Motor money

Damn I am into my magneto more than that. Oh well that's what I get for building an early rocket motor.

 

Mine,with no crack repair ,will come in at about 3 grand. That don't include a dizzy, induction, or headers. It will all be worth the dough when that baby comes to life!!

 

Just to correct a little: The 1/4" longer stroke requires different pistons, not different rods. The 49-53 rods are exactly the same between Fords and Mercs. All major aftermarket piston manufacturers produce pistons will different pin locations -- to account for standard 3 3/4 stroke cranks, 4" Merc cranks, 4 1/8" custom stroked cranks, etc..

Another popular trick was to take the 49-53 4" Merc cranks and offset grind the rod throws to 1.998 and use the early 91A or 21A style rods (39-42 221 cube motors). These rods are the same length, but have a smaller diameter rod bearing. With this combination, you'd have a 4 1/8" stroker motor. This is where the "3/8 by 3/8" flathead came from --> bored out to 3 3/8" with a 3/8 additional stroke . . . for 296 cubes. There are aftermarket or custom billet cranks with even larger strokes --> 4 1/4, 4 3/8, etc..

In today's world, you can buy the H-Beam rods with the small journal diameter -- they're much stronger (and heavier) than the early 91A or 21A rods. Also, rod bearings are cheap for the H-Beam rods (Buick bearing), while finding the 39-42 full-floating bearings for the 91A and 21A rods is hard and they run from $150 - 300 a set!

Build that flatty and have some fun!

 

You have it easy . . . try an early 392 Hemi! When I found out what aftermarket rockers were -- I sold my first child.

 

Just finished a Studebaker "R1" Avanti motor. Bored .040 over, shot peened and polished rods, crank turned .010 on the mains, rods were good at standard. Align honed, decked .008, block acid dipped. ARP fasterners throughout. "R" series cam custom ground as big as possible. Rockers rebuilt. Heads ported, "big" R3 stainless valves, etc.

$4300. Should be good for about 275 HP--not bad for 293 cubes!

 

I was lucky, found one in a field that was supposedly rebuilt, propane operated. Been sitting for 20 yrs. Didn't need anything. I put used offenhauser heads, edumund intake, and new water pumps on it. Total cost was @ $1000.

 

Anyone got a breakdown on these costs? Aside from any crack repairs, and no major hop-up work, I'm just not seeing where the costs are. Boring should be no different from a SBC, OK, maybe add an hour for taking it slow and a different setup. Crank grinding, no different. Same for rod re-sizing (talking 8BA here). Valves are clearly more work, but if you go to adjustables, even that becomes similar (maybe easier) than an OHV.

There's no timing chain to replace, cams aren't that much different, there are fewer cam bearings... I have to believe a fair amount of these costs are just the "bone factor" -- as in, "I'm gonna bone you good because I know I can"...

 

I am thinking, it is not all about the cost. It's all about what YOU want to end up with. If you think F. H's are way cool then that is what you should build.
In the late 70's I built a Blown 8BA block F.H. W/GMC 4-71 and a C4 trans. Using all stock parts in a 31 Model Coupe.
On the drag strip it ran low 13's.
On the street it was a blast, I could pull most any thing from stop light to stop light.
If it broke, I just went out and found another F. H. Aaa yes those were the days. Bob

 

Bored and stroked I know what ya mean about the rocker arms mine ran me 1200. When I was getting my block bored I warned the guy to take it slow that my block was alot harder than an early chev but he didn't listen and burned up a bit on his boring set up. I am into my rocket in labor and machine work about 3k. When you add in my parts I am in about 10k.

Eric

 

Yep . . . some wonder how these early engines can cost so much. If you're just running a stocker, they're not too bad . . . but when you start trying to find/buy period or new high-performance parts, the price starts going way up. Just look what any early and somewhat rare manifold costs for a Rocket or Hemi -- seems $500 is a common price for the ones that are not rare. Early Olds or Hemi adjustable rockers - yikes! It is easy to put $10,000 in a early "race style" build of an early OHV V8 -- without it even being supercharged.

Flatheads should not be that much, but there are a few places that really charge a bunch -- though much of the total bill is in all the new parts. When the only thing you keep in an early flathead is the block - it is no wonder you sink a few $$$ into it! In all the flatheads I've built - the block is just about the only thing that came in it . . . . who the hell wants only 100 HP anyway .

Bottom Line: It costs money to add sizeable horsepower to any engine design. We should be categorizing what we spend by the percentage of horsepower over stock. Hmmmm . . . that is an idea I need to explore a bit - might make threads like this more applicable to the real world. I bet if we looked at what it costs to end up with 150-200% the original horsepower, we'd see how the prices end up . . . regardless of the motor design.

 

I think this would be a cool idea too!

 

And when you live on the other side of the Earth in Australia ,prices for new Yank parts are a bear .Least we still have plenty of good blocks , as well as some wierd aftermarket speed goodies . Oh well.