If You Have/Want A Built Motor Look Here.

[Cknight199]

I did this on another forum and it was very successful! Figured I would do it here as there are more users with built motors.

Okay so I was just doing some numbers and pricing out a built motor, and there are several threads on multiple forums talking about this, but most of the people responding are saying "I believe a truck did 900 hp with those pistons" blah blah, and it took some time to actually price it all together. And not all motor builds are different, some are purely racing, while others are on a budget build.



So if you own a built motor, I think it would be beneficial if you could post real results on the following areas:

-What parts you used

-What type of build (budget, race, daily driver, ect)

-How many miles on the motor and how it is holding up

-What your goal was, and what you have achieved on a dyno.

-What hp you daily drive at and how many times have you turned it to the biggest tune?

-If you have to do any special maintenance (piston rings, ect.)

-If you came across any hidden costs when doing the build. (special tools, machining)

-An estimate for how much your build costed, without labor

-And lastly if you built it yourself, or had a shop do it, and what the estimate labor price was (not specific shops)



I know this could be a hassle for a few, but if you know some of the questions off the top of your head I hope that it would be beneficial to not only me, but others in the future. You don't need to include any air or fuel mods, but feel free to do so.

 

[quinton]

Well pricing around right now on building the motor and came out to around 7500 with machine work and all parts for short block. I'm wanting 900 on big tune and will be daily driver so I will post again after I get everything done.

 

[Shieldsinc]

Subed to your set up quinton. I Ben thinking about getting the crate from socal next summer

 

[Chevy1925]

-What parts you used

Crower rods, clevite h bearings, arp main studs, a1 head studs, cut stock lb7 pistons, welded water pump. I think that's all the main parts

-What type of build (budget, race, daily driver, ect)

Designed to be a budget build for a dd truck that will see lots towing, racing, beating on at 600-700hp

-How many miles on the motor and how it is holding up

Over 12k and no issues. Oil eating issues has significantly slowed from first start up

-What your goal was, and what you have achieved on a dyno.

My goal was 700hp but only cause I figured my turbos would limit it to that, according to the track I'm over that hp and gaining with the new yellowchevy reworked stock turbo and s480 big turbo

-What hp you daily drive at and how many times have you turned it to the biggest tune?

I daily drive, tow, race, beat on, and cruise on a 550-600hp everyday. Truck has seen the big tune 4 times. Too much fuel to daily drive it and I'm very happy with the performance at 600hp lol

-If you have to do any special maintenance (piston rings, ect.)

Change the oil and watch balance rates every 3k

-If you came across any hidden costs when doing the build. (special tools, machining)

Bearings and gaskets were much more than I expected, otherwise research had me pretty well set on everything else

-An estimate for how much your build costed, without labor


-And lastly if you built it yourself, or had a shop do it, and what the estimate labor price was (not specific shops)

For the last two questions, I assembled the whole motor and it cost me 5k including machine shop work. Money could have been saved there going another place but it being my first build and seeing how no one in as has touched a Dmax motor, i saw it only fitting to go to SoCal lol.

 

[Cknight199]

-What parts you used

Crower rods, clevite h bearings, arp main studs, a1 head studs, cut stock lb7 pistons, welded water pump. I think that's all the main parts

-What type of build (budget, race, daily driver, ect)

Designed to be a budget build for a dd truck that will see lots towing, racing, beating on at 600-700hp

-How many miles on the motor and how it is holding up

Over 12k and no issues. Oil eating issues has significantly slowed from first start up

-What your goal was, and what you have achieved on a dyno.

My goal was 700hp but only cause I figured my turbos would limit it to that, according to the track I'm over that hp and gaining with the new yellowchevy reworked stock turbo and s480 big turbo

-What hp you daily drive at and how many times have you turned it to the biggest tune?

I daily drive, tow, race, beat on, and cruise on a 550-600hp everyday. Truck has seen the big tune 4 times. Too much fuel to daily drive it and I'm very happy with the performance at 600hp lol

-If you have to do any special maintenance (piston rings, ect.)

Change the oil and watch balance rates every 3k

-If you came across any hidden costs when doing the build. (special tools, machining)

Bearings and gaskets were much more than I expected, otherwise research had me pretty well set on everything else

-An estimate for how much your build costed, without labor


-And lastly if you built it yourself, or had a shop do it, and what the estimate labor price was (not specific shops)

For the last two questions, I assembled the whole motor and it cost me 5k including machine shop work. Money could have been saved there going another place but it being my first build and seeing how no one in as has touched a Dmax motor, i saw it only fitting to go to SoCal lol.

You spent 5k for machining and assembly? Just curious, so do most people assemble the new motor themselves or have the shop do it?

 

[Chevy1925]

You spent 5k for machining and assembly? Just curious, so do most people assemble the new motor themselves or have the shop do it?

Re-read the last part. I assembled the whole motor. This means putting the crank in, checking clearances, putting rods and pistons in, ect. Machine shop only did balancing, checked heads, cut pistons, put keys in, put cam bearings in, align honed, torque plate honed cylinders, new freeze plugs, cleaned block and magged crank. My built short block was 5k total as the heads, cam, and valve train are stock

If you have assembled motors before (even just gassers) it's not much different. Just gotta watch clearances and put it together. I dunno if most guys do this or not but I felt plenty confident in myself in doing this. Not to mention I really wanted the satisfaction of doing that part myself

 

[hondarider552]

So if you own a built motor, I think it would be beneficial if you could post real results on the following areas:

-What parts you usedCarrillo's, Cut and delipped LB7 pistons, Mahle H bearings, LML headgaskets, stock cam, new heads, valvesprings, ARP main, head, rocker, injector hold down studs, Melling oil pump, new DDP 38LPM injectors all new valves.

-What type of build (budget, race, daily driver, ect)

Race-ish

-How many miles on the motor and how it is holding up
1089 and no scattered parts yet

-What your goal was, and what you have achieved on a dyno.
Don't have a HP goal, but always have wanted a 10.99.

-What hp you daily drive at and how many times have you turned it to the biggest tune?
drive on 1600Us on 100% overs
-If you have to do any special maintenance (piston rings, ect.)
Change oil every 1500 miles

-If you came across any hidden costs when doing the build. (special tools, machining)
If building a LB7, have the machine shop check your sealing area between the injector cup and cylinder head. I had BIG problems with mine and bought new heads instead.

-An estimate for how much your build costed, without labor
~8000$

-And lastly if you built it yourself, or had a shop do it, and what the estimate labor price was (not specific shops)

I had 3200$ at my machine shop that assembled the short block, did all machine work, pressure checked the bad heads and installed all my new valves and springs. They also keyed everything


I know this could be a hassle for a few, but if you know some of the questions off the top of your head I hope that it would be beneficial to not only me, but others in the future. You don't need to include any air or fuel mods, but feel free to do so.

Answers in blue.

 

[Cknight199]

Answers in blue.

Now there's an idea! Lol that's easy to read

 

[sickdiesel]

So if you own a built motor, I think it would be beneficial if you could post real results on the following areas:

-What parts you used )White truck- Mahle forged, Carrillos, Billet main caps, socal girdle, ATI damper, SoCal flexplate, ARP head, main, rocker studs, SoCal billet injector hold downs, Hamilton's competition cam (largest the make), Hamiltons chromoly pushrods, Hamiltons valve springs, shimmed oil pump, etc

-What type of build (budget, race, daily driver, ect)race/street

-How many miles on the motor and how it is holding up 2450 miles and around 85-90 1/4 passes and its still together

-What your goal was, and what you have achieved on a dyno. my goal was to have a truck that could run the 11.90 index class in its sleep but yet I could a 10 sec pass easily (which it did)

-What hp you daily drive at and how many times have you turned it to the biggest tune? I drive on my 11.90 tune as it is the smallest tune we could write for the truck, and it took some work to slow it down that much and still run right LOL. Ive never turned it to the big tune and to be honest don't plan to. It went 10s on less than 2000uS

-If you have to do any special maintenance (piston rings, ect.) I change my oil every 1000 miles and have flushed the radiator twice. I run just straight water with some water wetter in it.

-If you came across any hidden costs when doing the build. (special tools, machining)- Nope, I knew it was gonna be spendy and just went balls out from the beginning and did it right

-An estimate for how much your build costed, without labor- ill skip this question but if you were to price the exact same build out from SoCal its a hair over 22k

-And lastly if you built it yourself, or had a shop do it, and what the estimate labor price was (not specific shops)- I have Cam at Adrenaline Performance in Shelley, Idaho assemble my short blocks.



I know this could be a hassle for a few, but if you know some of the questions off the top of your head I hope that it would be beneficial to not only me, but others in the future. You don't need to include any air or fuel mods, but feel free to do so.

answers in blue. I did this one the white truck. didn't feel like doing it for the black one lol

 

[Cknight199]

answers in blue. I did this one the white truck. didn't feel like doing it for the black one lol

Thanks!

 

[smarquis]

subscribed

 

[DieselmafiaLLY]

subb

 

[JD Dave]

I wonder what most machine shops bill out on average per hour.

 

[Dragonsfireloki]

subbed

 

[malibu795]

-What parts you usedre used everything that was good 06 LBZ had 142k on it split a piston.. used oem bolts gasktes LML head bolts and gaskets replaced rocker shaft bolts with ARP bolts and injector hold down bolts with grade 8.8 bolts

-What type of build (budget, race, daily driver, ect)
budget, get it running yesterday, used fingers bowl in mahle cast pistons
-How many miles on the motor and how it is holding up
60,000 and counting
-What your goal was, and what you have achieved on a dyno.
outlast the rest of the truck
-What hp you daily drive at and how many times have you turned it to the biggest tune?
275-300fwhp power (stock injectors pulse width at 1000uS) limited by the 4L85E and i dont need much more then that to maintain 60-65mph on the freeway regardless of load type.
-If you have to do any special maintenance (piston rings, ect.)
oil every ~10,000 miles, 2 micron fuel filter every 60k and a reuseable amsoil EA filter. that gets washed every oil change

-If you came across any hidden costs when doing the build. (special tools, machining)
torque angle gauge since i used stock bolts. i couldnt justify useing studs mains/head in this engine.
if you put main studs iirc need a torque wrench capable of 220ftlb?
check compression height stock vs new pistons. mine are .015" shorter than stock.. the issuse with mine since we didnt deck it, the piston are now flush with the deck.


-An estimate for how much your build costed, without labor
~3800 bucks, have ~1,000 in machine work. if it was in spec it wasnt messed with.. bore(.020) balance polished crank journals, washed several times..
-And lastly if you built it yourself, or had a shop do it, and what the estimate labor price was (not specific shops)
i have ~80-90 man hours roughly from tear down until it it fired 10 days later including the 4 days the block was at the shop.also includes two 650mile round trip hauls to get the truck and load home.

answers in red

 

[malibu795]

I wonder what most machine shops bill out on average per hour.

around here its flat rate X money to assemble Y type engine to X completion of assemble ie short, long fully assembled

 

[TLyons90]

Subd

 

[BLACKMAX1]

Subd and what blocks should I keep my eye out for? ie LML.

 

[malar24]

Subd

 

[McRat]

1. -What parts you used
   
2. -What type of build (budget, race, daily driver, ect)
   
3. -How many miles on the motor and how it is holding up
   
4. -What your goal was, and what you have achieved on a dyno.
   
5. -What hp you daily drive at and how many times have you turned it to the biggest tune?
   
6. -If you have to do any special maintenance (piston rings, ect.)
   
7. -If you came across any hidden costs when doing the build. (special tools, machining)
   
8. -An estimate for how much your build costed, without labor
   
9. -And lastly if you built it yourself, or had a shop do it, and what the estimate labor price was (not specific shops)

1. Crowers and Carrillos. Cast stock, cast cut, LBZ cut, and forged. Lots of turbos. No broken cranks though.
2. Hair on Fire, yet street legal.
3. Not a lot of miles.
4. Never hit our goals or potential. But set a lot of "firsts" and records.
5. I hate to drive anything with under 500HP.
6. Replace shit that breaks. Rinse and repeat.
7. If you expect to spend $1000, better have $2000. And room on your credit card. And be willing to sell your children and a kidney.
8. Enough to topple a Latin America country.
9. Labor is a toughy for me. Had a LOT of help, by a LOT of good friends.