critique my build plans (long)

[SergntMac]

It sounds to me you are settling with a builder that you you don't particularly trust. You should follow your gut.


Builder Of Badassery

Only wish I had said this myself, and said it louder. Trust is the key to any builder/buyer relationship. Its like dating two women at one time. You give half, and you'll only get half back. If a builder likes you, you'll get his best. If he knows you are splitting your loyalty, you'll get what you paid for, and not a dime more.

I had a thought about compression, and the weight of forged internals, but it got away from me while typing the first paragraph. Oh yeah...

Out of the gate performance, even just driving away from a stop light, will suck with lower compression and heavier rotating mass. And dont imagine tinkering with the torque converter, or the rear end will address that. It wont. It's mainly just throttle response. Like a weight lifter, it's the first few inches that's important to him. One of my Marauders, the first I think, had a killer launch bone stock. Never knew exactly why, but I could gate 400HP Stangs from a dead stop. A car length on average, and from the stop light, that was a lot. This alone made the car a blast to drive around town.

You know, Ford has been quite the dedicated little engine builder the past few years. From the 5.0 to a 4 cylinder EcoBoost, its been pretty impressive stuff. IMHO, I think the one thing you could point at is compression. The numbers are slowly climbing up, and the performance speaks of that. Ford doesn't care how long the engine will last, because they are making the money hand over fist at the point of sale. After you break this car, you had so much fun, you'll buy another. Short sighted, but clear vision. Please think about you CR one more time?

Y'all be safe.

[sailsmen]

What I have always found so interesting is how close the 60' times are on cars that have such different set ups. It leads me to believe a lot of money and effort can be focused on things that do not result in a discernible difference.

[SIZEMOREMK]

I didn't think I gave the impression that this builder doesn't know how to degree cams. That's not what I was trying to say at all. I am aware that they were from a higher powered turbo setup where reverse split cams seem to be popular, but I am still curious about such a large difference in duration. I did question him on the cam selection, but he seemed confident in the setup and at that time I felt comfortable enough with it. Of course when I got tons of interweb reading and time to think on it, I do continue to wonder.

I didn't mean to get all wrapped up in cam selection. It is what it is, as my heads were warped. I figured this set with upgraded cam and valve train, which were included in the package deal, would be worth a little. These cams will be degreed, and I'm confident these guys are up to the task.

This is my first dealing with this shop, and I know some real awesome stuff comes out of his shop; only most of it is LS stuff with a mustang here and there.

Being a little nervous about it is just my nature. That and this was pretty much spur of the moment without a lot of time to plan and prepare financially.

I appreciate all the time you guys spent reading through and your ideas!