Junkyard Jewel

Agreed.. and not being critical of anything....just pointing out a few things that might make this less true for typical costs and results than it is presented. As a cost perspectives:

1) We did an almost stock /6 rebuild last January, and besides good basic machine work to the head and block boring, we put in new stock parts except for a very mild torque cam, and had the head shaved .050". No new carb or exhaust and we assembled it here. Cost a bit over $1100.....

2) Our current 340 build to around 400 HP, built solidly for long term reliable street running, is pushing $5200-5300 with decent new parts all around (except reused the cast 273 crank, timing cover, pan and such bits), not absolutely the best parts, and we're doing all the assembly and blueprinting work here. The new Edelbrock heads cost about 30% of this build, so did not push the budget up extremely high by themselves. Got the block cheap for a 340.....$300.. so we did not start out with a lot of cost there.