That engine looks better than it did in Solihull. As you are in warm weather area, assume you will go back with the 180F thermostat? How much were the liners, if the machine shop work was $510? Did you also have machine shop do heads at same time, if so price for that? New valve guides or just valve seals?

 

Yea, got the stock thermostat from Miami British and later bought the 180F thermostat off Amazon. Will use stock one as spare.

Liners were $627 with 2 day DHL international shipping.

I originally took the block to a machine shop closer to my home and they polished the crank, honed the stock cylinder sleeves, resurfaced heads, installed new valve seals, and line-honed the main bearings. They weren't confident enough to work on an aluminum engine, so I took it to another machine shop 1 hr away that works a lot on Hondas and resleeving the aluminum blocks. I let them install the sleeves to save on gas and my time for something so simple. I had them use my propane torch to heat the cylinders and the heads and old head bolts to bolt on while the liners were cooling to prevent them from being squeezed out of the contracting cylinder bore.

Pricing:
Machine Shop 1:
$68.50 - hone stock cylinder sleeves
$65.00 - polish crankshaft
$40.00 - install cam bearings (took 3 guys and I arrived late due to receiving the bearings late in the day from UPS and then they stayed 40 minutes past closing to install them). When I removed the stock sleeves I melted the cam bearings and ended up buying a Lisle Cam Bearing Installation Tool and installed the replacement FINISHED cam bearings myself (Durabond Part #B-11 for Buick 215 - $32 on Amazon.com vs $90+ from DAP, Inc.)
$98.50 - clean, change valve seals, and resurface heads
$175.00 - factory spec valve job

Machine Shop 2:
$510 - Machine lip for top-hat liner flange, bore cylinders for top-hat sleeve installation, install sleeves, hone cylinders to pistons, deck block.

Total for Top-Hat Install:
$1,137 and 1 week turn-around vs $1,500 + $100-200 2-way freight shipping to California and back.

 

So.. for what many owners would pay for an indy head gasket job operating as your own mechanic, procurement specialist, and sub contracting the machine shop work you get a top hat engine. Cool.

 

The rewards speak for itself. Very nice post.