Question to the braintrust for motor building Options

[Mikey914]

Looking to make a larger motor (4) planning on a 2665, as I don;t really want to go over 103mm to make cooling easier.

The 80 crank is available for stock rods not the Chevy rods. It is my understanding that the Chevy option offers a significant upgrade to the strength. I'm tempted to do the stock.

My question is : should I wait an indeterminate time for the crank with the Chevy rod option? What am I really loosing here? or is this just a must for the larger motors?

My 1st engine build.

[Mikey914]

Thanks all,
This was the kind of feedback O was looking for. Definitely a few things to think on. We were looking at makung the biral cylinders here and had an idea for a twist on them that could improve cooling. I get that voids would be an issue. My idea was to utilize a process that we could replicate, and if the results were consistent, we would only have to to QC on a few in each batch.

The 78mm crank is a good point.

I think we can develop a pretty solid motor. The testing will be the most fun.

Mark

[Mark Henry]

Thanks all,
This was the kind of feedback O was looking for. Definitely a few things to think on. We were looking at makung the biral cylinders here and had an idea for a twist on them that could improve cooling. I get that voids would be an issue. My idea was to utilize a process that we could replicate, and if the results were consistent, we would only have to to QC on a few in each batch.

The 78mm crank is a good point.

I think we can develop a pretty solid motor. The testing will be the most fun.

Mark

My advice...don't. There's already too many players in that market.

Stick with your niche, if you need to expand cover the rubber/plastic (etc) parts for 356 and 911, venture into other cars, etc.

[NARP74]

Thanks all,
This was the kind of feedback O was looking for. Definitely a few things to think on. We were looking at making the biral cylinders here and had an idea for a twist on them that could improve cooling. I get that voids would be an issue. My idea was to utilize a process that we could replicate, and if the results were consistent, we would only have to to QC on a few in each batch.

The 78mm crank is a good point.

I think we can develop a pretty solid motor. The testing will be the most fun.

Mark

My advice...don't. There's already too many players in that market.

Stick with your niche, if you need to expand cover the rubber/plastic (etc) parts for 356 and 911, venture into other cars, etc.

New to the game here; so who are all of these players? I was just looking for them a while ago, needing a new or rebuilt engine. I found Raby, too expensive for me. I found some builders that went out of business. I found some builders scattered around the country but not convenient for shipping and expensive. I found a race shop several hours west of me, very expensive. I found one local builder that does a lot of VW stuff, he is booked out 6 to 9 months. And that has been the end of my work.

I am sure I have missed some. But from my perspective I would say go for it!

[barnfind9141972]

Thanks all,
This was the kind of feedback O was looking for. Definitely a few things to think on. We were looking at making the biral cylinders here and had an idea for a twist on them that could improve cooling. I get that voids would be an issue. My idea was to utilize a process that we could replicate, and if the results were consistent, we would only have to to QC on a few in each batch.

The 78mm crank is a good point.

I think we can develop a pretty solid motor. The testing will be the most fun.

Mark

My advice...don't. There's already too many players in that market.

Stick with your niche, if you need to expand cover the rubber/plastic (etc) parts for 356 and 911, venture into other cars, etc.

New to the game here; so who are all of these players? I was just looking for them a while ago, needing a new or rebuilt engine. I found Raby, too expensive for me. I found some builders that went out of business. I found some builders scattered around the country but not convenient for shipping and expensive. I found a race shop several hours west of me, very expensive. I found one local builder that does a lot of VW stuff, he is booked out 6 to 9 months. And that has been the end of my work.

I am sure I have missed some. But from my perspective I would say go for it!

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) Everyone claims there’s tons of people who can take these jobs on until you look for them and everyone is too busy, too expensive, or ready to retire. The cars aren’t going away but the people who help keep them on the road on the business side seem to be

[mepstein]

Thanks all,
This was the kind of feedback O was looking for. Definitely a few things to think on. We were looking at making the biral cylinders here and had an idea for a twist on them that could improve cooling. I get that voids would be an issue. My idea was to utilize a process that we could replicate, and if the results were consistent, we would only have to to QC on a few in each batch.

The 78mm crank is a good point.

I think we can develop a pretty solid motor. The testing will be the most fun.

Mark

My advice...don't. There's already too many players in that market.

Stick with your niche, if you need to expand cover the rubber/plastic (etc) parts for 356 and 911, venture into other cars, etc.

New to the game here; so who are all of these players? I was just looking for them a while ago, needing a new or rebuilt engine. I found Raby, too expensive for me. I found some builders that went out of business. I found some builders scattered around the country but not convenient for shipping and expensive. I found a race shop several hours west of me, very expensive. I found one local builder that does a lot of VW stuff, he is booked out 6 to 9 months. And that has been the end of my work.

I am sure I have missed some. But from my perspective I would say go for it!

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) Everyone claims there’s tons of people who can take these jobs on until you look for them and everyone is too busy, too expensive, or ready to retire. The cars aren’t going away but the people who help keep them on the road on the business side seem to be

There are probably reasons why the people go away. It's easy to love these cars but hard to make money on them. Money isn't everything, unless you are running a business and then it's pretty important. I bet there was very little profit from the $5K engine program so the builders moved on. Engine building, like all the other restoration projects, takes a lot more time than people realize. Not just the actual building but the initial customer consultations, parts purchase, engine tear down and cleaning, all the steps needed to get to the build, tuning and then the final steps to get the engine to the customer. It's a lot.
Then if the builder makes one mistake or uses a defective part, it can cost them thousands in time and money to make it good.

[Superhawk996]

There are probably reasons why the people go away.

You forgot dealing with crazy customers. You know the kind.

They guy that has you rebuild an engine. Proceeds to miss a shift, over rev's it, and grenades it. Then sues the engine builder.


Yeah -- it happens. Sad state of affairs. But, explains why it is getting so hard to find a reliable engine builder.

My hat goes off the Mark and any of the others out there still making a go of it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/first.gif)

[mepstein]

There are probably reasons why the people go away.

You forgot dealing with crazy customers. You know the kind.

They guy that has you rebuild an engine. Proceeds to miss a shift, over rev's it, and grenades it. Then sues the engine builder.


Yeah -- it happens. Sad state of affairs. But, explains why it is getting so hard to find a reliable engine builder.

My hat goes off the Mark and any of the others out there still making a go of it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/first.gif)

In the 911 world, it’s very common that owners with new engines over rev them, bend valves and then want the engine warrantied. Huge headache for everyone involved.

[Mark Henry]

There are probably reasons why the people go away.

You forgot dealing with crazy customers. You know the kind.

They guy that has you rebuild an engine. Proceeds to miss a shift, over rev's it, and grenades it. Then sues the engine builder.


Yeah -- it happens. Sad state of affairs. But, explains why it is getting so hard to find a reliable engine builder.

My hat goes off the Mark and any of the others out there still making a go of it. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/first.gif)

In the 911 world, it’s very common that owners with new engines over rev them, bend valves and then want the engine warrantied. Huge headache for everyone involved.

Years ago I had a kit 356 customer who wanted a kick ass engine, I built him a 2.7 nickies engine at least 180hp. I had it perfect sorted, quite the blast in a 1600-1700lbs car.

First he wasn't happy with the power, he implied he was expecting LS3 level power, even though I clearly told him a T4 will never have the power of a modern engine. I had also offered different engines like a subi, etc before the build.

Then even though he was told not to rev beyond 6500rpm he reved it so high he drove one valve guide into the port, fuched the head. He argued up and down that he did nothing wrong and then that a balanced engine should be able to go to 8K. In the end I wouldn't cover it, but I did repair it and as expected he was not a happy customer.