How much does it actually cost to build an engine...

How much does it actually cost to build an engine? I read so much shit about people ripping junkyard engines out of pickup trucks for cheap LS power, but isn't there more to it than ripping one out of something and stuffing it into something else? Don't you have to rebuild it any whatnot? Or do people who do this kind of shit just cut corners and don't do shit properly?

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If you're asking it means you don't have have the tools or skills to complete a swap.
Just buy a fast car.

>If you're asking it means you don't have have the tools or skills to complete a swap.
Yeah but i can learn that's why I'm asking. And what special tools do you need besides plastigage and shit?

>explain this

diminishing returns

>How much does it actually cost to build an engine?
Zero to infinity dollars

That's an incredibly broad question. It depends on the engine, the condition it's in, how long you want it to last, how much power you want to make, and so on.

> I read so much shit about people ripping junkyard engines out of pickup trucks for cheap LS power
A junkyard engine might need minimal work to get running, and maybe you have a car it mostly bolts into. Or maybe you need to tear it down, which means a machine shop is involved and the price goes up. And then replacing wear parts, more price. And then power, more price. It depends.

Those LS engines from trucks are iron blocks and heavy as fuck

Got sauce on a $0 engine build?

Even just swapping out an engine and trans from a higher trim car to the body of a lower trim is a bitch. There is all sorts of electrical shit with the ECU and anti-theft stuff, if the trans is different you have different driveshafts and stuff. Good luck if you have lots of accessories hooked up to an engine. Watched a friend put off dropping an M3 engine into his 325i for years.

Dropping an LS3 into a Nissan or something, have fun. It's metalwork and fabrication, electrical engineering type shit, and a whole lot of wrenching and frustration.

I'm just another benchracer and I know it's a bad idea. I'm sure older carbed cars are slightly easier though as long as you are good with metal fab but still a pain in the ass.

>what kind of tools do I need to build an engine
Again, just buy a car. You're so far away from building a car it's pointless to discuss. Learn to maintain a car first, acquire tools, build you're inventory, righty tighty lefty loosey, move outta moms basement, then make plans to build.

>w-well diminishing returns!
..he mutters to himself after losing the race

What I mean is, should I buy a 454 out of bubbas 1 ton truck on craigslist for $300 and have a machine shop bore it out and clean it and shit and then go from there, get roller cam and forged crank/pistons- or should I just buy a brand new long block for $3000 or so and plan on modding it later? I know the first option is most likely more expensive especially when buying hot stuff but I don't want to end up spending $10,000 because I got in over my head.

weight difference between an SBC and a BBC in a 3500lbs car is like 3%minimum-5%maximum. 1 or 2 hundred pounds, not that big of a deal.

It's just a SBC to BBC swap which from what I've read is fairly straight forward. Not trying to do anything crazy but getting the engine right is more important before I start chunking it into stuff.

Thank's Chip Foose, I knew I could count on you. I think I'll just order some boyd coddingtons and call it a day :)

It is if you care about weight balance

My car is like 54% rear heavy anyways, again not that big of a deal and I'm not building a race car.

Depends on what you're willing to sacrifice. Bare bones carburetor with distributor and very little to no working gauges is a lot easier than picking up a new model junkyard engine and wiring up all the electronics.

Had a 1952 Ford truck rat rod with a 460 and c6. Was literally just mounting the electrical system somewhere, hooking up the fuel system and vacuum hoses, a radiator, and a coolant and transmission temperature gauge, getting a driveshaft made and solid mounting everything to the rails.

It depends on the engine and the condition it's in. If it's a lower mileage engine and the compression is good, usually you can get away without rebuilding.

Do you recommend getting an engine and getting it hooked up and such before tearing it apart and modifying it, or building it before sticking it in? I like to line up my ducks, but I'm not a rich 50 year old white man either.

Because your car is the only car in the world

Rebuild kit costs $150-300 and takes a day. If it's already out of the car there is no reason to not rebuild it.

Simmer down buddy. My car isn't the only car in the world, in fact there's been tens of thousands of models of cars produced and I doubt every single one of them wrote "perufekutou weitou baruinsu" at the top of the list.

And what about hot tanking, magnafluxing, decking, honing, sonic testing etc and all those other machine shop words? Is that stuff corner-cuttable and not neccesary unless you're building a race car, or are some of them absolutely necessary?

Waste of time and money if you picked up a junkyard engine for $300. You can always resleeve the block for $400 and build it better next time after you've got your money's worth. You can get a decent eyeball on everything during the teardown . Compression test and whatever you can do for free

summitracing.com/parts/sum-sbckit1-000/overview/

Rebuild kits include pistons? I didn't know that. That's cheap as shit, I thought pistons were gonna be a significant expense.

Thanks, this is very helpful information. I've been on here since the days when %90 of the board was tripfags and I never had the thought that very many people here knew what they were talking about, but I guess things changed as this place got more popular.

I have to go to bed now though, thank you.

Nope sorry. People still don't know what they're talking about. Good luck though

My local machine shop charges about $175-200 to bore and surface a block including hot tank and checking for cracks with magnaflux. Surfacing cylinder heads and regrinding the valves is about $125-175. That's about the only thing I can't do in my own shop. You can get decent SBC master rebuild kits for $300-400. You can replace basically everything but the block for $1,250-1,500 pretty easy. If you can't do things like take out and install cam bearings, rebuild con rods, install main caps, or other bearings then the machine shop costs will go up quickly.

wow your shop is cheap as fuck.

Well it's probably on its way out. There used to be 5-7 local machine shops when I was a teenager in a metro area with not more than 90k people. Now there's really only 1. And they will put you way on the back burner if you're just a once in a while guy and not a regular local racer. It's not a big name shop like these national LSx type shops you see where people ship off engines and get them shipped back.

>get roller cam and forged crank/pistons
>I don't want to end up spending $10,000
I've been doing a lot of research lately because I want to build an SBC or LS and i can tell you that if you want more than 500 horsepower you'll easily spend that much money. i want 600+ so i'll also have to invest in a trans, diff, and other drivetrain parts

BBC is king. 500hp out of a BBC is baby mode. A BBC 427 has a 1/4 less stroke than an LS7 AND more meat between the bores- not to mention the superiority of massive BBC heads. Don't even get me started on turbo BBC. Don't waste your time or money trying to wring out an SBC or LS if you want 600+ horsepower. 600+ horsepower is a junkyard 454 and a chinese turbo at 5 psi.

in my area prices are about 25% higher, and usually you have to wait 2 months at least.
the one near my house has 2 shifts. about 10 people on each.

yeah none of them are fast. never be in a hurry around here.