Fair labor to R&R S2 Wedge head for gasket?

[Richard48Y]

Guy I know has an S2 he bought from an ad on this forum.
Turns out to need a bit more work than anticipated.
I got it to run for him but it has a head gasket leak.
He cannot find anyone willing to work on it so it may be brought to me.
I'm not as fast as I used to be so thinking I need to set a price on the job rather than an hourly rate.
So what would be fair to both of us?
I know there will be a bit of mission creep, there always is if the job is being done right.
I am one of those guys who cannot put a part back unless I clean it up first.
As long as it is that far apart is there anything else that would be foolish not to do at the same time?
And what is the trick for not losing the cam followers when the head comes off!

[jbcollier]

If it were current, 3 to 4 hours for a head gasket change would be about right.

The big issue is the liner seals.  On anything this old, I would insist on doing them as a matter of course.  That's a LOT more work, as everything has to be meticulously clean, dry fitted, and tested before final assembly.  It's an oil pan off job to make sure you get all the debris out as well.  So you could reasonably double the time to 6 to 8 hours.

[Richard48Y]

Mice ate my shop manual over the winter.
Need to locate another, "On-Line" is not convenient for in the shop.
But aren't liner seals at the bottom of the cylinder, so looking at fresh rings too?
Funny how much a Renault engine resembles an Alfa Romeo despite being push-rod.

[jbcollier]

Yes, liner seals are at the bottom of the liners.  The seals come in sets of different thicknesses so you can adjust each liner's height to get the required protrusion.  Ring gaps should be checked and rings changed if the gaps are getting to close to the were limit.

As you stated earlier, you can see how this can easily snowball.

[Richard48Y]

Owner will want to turn this around fairly quickly.
Current US source of the necessary parts?
Safe to assume Std. bore or have to get it apart before ordering rings?
Do-able without taking the engine out, or just making it harder?
It cannot turn into another full restoration.

[jbcollier]

More than doable without pulling the engine.  Drop the pan, off with its head and you can easily do all the work.  You could even just do the head gasket as per manual and pray that the liner seals are ok.

How bad mission creep gets is strictly up to you and your power to ignore current and future issues.  Engine work on cars a few years old is completely different from when the cars are 60 years old.

[dakazman]

Mice ate my shop manual over the winter.
Need to locate another, "On-Line" is not convenient for in the shop.
But aren't liner seals at the bottom of the cylinder, so looking at fresh rings too?
Funny how much a Renault engine resembles an Alfa Romeo despite being push-rod.

   Here ya go Rich,             JUST HIT PRINT.

  http://www.lotuseuropa.org/

dakazman