the injectors out with the fuel line arrangement etc. Travel time? Did they have to fabricate a fitting to put in place of the injector for compression test? I had it done in florida about 7 years ago, they made a fitting and tested 4 cyls... ~ $300. Your charges are not surprising though. They split the fitting cost with me if they could keep the fitting.

[hellosailor]

I can't see how the job took so long, but not knowing the boat, can only wonder about that. The total price could be very rational for 5.5 hours, shop rates of over $100/hour aren't uncommon. $125 even for car mechanics is "urban east coast" ballpark.

Compression check? OK, maybe that takes an hour, moving the hose from one cylinder to the next. Half an hour for cleanup, that still leaves one hour spent on removing and reinstalling each injector?! (And I wouldn't think it was reasonable to reinstall them unless the compression WAS in fact good. I might want to send the injectors out for cleaning and overhaul anyway, while they were being pulled.)

Dunno. This is why some venues require a written estimate and not more than a 10% increase over that unless agreed to in writing, in advance.

Might ask the shop, nicely, whether that's just "book rate" based on some mysterious book, or whether it really took a well-paid mechanic OVER ONE HOUR FOR EACH INJECTOR?

[kenbo]

Originally Posted by jrobert890

Hi Folks, My yard removed 4 injectors from my diesel and ran a compression check. 5.5 hours labor and $735. Just interested in your thoughts?

That sounds like a Lockwood's bill!

[jrobert890]

Hi,

Thank you everyone for the feedback. Here are a few of the questions answered:
[*]the boat is in their yard[*]the injectors are readily accessible[*]no special adapter was needed for the compression test[*]injectors were not reinstalled

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by jrobert890

Hi,

Thank you everyone for the feedback. Here are a few of the questions answered:
[*]the boat is in their yard[*]the injectors are readily accessible[*]no special adapter was needed for the compression test[*]injectors were not reinstalled

Ok, for that I'd say the bill is a little steep. Unless the engine has been a little neglected and the injectors were a pain to extract.
But if they removed the injectors and then took them to a shop, the travel time will be in there too.

[jrobert890]

Injectors are still on the boat.

[Aswayze]

That price certainly does not surprise me.

That's why I am rue to employ "marine professionals" for anything. If it is important enough to do, it is important enough to do myself. You have not even gotten to the part where you pay a bill like that then they screw a bunch of stuff up and you end up with more work to do than when you started.

Hard fact is, if someone has the skills to do that kind of work well, you have to pay that person well or they will take those same skills and go make money elsewhere. The only thing that looks like a shortcut is paying tweakers to do the job and there is NO ECONOMY in doing that at all, ever, no matter what. Good work costs good money, there is no getting around that.

If you want to avoid this sort of thing in the future, learn to pull injectors and do a compression test. Leave the yard guys to work on the 1%er yachts, there is plenty of work for them there anyhow.

[Lepke]

You could have bought a adapter and compression set for much less and done it yourself. With your own compression checker, you can monitor engine changes over time w/o cost. Next time the cost would be zero.
When I had a yard, and the injectors and engine was easy to access, and could do the test at our convenience (not pulling someone off another job) it never ran over 2 hours if the boat was in our yard or at our dock. If it was a common engine and we didn't have the adapter, we would absorb the adapter cost as a business expense. If the engine was elsewhere, we did charge travel time and expense.