Crate 360 vs DIY Built
You can do half of that that on your own for free!
You aren't any closer now are ya? It's still a secret to you.
It comes down to this, do you want an experience, or an expense?
We've probably done 90-95% of all the work ourselves on the vehicles we've got. The 408 that I ordered from Mike is the only engine I haven't put together in one of our shops.
I will be doing the 512 that's slated for our Charger myself too. But am I as confident in the decisions I've made on the 512 as I would have been if a
really good professional builder had been calling the shots? No. I called several cam companies seeking advice on that build. Not all the advice I got was the same.
I did do my own porting and port matching. I polished the interior oil galleys as smooth as possible to improve oil flow. I de-burred everything. We did have Mark Kinser re-clearance the blower for us after we polished it. I modified the intake for distributor clearance so we wouldn't have to buy an offset. I always make up our own ignition wires. I've done all the body work. (replacing the floors, quarters, fenders, trunk floor, rear valance and repairing the rockers, roof, window gutters, cowl,hood, and front valance) I straightened and re-polished the trim myself. After getting out of the service, my son completely rebuilt the 4-speed while at tech college. I rebuilt the dash, rewired the car, rebuilt the grill assembly out of several parts grills. I did the 4 wheel disc conversion, subframe connectors, brake and fuel lines, mini-tubs, totally rebuilt all of the window crank/roller/guide assemblies, etc, etc,...
I'm not one of those guys with a big wad of cash that has everybody else building his cars. The cars and car parts I have are from 40 years of accumulating stuff. Most of my projects have set idle during the decades after I got divorced. Before I kick off I want to finish as many of 'em as I can.
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The decision to have someone else do the 408 came down to a time factor. I still had to swap out the 904 for a 727 that needed to be gone through. I still had to swap out the 7&1/4' for a Dana that I had narrowed. Yes I farmed out the narrowing of the Dana because I had a friend that already had the jig set up to do the work, but I gutted all of the 8-bolt lug stuff off it first. I also had to replace the fuel line with a 3/8 line and remake the brake lines to the rear end. I had subframe connectors to fab and install. I was replacing the power steering with a manual setup. I had an air fuel gauge that needed to be tied into the dash and exhaust. I was doing a lot of cosmetic changes to the car too. I'm still struggling to get all of the work done before the motor arrives.
I'm all for guys doing as much of the work they can themselves. But it's not always the best option open to them.
