What's the appeal of an aluminum engine block?

[RodKnock]

Originally Posted by eschaider

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

Ed, I was just arguing with Patrick about whether it was like the mag wheel situation, where there were a lot of talkers or folks, like Barry R for example, had actually put money down. Barry has his cash down.

I didn't say that there were no FE blocks available, Brent and Barry, professional engine builders said that there weren't any available. Not me. Them. And no one is complaining. Certainly I'm not. My Shelby block is now rare and desirable.

More blocks are being made. Orders are in and whether it costs $500K now to start from scratch (or not), honestly, I really don't care. I have my Shelby block.

I do feel bad about those folks building cars and needing FE engine blocks.