Wm. Lewallen, I'll have to agree that 4.5 hrs is too much if you are familiar with the car. I don't know what I was thinking, but what I meant was the time it would take me to figure it out for the first time. Once you get the starter removal figured out, I don't know how difficult the frost plug removal is. Can't be that bad. I would definitely try this job myself if the block heater quit working or the car didn't already have one.

On a similar note, a shop once quoted me 2.5 hours to replace the front end upper control arm bushings. It looked like a tough job, never having worked on a front end before. After completing the job myself, I think I could easily do the job in 1.5 hours or less.