Like Tom Petty- "I won't back down."

Got a lot of flack for the last post, with some people asking why I have a deep-seated obsessional hatred for the modern fuelie motors. For the last time, I don't hate them. I think their wonderful. If my credit rating wasn't ruined by my divorce I would definitely be driving either an Alpine white Hemi / six-speed 2011 Challenger R/T or a black and red 2012 Boss 302, or a 2011 Camaro SS, depending on whether GM , Ford or Chrysler Motor credit had the best lease deal.  Their all 3 so awesome, it would be hard to choose. That aside, I do not understand why people will spend double or triple the money it costs to build a conventional "Old-school" engine and ruin the value of a classic at the same time. Like I said-it's never a beater '69 LeMans-its always a numbers-matching Judge or something else really cool that some moron has to bastardize. And even if you weren't messing up a numbers-matching Z/28 or Trans-Am- I still don't get it. Here's a little math for you-Summitt Racing and Scoggin-Dickey sell the "Fast Burn 385" crate motor for $4399. This is a 350 Chevy based on the ZZ4 short block with a hot roller cam, "Fast Burn" heads, aluminum intake, and is complete from distributor to oil pan. It's also rated at 385 hp.  The "E-rod" emission legal LS motor package developed by GM and Edelbrock costs $8278. It's the 400hp LS3 and the necessary wiring. No more power ( Don't insult me and tell me you can "feel" the difference between 385 and 400 hp ) Yet almost double the price.  If you want more than that-let's say you want to be "King Kong" -Summit and Scoggin- Dickey sell the 620 hp 572 Rat complete from carb to oil pan for $13,000. The 638 hp supercharged LS9 that comes in the ZR1 'Vette is available as a package from GM for $24,900. I can already hear it-"Yeah but not everyone buys a brand-new crate motor."  True. Try this math on for size-Super Chevy did it-for $699 you can buy a generic, pre 1986 350 Chevy "Short-block" from any auto parts store-I.E.- Autozone, Pep Boys, Checker etc. For $650 you can buy a pair of brand-new Vortec heads from GMPP. After they added a cam kit, an Edelbrock carb and intake, headers, and a rebuilt HEI distributor-they had a motor that put out 400 hp and 415 lbs of torque that cost $2,600, and had all brand-new parts. Go used-$500 will buy you a conventional small-block Chevy V8 at any junkyard in the nation. A 5.3 LS truck motor with 100,000 miles or more on it will bring $1,500. Triple the price, and that's before you start rebuilding or hot-rodding it.  And the Pickup / Tahoe 5.3s  aren't the desirable ones; everybody wants the Camaro / Corvette / GTO motors. The "Old-school" 400 hp, 350 we built using all new parts for $2,600?  That same $2,600 might get you a used 350hp, 5.7 LS motor out of a wrecked '98-up  Z/28 or 'Vette from a junkyard with 100,000 miles or more on it, that the junkyard can't guarantee doesn't have a cracked head or something. Then you have to rebuild it. If you want a 400 or 430 hp 6.0 or 6.2 out of a later model with low miles- say less than 60K- they bring 4 grand on up, if you can find one used. (They get snapped up pretty quick.)  Even if you have a Pontiac-and want to keep it a "Real" Pontiac-Car Craft did one they titled "Junkyard Jewel" They built a 400 that made 460 hp and 440 lbs ft of torque, for $4,400, which included $1,995 for aluminum Edelbrock heads. Just for giggles, they put the 6X iron heads back on it, which would drop the price to $2400-and it still made 402 hp and 430 lbs of torque. The same for the Fords. For $3495 you can buy a complete 345 hp 302 crate engine. The 412 hp "Coyote" in the new Mustang GT retails for $12995. I'm sure you can squeeze an extra 67 hp out of the SVO 302 crate motor for a lot less than 8 grand!!. I know, the "Coyotes" are too new to compare to the hated Chevys. But either new or used-the 4.6 mod motor that's been used in zillions of cars and trucks since 1996 is still way more expensive to buy or build than a conventional 302 or 351W, and doesn't make any more power. Ditto for the Mopars- even a 345 hp 5.7 Modern Hemi out of a 2005 Charger, 300 or pickup that has 100k miles or more on it will still bring blood and a first-born child. The 425 or 460 hp 6.1 or 6.4 SRT8 Hemi? Like MC Hammer said- "Can't Touch This". At least not for less than 6 grand on the used market and nearly 15 new. Blueprint Engines sells a 360 based 408 stroker with 390 hp and 460 lbs ft of torque for $3,500. Hell, if you want a $15,000 Hemi, Mopar Performance Sells the 426 Elephant rated at 465 horses complete from distributor to oil pan. Like that famous poet said- "I will rage, rage against the dying of the light." I will never, ever say it's cool that some jack ass with more money than brains stuffed an LS motor into his Judge or a Coyote into his Shelby GT350. If the modern fuelie motors were cheaper than the old school engines and made twice the power-I could see it.  Like a guy who builds a 289 /302 Ford for his '32 Deuce coupe project instead of a Flathead. That's a perfect example. But 350 Chevys, and 400 Pontiacs and 302 Fords and 383 Mopars aren't obsolete like a Ford Flathead, and there's zillions of speed parts still available for them and will be for years to come, and you can build a 400 or 500 hp version of any of them for less than half what the 5.0 Coyote, 6.2 LS and 6.4 Hemis cost either new or used!!  That's why, like Tom Petty said-"Stand me up at the gates of hell, and I won't back down."  Until the prices of these electronic wonders comes way, way down, and the horsepower producing ability-which is about even with the "oldies" right now-goes way up, I won't endorse them as a deal or the greatest thing since sliced bread. Mastermind