Crate motor prices, Who's smoking crack???

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67Baccaruda

67Baccaruda

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and the six pac engines do not include the carbs...LOL

the blocks are R3 or 340 replacement blocks which are almost 3k to begin with...
 
All new, key words. hurts the wallet a bit, but then again, those words that I hate so much are not there.... "Re-manufactured!"

(Cooooome on lotto!)
 
For anyone interested in a fairly inexpensive crate motor, I ran across a guy on ebay selling LA blocks with Magnum heads for ~$2.5-3.5K, I recall. He says he uses LA blocks because stronger than Magnum. He can install either a carb intake or the "beer keg" MPI intake with engine controller included. The later seems a fantastic deal compared to ~$3K people pay for just an after-market MPI intake systems (mostly Chevy & Ford). Says he is a 71 year old engineer who is supplementing his SSI checks. I don't know him. I previously posted my "beer keg" on an LA idea, so the offering caught my eye. If I switched to Magnum heads, I would want aluminum ones to save ~50 lb.
 
They seem to be overpriced to me too. Even a 3k block and a 2k rotating assembly still leaves 7k in the heads, valvetrain, intake, and small stuff. Am I missing somethimg here?
 
That right there is a big reason why people build chivy or phord because their engines are 2/3 less right of the bat. Chrysler has always hurt themselves!
 
Everything today costs more than it should.

Its like a game, every few months jack the prices up on everything 5--10%.

That is what my Target store did, still they are way cheaper then my grocery store just a block away. The same ice cream treats are $4.99 at the grocer and $3.23 at Target--used to be $2.99

You gotta compare prices and do your homework, even shopping for ice cream.
 
Over $10,000 for a Mopar 360 Magnum Crate Engine, what a joke...wounder how long it be till Chevy and Ford join the rip off game?

So what its new, I thought season blocks were better to build?

Bet its all made in Mexico also.
 
Cant imagine they will be a hot seller in this horrible economy. ONLY $11,187 for a 330 HP 340. Haha!! I guess my seasoned rebuilt 400-450 HP 340s w new eddy or RHS heads for $3500-$4000 are OK after all.
 
While the prices have gone up, they were never cheap. Mopar crates have always been way over-priced. Those of us who can build our own are fine...those that can't need to deal with reputable builders....like Bob Mazzolini in SoCal.

http://www.bobmazzoliniracing.com/
 
dodge freak said:
That is what my Target store did, still they are way cheaper then my grocery store just a block away. The same ice cream treats are $4.99 at the grocer and $3.23 at Target--used to be $2.99

You gotta compare prices and do your homework, even shopping for ice cream.
Click to expand...

the ice cream treat you speak of has no milk products in it. Its basically like eating margarine in your ice cream cone. The ice cream treat uses vegetable oil to make the ice cream. It may be cheaper but you lack quality.:banghead:

BUTTER THAT BACON BOY!
 
There are huge differenecs in quality in engine building. I thought MP had started paying a real performance builder to do them, rather than a mass engine supplier. That will add a bunch to the cost, and it's why the initial Hemi crates were really expensive. Then they went to CUmmins and the pricing stayed the same, but quality died. However, if you do use a good shop, and they really do build as opposed to rebuild, the prices are in line with a brand new, custom built engine. (Ok, the 340's really pushin it...especially with a cast crank...lol)
 
There create short blocks used to be built be a bunch of bung holes in Al.
I know this because I did some homework, after the fact, and got these cheessy jerks on the phone.

What a waste. Human and machine work.

Ray Barton is doing work for the HEMI create engines. So that should be done right.
 
My friend bought a 360 mopar crate engine, complete balanced, blueprinted and dyno tested from intake to oil pan with 400 hp and a choppy idle and its a runner with no problems. He bought it from CME (cmengines.com) and paid $3996 which did not include shipping. I went to this site and could not believe the prices compared to Glendora where for a 340 330hp crate they wanted $10600....
 
rumblefish360 said:
There create short blocks used to be built be a bunch of bung holes in Al.
I know this because I did some homework, after the fact, and got these cheessy jerks on the phone.

What a waste. Human and machine work.

Ray Barton is doing work for the HEMI create engines. So that should be done right.
Click to expand...
I thought I read somewhere that Barton only does the 528 HEMI?
 
340sFastback said:
I bet they don't sell many of them at that price.
Click to expand...

Its Jegs, the dont stock or buy half the crap they sell (notice the ship date). They are just a distributor of MP, probably drop shipped from somewhere. Could probably build that motor for 3K if you can handle a "seasoned" block (hey, already thermal cycled!) And I would think if that 360 is a 4.00 R block, they would have made that quite clear.
 
I know a guy who bought a MP magnum crate engine for a little over $3500, I believe it was the 300HP engine. to me thats worth it, but 12,000 is crazy for an engine it would be worth more then my car!
 
Mopar stuff is always more than the X brands, but you have to look at what you are comparing too. I was just looking at a standard build 360 crate the other day for something around $6k - I think it was from Indy. Of course that is a bone stock build, stock heads, valve train, rotating assembly, no porting (may not have had a carb) etc. When you take that motor up over 400 hp there is a lot of extra "stuff" and work that goes into getting it there and that's where the money comes in. Plus you do pay more for buying it built than doing it yourself - if you can do it yourself.
Same thing with the SB Chebbie, a stock built one can be had for less than $5K, but if you want one with over 400hp you are going to pay a lot more.
 
 
I find it interesting that used parts you can't give away and new parts are getting more expensive. I'm thinking with vendors going out of business and prices going up it's going to start getting very expensive to build a car with new or used parts in the near future! Does that make sense? lol...


I bought this never ran MP 360/380 magnum with rebuilt trans, converter, carb. starter, alternator for $2,800 it was on craigslist for about 3 months before he accepted my offer. Did have to disassemble engine to clean up some surface rust inside.
 

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