Stranded in St Louis - cylinder head needs replacement
During my 1400 mile return from vacation, my 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee's water pump bearings failed. I sourced the aid of an independent repair shop based on the advice of the Good Samaritan cab driver that rescued me. The repair tech replaced the water pump, and thermostat. Problems were encountered with a air lock during the replacements. After a test drive, the temp pushed into the read zone and the cylinders sounded like they were mis firing. The number 5 cylinder was misfiring. At this point I decided to take it to a local jeep dealership as it appeared my problems were outside the scope of the local mechanic. Now I'm faced with a $3600 repair bill (parts and labor) to replace the left bank of the cylinder head. Apparently, the Valve seat has dropped in one of the cylinders. Are there any reputable sources for a rebuilt cylinder head in the St. Louis area? Is this a reasonable cost to repair? 11 hrs labor at $126/hr and $2,081 in parts.

 

The labor time sounds about right unless its the 5.7 then it should be cheaper. $126 per hour sounds high but might be the going rate for dealers ( I hope not) and the parts price sounds high but probably not for a dealer too.

Dealers can and will install aftermarket parts but they would not honor a warranty. Dealer parts should give you a warranty at any Jeep dealer if you ever needed it.

You might have to call around or check on the internet for reman cylinder head places. Most of the time a reman cyl head shop can beat dealers or local machine shops and the couple days to ship the cyl head would probably be sooner than the dealer or local machine shop.

 

Sadly that's about the going rate for labor in a regular shop around here-give or take $10. As far as the heads...I just did heads for my son and I got the heads from a place in Texas that only does heads...shipped to my door for both heads with a return shipping label the cost was $320. The head gasket kit was $190 and the new cylinder head bolts were $35. So my total cost for all the parts was about $550 plus a new filter and oil and a thermostat and antifreeze. I gave him an "A" job or about $600 total and 15 hours of my time. When I asked the local mechanic I used at the service station how much he said about $1800-$2200