having followed the roller rocker thread from the beginning it seems that some
on the list think that building your engine yourself is less
expensive?................I do not think it is cheaper to build my own motors,
If you enjoy doing it yourself (as I can well understand) and you make less
then 1/2 per hour than your engine shop charges then you might save some
money, I work in construction, it actually costs me about the same to have
Huffaker Racing build my engine as might cost me to do it myself if I just go
to work at my job(if I could do it as effiently as they can, which I cant! )
can I do as good a job? no way in hell, I tell them all they need to know
about plumbing and let them tell me about engines, how can I even try to do a
job as well as someone who has been doing it for upteen years and does it
every day? Can I dyno break-in and then tune the engine? I am a expert in the
field of Hydronic heating and plumbing, I am respected for my designs, neat
work, and jobsite efficiency because it shows the experience gained from
many years in the trade. If you screw up in one little area of building an
engine and the engine 'eats it' how much $ do you save? Many times the most
expensive is cheapest in the long run. (I would probably rebuild a bad engine
only to have it die again because I missed the real cause in the first place)
I count on my builder to tell me what I need, I dont spec the parts in my
engines, I trust them to know light years more than I what works best together
and what is a bad idea, I have read and studied all I can to know about
engines and my 'A' series in perticular, but reading does not replace
expertise..........as a professional I respect other professionals.
Having said all this many of us build/work on our cars because we like to, I
built a bugeye from the ground up(except eng/tran) and built my 68 spridget
from the ground up, I did it because I enjoy it, I liked fitting all the
sheet metal pieces into the body holes, fabricating and fitting the alloy
tonneau, I liked helping to design/fabricate the roll structure, building
the suspension, cutting and welding to fit the fuel cell and many many many
other items and mod's....did I save any money, I think not, many things got
put on/done 2 ,3, & 4 times before I was content with the fit, finish and
function, I enjoy having built my cars....BUT I KNOW I DID NOT SAVE ANY
MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Chuck
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