"Gotta Haves" that you don't really need.....

I know magazines need to sell their advertiser's products to stay in business. That's a given. But what kills me is some self-proclaimed "Expert" telling other people how to spend their money on information they've only read in a magazine or on the internet. A lot of these "Experts" have never restored a car or rebuilt an engine, or raced a car on any level-not even a local "Hobby Stock" or "Jalopy" class. Basically their talking out their ass. That's why today I'm going to blow up a bunch of falsehoods.  # 1. You don't have to bore the block .030 or .060 over and buy all-new parts when rebuilding or "freshening" an engine. I know that's how the magazines do it. But I know people who have gotten 250,000 miles out of daily drivers and several seasons on a race motor without spending thousands of dollars.  Where do you think the term "Rings and Bearings" came from?  That's right. Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth-you know the '60's, '70's and '80's-if an engine smoked or used oil we would pull it and put new rod and main bearings in it, a new oil pump and new piston rings.  We would put the pistons back in the same hole with the new rings. This is because a wear pattern is already established, and the new rings will "seat" just fine. Now "experts" are going to claim that the rings won't seal and the motor will drink oil. Their wrong. 97 times out of 100 the engine would run like brand-new, not smoke and not use a drop of oil between changes.  Once in a while, you'd get one that would run great, but use a quart of oil every 1,200-1,500 miles. No big deal. If your changing your oil every 3,000 miles you'd have to add one quart between changes. Sometimes you'd tear one down and find that the crank was damaged or one or more rods and pistons were damaged. Guess what? we'd have the crank turned .010 over, get .010 over bearings and have the rods re-sized. If one or two rods or pistons needed replacing, we'd replace them. Not all 8. Some times if you had one hole that wouldn't seat you could have that piston knurled. Knurling would put a rough surface on the piston to help it seal. The car would run like a champ and your "freshening" would still be way cheaper than a total rebuild. Often the car would run another 50,000-100,000 miles. Same for "Valve Jobs".  Often times an engine running on 7 cylinders or having low compression on one cylinder would cause us to pull one or both heads and inspect for damage. Sometimes we'd just grind the one offending valve-an intake or exhaust valve. Sometimes we'd just replace one or two valves or a broken valvespring or pushrod or rocker arm or whatever the problem was. We'd have the heads surfaced and install new head gaskets.  Sort of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." And again-often the car's owner would get another 50,000 trouble-free miles of it.  Some of you are scoffing right now and harumphing "That's not the right way to do it." What is the "Right" way?  Replace everything whether you need it or not?  In 1990 we rebuilt the 400 in my brother's GTO. We replaced one piston and two rods and had the crank polished. Didn't turn it, just polished it. We did the heads and replaced the cam and timing chain. Total cost to rebuild was $1,900, which was dirt cheap even in 1990 dollars. The engine dyno'd at 381 hp and 430 lbs of torque.  It will literally spin the tires as long as you want to stay on the throttle. He used it as a daily driver for about 5 years in the '90's. After he got married and had kids it only saw weekend cruises and Hot August Nights.  And guess what? It's still running in 2019!!  It uses a quart of oil every 1,200 miles, but it will still smoke the tires at will. With a "junkyard" engine that we-according to self-proclaimed "experts"- "Half-assed."  ( I'd like to see what we could do if we "Full-assed" something! )  # 2. "Where's the beef?"  I love people telling you how "Gotta have" ultra heavy duty everything. Let's take building the ubiquitous small-block Chevy.  "Experts" will tell you-"You gotta have a 4-bolt main block" "You gotta have "Pink" rods. "You gotta have a forged crank" "You gotta have screw-in studs in the heads."  And a bunch more "Gotta haves" I can't remember off the top of my head.  Their half-right. If your building a NASCAR Nextel Cup engine that has to go 7,800 rpm for 500 miles at Daytona-yes-you need all the beef you can get.  But for a daily driver, a street / strip machine or even a short circle track or weekend drag racer, you don't need any of that stuff. I know plenty of racers who use 2-bolt main blocks and cast cranks and have no troubles, especially if rpms don't go over 6,500. Think of it this way. Medium and heavy duty trucks have 4-bolt mains and forged cranks to this day. Yet Corvettes and Z/ 28 Camaros had 2-bolt mains and cast cranks all through the '80's. And you know Camaros and Corvettes were taken to the redline by their enthusiastic owners a lot more than a C60 truck!!  So why did trucks have all that beef?  It's SUSTAINED load that breaks things. The crank in a truck that's pulling 10,000 lbs up Donner pass at 60 mph is a lot more stressed than the crank in a 'Vette that's wide-open for 14 seconds or less in the 1/4 mile!!  See what I'm saying?  I have played with cars for over 40 years and Chevy or anything else-I have NEVER seen a stud pull out of a head. I've seen broken rocker arms, broken pushrods, broken valvesprings, but I have never, ever seen a stud pull out of a head. Cheap insurance when rebuilding an engine for the street or track?  Chrome-moly rod bolts. Any experienced engine builder will tell you that 98% of rod failure occurs AT THE BOLT.  I'm a Pontiac guy, and I love the geniuses saying "Pontiacs aren't high revvers".  No, they won't go 7,500-8,000 rpm reliably like a big-block Chevy or Chrysler Race Hemi!!  But if you limit a 400 to 6,200 rpm and a 455 to 5,700 rpm, you'll have no trouble at all. And-when you've got 500+ lbs ft of torque from idle on up, you don't need to rev to 7 grand.  But these guys act like a Poncho is all done in at 3,500- 4,000 rpm!  This spills onto other parts as well.  I saw in a Summit catalog the other day new Richmond T10 4-speeds for sale. Depending of ratios it showed them having between a 325 lb and 375 lb torque rating.  I was rolling on the floor with laughter. GM used T10s behind 421 Pontiacs that were rated at 376 hp and 459 lbs of torque from the factory, and the buff magazines said that was under-rated. They were used in 409 Impalas that were rated at 425 hp and 425 lbs of torque. The T10 was used in 406 Fords that had over 450 lbs of torque.  And the new T10s have a lot stronger mainshafts and gears than the ones built 50+ years ago!!  Would I put one behind a 720 hp 572?  Probably not. But I wouldn't hesitate to throw one in a 396 Camaro or Chevelle, or a 400 Firebird or Trans-Am, or 427 or 454 Corvette if I couldn't find a Muncie!!  Ditto for T5s. These 5-speeds supposedly have a 300 lb torque rating. Yet I know guys with blowers and nitrous on "5.0" Mustangs that run 10s and have no trouble with these trannys. I know Chevy guys that have swapped 350s and 383s into '80's Camaros in place of the 305s that have no trouble.  I know Grand National racers that run 10s with 200R4s.  Ditto for rear ends. I'm sick of every single magazine project car having a custom 9 inch Ford rear end. I have never, ever seen anyone break a Chrysler 8 3/4 rear. Not even my friend with a nitroused 505 inch Duster that runs 9s!!  I have had 400, 4-speed Trans-Ams that I popped the clutch at 4,000 rpm incessantly on, and I never broke the 10 bolt 8.5 inch rear!!  So don't spend money on some ultra-beefy parts you may not need on some "experts" word. Check around. Mastermind