Thanks Bob for this artical ,,,frankly 2 years ago a bought a 440 source kit 4.25 stroke ,Jim VanZee built the engine for me had a local high performance machine shop check everything out and they were happy with everything ..he then assembled the engine with a hughes girdle and factory ported heads stage VI heads and it made 650 hp and 650 ft lbs of torque ,we pulled the filter after the breakin and the 5 dyno pulls and there were no abnormal filings ,this was indeed a cheap build ,but one I could have never done with out the inexpensive kit,yes you should check everything ,and maybe your taking a chance but if you are at this point you have a lot of company ,you see these kits everywhere ..thanks again for taking the time to write such an informative artical ,I will be looking foreward to reading the next posts on the rods and the ballancing .... Rook