Head Work Bay Area

[BarbaratheIrish2002]

Afternoon folks, 

 

Just picked up a tired old 2002 from a Sacramento field. It's going to need a lot of work, but not as much as you'd imagine with something that's been off the road since 1995!

 

Anyway, getting through the mechanical issues one by one. Finally got her to crank. Ran compression test on each of the cylinders, turns out the head gasket is blown.

 

Can anyone recommend a good machine shop in the area (within 30/40 mile radius of SF) to plane the head, perform the various necessary leak down tests and anything else the head will need for the head gasket job? I'm not looking for a mechanic, I'm doing the work myself to remove the head and put it back together, but will need to find a machine shop in the area to do the machine work I've mentioned. 

 

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Even better, if someone has done this work in the area recently, a pricing guide would be amazing!!

 

Much obliged.

[layers]

Hello Barbara--

I do not have first-hand experience with local machine shops (I would generally listen to people like Tom Jones and Sean Casey for good shops), but I recall one of our group recommended Terry Tinney a number of years back.  Terry is in Livermore and his website is [TerryyTinney Performance Motors].  He may be closer to you than some shops.

Good luck!

Larry

[eviction_party]

I’ve had head work done at Clark’s Auto Machine Shop in Cupertino — I think it was around $200. I brought them the head fully assembled and got it cleaned, pressure checked, inspected for cracks, and skimmed flat (make sure you include the upper timing cover). 

[BarbaratheIrish2002]

Thanks @eviction_party and @layers!

[tjones02]

Sorry for the delayed reply, I was down in Monterey for two weeks crewing for a couple of customer’s Porsches.

 

For machine work in the East Bay I like to recommend Shawn at Star Machine in Emeryville.

[BarbaratheIrish2002]

Hey @tjones02 ...that's a pretty cool excuse to go MIA for!!

 

I called both shops @layers and @eviction_party suggested...I'm going with Clark's in Cupertino. He seems like a nice guy on the phone, and was generous with his time. But thank you for your suggestion.

 

On 8/28/2022 at 3:20 PM, tjones02 said:

I was down in Monterey for two weeks crewing for a couple of customer’s Porsches.

 If it's Porsches at Monterey Car Week, they're likely to be pretty special Porsches...