I've been down this road so I speak from experience.

First off, cost will be determined by where you live and what you have access to. I had a known "good" block that I decided to rebuild. My intention was to have something that would last me a very long time and would be reliable. I built it to factory specs and used all quality name brand parts.

Head was resurfaced and valve seats were reground- but used original parts. The only original part inside the block was the crank, which was in great shape and just needed polished up. All the internals were balanced. Parts and machine work cost me $2000 (I think a copy of the receipt is in my photos section). I only had a couple shops to choose from in my area and this one had the best reputation and lowest cost. Assembly would be extra. And this did not include all the other things I put into the motor, like cam sensor, crank sensor, plugs, wires, cap/rotor, fuel injectors, belts, fluids and filters, starter motor, alternator, and the list goes on and on...

Some will obviously say my shop charged me too much, but like I mentioned it's all relative to where in the country you live and how much businesses are competing for your business. Those who say you can build a stroker for the same price or less are using cheap China made parts and would never be able to offer a warranty. This also applies to "crate" motors, unless you're buying directly from Chrysler. Companies that sell re-manufactured engines are usually using cheap parts (probably made in China). Warranties are sometimes tricky to deal with (think about labor and shipping if something goes wrong). Maybe one of the only exceptions might be Jasper. If I were to do it all again knowing where I would be financially today, I would forgo the rebuild and buy a Jasper engine. I know I'm upwards of $3000 into my engine (and extra parts) and I could have probably done it for half that and had it done in a weekend.

So that's my opinion. Oh, and one more thing; it was a very valuable experience to assemble it myself and I'm sure it would be very rewarding to your son to be included in something like that. If you have the money to throw at it and don't mind the extra work and effort, go for the rebuild.

 

I think we could probably get a good experience even if it were a crate engine. I forgot about Jasper. My favorite Subaru shop deals with them and from what I understand they only sell to a "registered" shop and then you deal with the shop price/mark up etc. There's an advantage to building a good relationship with a good shop. My thing is lack of time and I think with some of the speciality tools that would be needed for a self-rebuild that i don't have, in the long run a crate engine like Jasper would fit the bill. And, it's just not the "engine",...it's the other "extras" you mentioned that add up too.

 

This is very true. I had my shop machine the block, order some of the parts, and assemble everything for my stroker. Just because I wanted to make sure it was all assembled right the first time. But it ended up costing about 3500 for it all.

 

Many would be surprised at how many of the old parts go right back into the "Rebuilt" crate engines, they are making a price point.


Very Surprised

 

Ccrate engines are a crap shoot, and warranties on rebuilt engines don't cover the cost of removal and re-install.

If you do it yourself, you know what you've got. Quality control is in your own hands. Pick a machine shop with a good reputation to do that part, do the rest yourself, and you've got a new engine when you're done. I can't imagine paying someone to reassemble an engine. That's the fun part!




Yep.




Jasper is known for things like mis-matched journals & even bores, and other minor problems. All the engines of the same type get torn down, parts cleaned, and tossed into a bin. If a block needs one main bearing or rod journal machined, say, .030, they do just that one journal. If another one needs. .010, that one gets .010. They don't line bore them, they don't match them. If a cylinder needs to be bored, just that one cylinder gets bored.

Then they plunk in whatever parts fit. You could wind up with 3 different sized pistons, 4 different bearing sizes, and have fun with the longevity on that engine!

Yeah, it'll make it through the warranty period just fine.

 

I would have put it all back together myself but we felt like we would have had to buy too many tools to get all the parts in. And if I had installed one thing wrong or with the wrong bearing lubricant than it could have been me ruining a couple hundred dollars of parts.

 

Wow, if that true what do they do to all the other stuff that they rebuild?