What's the appeal of an aluminum engine block?

[eschaider]

Originally Posted by RodKnock

Ed, first I never said anything about making engine blocks being a good business. NEVER said it. Period.

Second, Shelby and Pond have been selling their blocks for over a decade. Not sure when BBM or Side Oiler Garage started their businesses, but the Shelby and Pond designs, forms, etc. and whatever else you need has long since been completed.

Third, according to Brent and Barry, there aren't any blocks available today. None. For over a year. But Barry, and I'm sure other engine builders like Craft, Brent, Tom Lucas have put down deposits at least for new blocks. That is all I'm pointing out. Money has been sent somewhere from an engine builder to an engine block manufacturer. Patrick said buyers are flakes. I said Barry isn't your typical flakey buyer. That is my only point. You're on a complete tangent.

I didn't mean to imply you represented any block manufacturing business as either good or bad. I did not see that in your post. To suggest that I did is inaccurate.

I did describe some of the obvious sunk costs of development so readers could better distinguish and not confuse them with deposits made in advance of a purchase. The actual expense to someone typically the guy who is offering the block for sale actually does exceed the $500K number I suggested for a single production run.

I am confident your representation of a year of no product availability is correct. While I have not fact checked the time period I also see no reason for you to mislead us with respect to that fact.

At the time the deposits were made I suspect the individual buyers knew the product was not in inventory and would represent a back order. They had, as others and perhaps you also have pointed out, other block sources with inventory that they could have purchased from. They made a choice to buy from a provider that was out of stock but would have inventory in the future.

If everyone is so put out by the absence of product availability and you genuinely believe the sunk costs of product design and manufacturing are not borne by the manufacturer why don't one of you guys with all the answers jump in an bring the blocks to market, harvest all the profits and glory associated with saving the day for everyone else.

I believe the reasons no one has are;

a. The task is not easy,
b. The task is not inexpensive as some would have you believe,
c. The task has a higher probability of failure than most will accept
d. It is easy to sit behind a keyboard and complain — and it feels good.

We certainly have no lack of complainers and certainly an abundance of people who apparently 'know' what is wrong and how to fix it — so where are their block offerings??


Ed