All depends on what else you plan on doing besides the basic kit.Originally Posted by BigD2500HD
Rough labor time if everything comes apart and goes back together without a hitch - expect your car to be on the lift, engine on a hoist for ~30 hours labor.
From there, add in time for stuff going awry, can easily be added days of storage while you wait for replacement parts to be forged from the rarest of metals known to man and then shipped from the wooded hills of Deutschland, then added hours of labor to sort whatever's gone wrong.
While you're doing the conversion, what else are you going to find? Seeping seals and gaskets can easily add tens of hours to the labor cost, unless the shop you're going with has an owner who's willing to let you tinker while parts trickle in. Freshen up at the same time with little stuff like Bufkin pipe, R8 coils and adapter, Stern/Apikol motor mounts, poly diff mounts for reducing driveline lash (you'll really want that going to the 01E), etc... it all adds up!
You're in The People's Democratic Republic of California per your profile, so no dice on gutting precats, but you can help get your engine bay temp down by having the headers/collectors/downpipes bead blasted, ceramic coated, and wrapped with Ti exhaust wrap, and a nice blanket on each of the snails will finish off that piece of the job. Speaking of snails, now's a great time to check for excessive shaft play (rebuild imminent if so), and consider going with Wagner IC kit for better temp deltas.
Since you're going to need the proper tune for manual, you'll probably be looking at what you can get away with WRT the SAI, EGR, EVAP, etc... I'm not 100% on how CA does their CARB stuff, but here in VA (DC area) with the emissions inspection every 2 years, eliminating things that should show up in readiness causes automatic failure & and order to fix and re-inspect at cost.
TL;DR version: 30 hours labor minimum if everything goes to plan. Which it probably won't.
HTH
O_E
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