Thank you very much for the info. Yeh I'm expecting something like that soon, but I have plans to buy a new car in the fall of this year so hopefully it will hold off until then. I'm at 152K right now. I'd probably put another 8K on it by the time I'm ready to buy.

I had a bunch of other stuff done at the same time, so it was part of a bigger bill. It was about $1100-1200 in parts for the valve job, and a lot of labor- not sure if they broke out the labor cost from the other stuff. I'll have a look at the invoice when I have a chance and see if there's a number for just that part of the labor.

(The high labor costs sucked, but, as I'm sure you know, the engine is a cast-iron bastard to work on. Especially with a job like this that basically requires dismantling the entire engine compartment.)

The work was done by the dealer, so it was definitely costing more than an indie shop, but a) it was already at the dealer, b) I was in Detroit at the time, and c) I don't have any local shops that I particularly trust at the moment.

I don't think you need to assume that a big job like that is in your immediate future, unless you've experienced misfires or you feel like the engine is losing power.

Wondering how much it cost for your WRX full valve/head job?