Ditto on that. I wonder what pistons those are though ? And will he be able to choose his own, or go with what they give him at that price ?
yeah.. I wondered that too. I would never ever let someone else spec my pistons unless they had done quite a bit of work for me in the past and knew exactly what my long term goals were. Larger parts like that is where many shops will cut corners since the markup percentage can be more lucrative on their end. At the very least, I'd get part numbers and check to see what they're giving you. Same with the cam too. While you're in there.. it's usually better to get exactly what you want rather than say.. "woulda, shoulda, coulda" later on.
problem is I don't know one piston from another, so I have to go by name brands and hope there good... This short block dose not include the cam... If I knew how to assemble a motor I would just get the machine work done and have cam bearings installed, then do the rest myself... I can by a long block for 1400 dollars but would be stuck with stock heads and still just have basic parts... I will ask for name brands when I go there... I'm sure they will use what ever I want for a price...
Yea. I went to a speed shop with a name and they charged me around $1400 for a 3/4 block. I supplied the pistons and the cam with lifters. And that was a carry in motor.. It was heavy
yeah, I hear ya. The problem is that there are all sorts of machine shops who will work deals with lower quality suppliers/mfgrs to get their profit margins up and that's generally not something you want to skimp on in the scheme of all things high performance. Especially if you intend to warm it up/RPM it even more down the road some time. What about just asking for Kieth Black hypereutectic pistons? they are decent enough to be used in many 400 horse motors around the globe and you can run tighter bore clearances to reduce blowby a bit better too. They also come with teflon coated skirts and can be found much cheaper than the full forged variants. Maybe even check ebay to keep the price down. Unfortunately it's too early for my brain to be digging back into the old memory banks and it's been far too long since I've shopped for sbf budget pistons anyways.. so maybe wait for others to chime in on a better alternative to the kb slugs. I also keep build sheets for my own and others builds through the years but most aren't what you'd call "money saving builds" and probably 90% of them use forged or custom slugs anyways.
Buying "name brand" is still not going to get you what you want, when the pin height's for flat topped 302 pistons are not all the same. You HAVE to do your homework and ask questions of the shop and make sure you get straight answers.
I appreciate all the advice, I will update this tread after a trip to the machine shop... I have just enough info to be dangerous...lol... Thanks Again...
I had a talk with the owner of the machine shop, They are going to build me a long block with E7TE heads, comp thumper flat tappet cam for $1550.00 3 year 36,000 mile warranty.... some of the parts used are Hastings, Melling, Felpro and the pistons are from King... I don't know that piston but it is made in the USA.... For $1950 I can have a full roller motor w/ comp thumper roller cam and gt40 heads... and all the above parts....
If you're going that route, have them remove the Thermactor bumps from the exhaust ports on those heads while they're into them.
That's an awesome price. I didn't know Comp made "Thumpr" cams for Fords in flat-tappet grinds.. Didn't see any on their website.
IMO, that's the single best bang for the buck you can do to those heads and can easily be worth 10-15 horse, especially on motors that like to spin, and average power gains are assured. Also, cleaning up the intake short sides will give you another easy 5-10 horse and may not cost that much if they're already digging on the exhausts anyways. Nver hurts to ask and generally speaking.. the more you have them do for you.. the better the bang for the buck up to the point of diminishing returns for stock parts.
