This man is local to me ..

I hear ya but even so, I will never drive/race another brand unless I'm gettin paid..........TRUE mopar man to the bone baby.........

I have about 45 years into Chrysler so it would be
hard for me to change.. in the beginning I was BB but
sold that stuff of and went LA... now I will go gen3
and use up the rest of my LA stuff.. I dont want to
buy a bunch of gen3 because I dont expect to live that
much longer and dont want the wife trying to figure out
what all I have when she tries to get rid of all my junk

That's my fault, I messed up there its the LS engine that they are using. Im thinking its the LS3 I get them all comfused as Im a mopar guy lol

Those heads alone are anywhere from $2,800-$3,300 alone...
That engine has more than 6,500 in parts..

The cost may have been 6,500 out the door but somebody started with a pile of parts not in that price...
My good motors 15 years ago were way more than that...

Heads are on jegs for right at 1600

It's all in how you buy the parts. I have 7500.00 in my 422 R3 smallblock with 360-1 heads and that includes the mopar tax we all pay.

http://www.jegs.com/i/Brodix/158/1111010/10002/-1

heads $2681
block $1650
valve covers$100
rocker arms $200
carb $200
intake $200
carb spacer $50
crank $200
rods $200
pistons $200
rings and bearings $100
cam $200
timing chain $100
push rods $100
oil pump $100
oil pan $100
oil pickup $50
water pump $50
motor plate $50
chrome water neck FREE
fuel reg(s) Free
nitrous Free
crank trigger Free
gaskets $19


I FIGURED IT OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EDIT: lifters, machine work and assembly FREE

All this is pretty simple. IF there was enough market for Mopar blocks, SOMEBODY would be making them. Be it Dart, Brodix, whoever. These companies are in the business to make money. If they thought there was enough margin and volume, they would make it, plain and simple. Yes there are companies that make Pontiac and Olds aftermarket blocks. They are made by diehards who love that brand and bought by diehards who love that brand, regardless of cost. Mopars are going to be the same way. So you can lament the fact that Chevy blocks are cheap and that somebody should be able to make a Mopar as cheap.........BUT, it isn't gonna happen until the demand gets as high, which we all KNOW is never going to happen. So you got two choices, be die hard Mopar and pay the tax, or switch.

You want mainstream prices, buy a mainstream motor. You want to be different, expect to pay for it. It doesn't matter that some Mopar heads are priced the same as X brand heads. Those are heads, not blocks and as such is not an accurate comparison. All these look alike heads are offshore. The Chinese will make anything you want. Haven't seen any cheap offshore blocks....and who would want one.

What did chevy do so right to get such a huge following? Is the horsepower potential that much greater with a chevy design?

They didn't tie the hands of the aftermarket back in the day. Mopar did this to us and hurt there own market at the same time.

Lee Iococky didn't throw all of their inventory and dies in the trash in the 70s, so you could walk into any GM dealer and still get parts...

Plus they sold more cars from the start

Its simple... look at the ratio of cars sold.. if you
buy chevy all the time you want a chevy engine(same as
mopar guys) but since they sell WAY MORE they can make
parts cheaper because they will sell more of them
EDIT
Also mopar did stupid stuff vs what chevy did.. we have
a different trans for each engine group.. chevy has ONE
they also have a big block and small block and the parts
interchange much easier.. we have 273-318-340 then a 360..
different cranks.. then a B engine and RB engine.. again
different cranks.. why not keep the mains the same and
just change strokes... nope

You guys should try turning some corners in your Mopars on a road course!
I am positive that will re-kindle any fire that is dying out!

I prefer the banked corners of a dirt oval

I think the other way, make it affordable then people WILL buy it. But if done the other way, all you guinea pigs step foward and buy them then or if the price comes down, the rest of us will buy.

Those are for BARE heads.

It's called marketing.


GM marketed the hell out of what Smokey Yunik called a relatively reliable high speed turtle.


Look at all the [censored] wrong with the SBC. The deck is too short. Pan is too narrow. Cam is too low. 23* valve angle. Smaller bore spacing. .842 lifter. Ball and stud rockers. Want me to keep going?


Every time a limitation came up, the rules were changed to fix the junk GM was peddling.

Marketing works.