Short block or rebuild kit?
 

I am still trying to decide what to do bout my bottom end. I am very interested in the Brenspeed 302 and there are some other places i have seen online with some nice short blocks.

Question is, whats the downside to buying a forged bottom end kit and replacing the stock parts with the forged ones? Some of the kits i have seen (granted I don't know a lot about companies in terms of who is better with what product) but it seem you can get a good forged kit for around $2,000.

Any thoughts?

With prices these days, the only reason to buy the forged kit is if you can do the installation of the crank/rods/pistons yourself. Even though I can do that stuff, I still opted to go with Brenspeed's short block just for peace of mind that it was done in a cleaner environment, with better tools.

If you're looking at having someone do the work, the price of installing a forged assembly into your block will rival that of just buying a short block in the first place.

If you do go with Brenspeed's 302, keep in mind that you need a windage tray that has been modified for the additional stroke. They sell them, but sometimes neglect to mention that you need it :). I found out the annoying way, with some loud tapping on startup as a rod bolt was barely touching the old tray. I had to jack the engine up 2 inches, and drop the subframe 3 inches to get the oil pan off. There was no damage, and the new tray made it all quiet, but I would have rather spent those few hours driving :).

I guess my concern was that i thought people were going to say the stock block was not as strong.

I work for a large automotive group which has a Ford dealership. Still waiting on a call back to see how much they would charge me to install the Brenspeed 302. But my cost is around $20 an hour for labor since i just pay tech time. So if i was to have them install a kit, is there any downside to using the stock block?

No,

Most aftermarket short blocks actually use the same aluminum block that Ford does. The block itself has never been the weak point. The rods and then pistons are generally the culprits.

Why are you building a new engine? Did the first one go boom?

If so, you'll want to have the heads checked out, and probably replace the cam phasers and cam followers.

I am building one because i want to the put either a turbo kit or whipple/kenny bell supercharge on the car. Looking to get around 500-550 HP. Nothing is wrong with the current engine. I just know it wont last long if i throw 550 HP at it.

Gotcha. We'll you'll def save about a grand being able to use heads and timing components that you know are good. However, I was able to do 90% of the labor myself which saved money elsewhere. $20 an hour isn't bad if you're sure they know their stuff :).

The guy called me back and said it was normally $2,600 for the swap but my cost was $500. They do a lot of mustang performance work there. I could do it but never have. I think the employee rate is worth it. So don't bother with a kit ya think? The good thing about the brenspeed is that its already measured and torqued correctly. I am sure brenspeed uses quality parts but i dont know enough about company names to know say if kellogg is a good crankshaft.

The kit that came in my bottom end was the same kit that was used for the Saleen 302 Extremes.

My pistons were even stamped Saleen on the underside.

Check the first link in my sig. It details my engine build and includes pictures of the B302 both in short block form, and installed.

So the kit that came from brenspeed had the spleen parts or did I miss read that.

The short block I received from them was built with left-over Saleen 302 extreme internals. I believe that when the Saleen company was sold, Brenspeed may have bought a bunch of their leftover Saleen Extreme rotating assemblies.

They're good parts. Ones that came stock in the near $100k stang I believe.