Twisted

I've come to a bit of a crossroads. I stopped by a local engine builder today, to price a complete engine rebuild, including some hot heads and a couple other hop-up parts. I was dreaming when I told the lady running the shop that I had $3-$4K to spend. She politely informed me that that kind of money would get me a head/cam install, but that a complete rebuild would cost around NINE GRAND!! Sweet Jesus's sandals! At that point I realized that I simply didn't make enough money to build my own fast car. To build my own beast, and pay the bills, I would have to become a brain surgeon. Whatever. So I came home and priced some already modified cars for sale in my area. It seems that 5 or 6 grand will get me a pretty nice car. At any rate, my hat goes off to all who can afford to build hot cars. For now, I'm thinking of selling my GT, and buying a faster one. Alright...I'm calling on a white notch tomorrow. I'll let you know what develops.

91hatchgt

Why do you need a rebuild? How many miles on the engine?? It's better to build youself than to buy an already built one, believe me, you dont know what kind of hell the car has been through, plus it's no fun. If you can sell your car for a good price $4k and buy a GT or notch fo rsomething like 2500, (There are som good deals out there, just look around) then right there you have 1500 bux to put into the car. Good luck on your search, I hope you get what you want.

tokinGLX

its that much mostly because any shop will rape you on labor. if you got that much to spend and really want changes, buy a whole new block. 4000 can get you a decent crate engine.

Twisted

Thanks for the reply, 91. What got me started on thinking of rebuilding the motor or selling the car is that, although the car runs better than any stock GT I've driven, it uses a some oil. I have this weird thing about oil usage. I'm in the process of calculating exactly what it is using, but it may be close to a quart/1k miles, although probably a bit less. Given, I'm sure it is related to the way I drive the car. It's just hard to think about modifying a motor that is using oil.

Twisted

I was thinking of doing just that, until the same shop quoted me $1500 to do just an engine swap. Too rich for my blood, man.

91hatchgt

My buddies 89 uses oil and he runs mid 13's at over 100mph.. He's throwing some nitrous on it too! I know what you mean though. It's hard to tell whena n engine is going to go though. My stock engine had 120k on it, didnt burn a drop of oil, and a bearing went when I was at idle! His motor has 190k on it, burns oil, and runs like a raped ape. Weird weird weird.. New engine's arent that much, just a short block, can get one for 1700 bux.

JD1969

Find another shop. Or have a shop do the machine work and you do the assembly. Hell for $9000 it better be a 500+ hp engine.

wildcobrar

I agree, for 9 "G" notes it better make at least 500 horse power. You can research a quality short block and get one for 1700 bucks and throw on a great set of heads and go play bigtime for 4 "G".

randy78045

I posted this elsewhere but in this months MMFF there is a pretty good summary of crate engines available, who makes them, hp, etc... If you decide on a crate engine its definately worth a look...

gspfunk

I'm with them as far as finding another shop...that's a raw deal!! Look at it like this....you can get a DSS short block 331 bullet for ~1800 if I remember correctly, add the TFS top end kit that comes w/ the stage 1 cam, TW's, and street heat intake for ~2000 and you're still under $4K. And, you'd basically be doing it yourself minus the DSS shortblock.