But it does have dual exhaust as a mod, which would make most think it can handle a small 4bbl carb. Which it can as many of us have done so on otherwise stock engines.
I'm not so sure the pricing is out of line for a shop in today's world. Yes, it's way high, as the others have already said. But a shop's costs add up quick by the book.
The shop is doing all the work too, so that labor is not just for a half-hour rebuild. It's for removing all the junk from the truck, then soaking it (hopefully) in a tank for a couple of hours(?) to fully clean every passage and orifice and whatnot.
And swapping to a 4bbl is not just a $400 carb (or $500 at the shop most likely), but also a $300 to $500 intake manifold, and it's installation time.
That $1600 estimate added up pretty quickly if their shop labor rate is anything like it is around here. Long gone are the days of $75 an hour shop rates. You'd be lucky to find one at less than $150 per-hour anymore.
I would imagine most shops are using book time anyway. Which is going to be longer than the more experienced at this would take.
But add to that the fact that most shops don't like working on low-paying older vehicles and you have a real quandry sometimes. Whether to do it yourself if you can, or just suck it up and pay what we were actually able to buy whole Broncos for just a few years ago!
Where are you located zeppelin? That'll make a big difference in how you were quoted.
But along those lines, as I said some shops will quite high simply because they don't want to work on old vehicles anymore. If they even know how.
Your guys sound like they at least know how, but only you can determine that.
My sister was just quoted $3000 today from the dealer she's used for 25 years to do the brakes on her '93 Buick Roadmaster. The brakes!
That's calipers, rotors, pads, hoses (probably bearings too maybe?) and rear drums with shoes and likely wheel cylinders. No ball joints, not shocks, not control arms, no bushings while they're in there. Just a brake job with maybe some hard line work if needed. But it's spent it's entire life in the Southern Ca desert, so not likely to need any rust-fixes on the brake lines. For $3000 bucks!!!
Not much less than the car cost new, and probably three times what it's worth today.
It's my opinion they don't want to work on her car, and have not for a long time.
Good luck on yours. And definitely get that exhaust out the sides.
I prefer a nice quiet single exhaust (with a deep throaty purr, but not loud) exiting out the passenger side at an angle.
But in addition to that, you still need to seal up things like the tailgate and liftgate, as well as the stake pocket holes and any other hole or seam that lets dirty air back into the cabin.
Have fun.
Paul
