I'm down to my final task on my coupe here, the engine! I am going with a thumper combo and Tmoss intake. My bottom end on my car has high miles. I have a stock lower end that I could use, but I dont really know price wise which is the best route to take, should i rebuild or look at buying a shortblock from somewhere? I want to get the engine done on a stand so when I pull my motor I can swap over my accessories , etc and keep minimum downtime. All I am looking for is to make a nice solid street motor for daily driving. So with keepin the cost down lemme know what you guys think!
Best deal on shortblock.. ideas, comments, On somewhat of a budget
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nito88stang
Founding Member
Go to your local machine shops and ask how much a rebuild costs in your area. I paid 640 for a rebuild with new pistons, rings, timing chain, machine costs, gaskets.......basically everything and all i supplied him was the block, rods and crank. Thats very budget and all i need since this is a mild combo i'm building. Depends on your budget and goals.
Check out www.dssracing.com
Bang for the buck they seem to be the cheapest best solution for a well built short block. You can also have your engine rebuilt too which probably wouldn't cost nearly as much. I am sort of in the same situation right now as you and DSS 331 is looking really bad ass right now. Gotta see what tax returns I get first... may be the deciding factor.
Kevin
Bang for the buck they seem to be the cheapest best solution for a well built short block. You can also have your engine rebuilt too which probably wouldn't cost nearly as much. I am sort of in the same situation right now as you and DSS 331 is looking really bad ass right now. Gotta see what tax returns I get first... may be the deciding factor.
Kevin
See if you can score a lower mileage Explorer 5.0 from a junk yard - they go for $450-650 that I've seen.
5LiterFever
New Member
I'm in the same situation as well. I will be purchasing either a DSS 331 or 408 longblock however, with AFR heads (185's or 205's respectively). The way I see it, why waste money on something i dont really want, when i could save for like 2-3 more months and have something totally badass?? i always hear people talking budget this and budget that....well if you do the budget thing you're not ending up with what you really want. save your money, wait a little bit longer, and do it right the first time.
just my .02, for whatever it's worth
just my .02, for whatever it's worth
5LiterFever
New Member
also, why even bother with a factory rebuild kit? thats a $h!+ ton of work to get back to stock specs. again, save a little more money and get somethin 1000 times better.
siege
New Member
DSS bullet shortblock is like $1200 or $1400 or something...thats friggin cheap for a good engine. and who says budget isn't what you want? some people just want something nice for not too much money and that's all they want. not all of us want tons of boost and 10sec timeslips...(though I wouldn't mind too much 
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5LiterFever
New Member
yeah i guess you're right, to me it just seems like a motor swap/rebuild is so much work, might as well upgrade lol. but to each his own, right?
My point about good low mileage junk yard engines is that they can be had for cheap and factory blue printing is so good now days - look how long our old 5.0s have lasted - they are extremely well built. There is one local racer who may or may not still be racing at Gateway who used to take good junk yard engines and run them with power adders and had great luck with them running 10s. If he blew one up, he could get another for about half what one machined short block would cost. That's my only point.
