Its always cheaper to things yourself. No matter what the topic is. If you dont do it, then you pay someone else to. Replacing an engine is not something a beginner should do unless you are not intimidated by the unknown and have lots of time available downtime and space to use during that downtime. If you succeed, your confidence level will increase dramatically. If you dont do so well, it may be hard to find someone to step into the middle of it and pick up the pieces.

 

If I installed my own shortblock...how would I get a tune to run it? Could like livernois email me a tune or should I trailer the car somewhere for a dyno tune?

 

it would depend on the SB that u get if it would even need a tune. stock bore no tune. stroker or overbore that would need a tune. i would imagine some of the big tuners would have safe tunes just to get u some where if you couldn't get the car towed or trailered

 

I'd do it myself...but I don't have the tools...or the space to do it...yet lol me and dad are at work on building a garage/work shop

 

the best thing to do is buy a prebuilt livernois/jdm/ect shortblock and just swap it out with your old block.. Pretty easy compared to just replacing the internals of your engine yourself. Saves time and money vs the complex install of replacing all the internals on your own engine.

Just my .02 anyways.

Edit: Dont forget you simply get what you pay for.. dont expect to pay 1600 dollars for a rotating assembly and think your engine is bullet proof.

 

You also need supporting mods though to do it like gaskets...what else do you need and where do you get it?

 

i went with arp head studs/ gaskets/arp flywheel bolts. Dont forget when you switch to a new setup like that, you will need a new clutch/flywheel to match the bolt pattern.

 

I can do that swap in one day by myself with 1 arm. Its really not all the difficult. Just pull the motor leave the trans in and leave the car on the ground, Use a cherry picker.

 

Why couldn't you just bolt up the existing clutch/flywheel?

PS...my apologies to the OP for hijacking this thread...but hope these are questions you have too lol

 

Kellogg 4340 forged 8 bolt crank. Unless you plan on using the stock crank, almost all aftermarket cranks are 8 bolt and since our stock is 6 bolt you will have to change out these things to make it work.

Not to mention if your going toall this trouble your probably going to add FI at some point and the stock clutch will eventually start to slip with that anyways.