Crate engines to assemble yourself

[Xavier]

I like the idea, I would like to do it - to save some money, but more importantly, to really understand the internal workings of the engine and get a great engine. Right now, I do everything else and that means a lot to me, but it would even mean more to do the engine work. I wish I knew what a lot of others did about the internal mechanics of the engine. I know its complicated.

There are things you can do to limit the possibility of someone doing some damage to your reputation, and I think through some clever offerings you can keep the price point at a place that makes sense for the offer, but not so low you have every guy in the world doing it (you don't want every person wanting to do it). People who are willing to half-a$$ anything to save a nickel.

Some ideas from other people in far different industries I know, who do something similar, but make changes to reduce the risk to reputation;

- Keep the price point at a level that makes sense, but keeps the more risky clients away. You do not want to make the KC package the "cheap" package, this should just be a more economical means of building your own KC.
- Have a mandatory class at a high price, which will be reimbursed at the time of your order. Something you must pass and show comprehension on. This obviously does 3 things; 1- It keeps the rats away. The rats are not going to pay for a class. Some of them already know it all so, why go to a class. 2- It makes certain that you know that your team of a credited teachers (east coast, west coast etc.) have validated and have qualified the client. The very act that they paid $1,000 for the class, showed that they are serious, they give a damn and they are probably are likely to listen. In short, the class itself is some sort of a qualification. If the certified trainer sees the student does not know the very basics of mechanics, the client is excused, and given his or her money back. 3- Its a great thing for the client. For me, I at last have the option (since I failed to take advantage of it in High School) to not only get a basic or advanced lesson of the inner workings and build up of the engine, but I am going to get this from the company who is creating the engine components. This is great, I am not only getting education - but I am getting it from the people I am buying the engine from so I do not have to worry about "but he said I need to do this", "well, he should not have told you that, sorry".

I can see some creative thinking making this work - satelite certified offices in 3 or 4 different locations throughout the US where you can get your training (only done several times a year to get enough people to sign up), to order your engine and components and have reimbursed training with the order. You can keep on going with this idea, and use some "options" as training as a cost center "Advanced training in Arkansas" etc., however, per the discussion I am merely thinking of a way you can limit the persons who would greatly add risk to the new offering.

A "mandatory" basic internet class can be done before the sit-down class, this would validate that a person, before even spending $1k on he class has the basic understanding of what compression means, what a hammer looks like, whats a spark plug, etc. "Once you pass this mandatory 50 question test, we will be glad to schedule your formal training session."

So not only do I get a KC engine which I normally cannot afford, but I can say I built it, I finally understood it and I walked away with an life-time education?

Where do I sing up?