Blue print engines

I guess blueprint can mean different things to different people.

To me, it's where key specifications are double-checked to usually closer than factory tolerances to produce a true blue printed block (i.e. properly located bores, deck heights, alignments etc.). Also, blue printed components invlove balancing the reciprocating parts and rotating assemblies. One goal is to build the engine to make desired power from a given design. All of this and more is done by Smeding Performance.

 

I used a local shop that's been in business for over 40 yrs to build my '64 model 289 for my truck. Good relationship, local support and warranty, plus it stimulates the local economy. Waiting for them to dyno tune it now.

 

I put a 408 stroker Ford engine in my truck from Blue Print. I have not had any troubles at all with it. I went to 3 local machine shops in my area and gave them the specs that I wanted all 3 promised to call me back, none did. So I gave up on the local guys in Chicago and bought one of these.
I'm at a show 2 years later and one of the machinists sees the engine and calls it a pile of shit. You should have gotten a price from me he says. To which I replied that I had called him six times hunting down a quote.
I have no sympathy for the local speed shop, if they are hurting maybe they should call guys back when they are looking for work to be done.
I've had a few engines built by Speed Shops, I could grenade 3 of these Blue Print engines for what the one Speed shop engine cost me and it blew the side out after only 50 passes. No warranty there either, just loud unending laughter.
I've had no problems with Blue Print Engines product.

 

I should have been more specific ... My dyno numbers were on the Smeding sheet that came with the engine.

Barry

 

Wow, what a mess! I work at a local machine shop (if you live near me it's local) and we are fairly small, just 4 of us but I am very good at returning phone calls and customer service as we get most of our business from our reputation. I'm sure there are plenty of good crate engines out there, but like I tell my customers, I have a face and a name and you know where to find me. We have a handshake warantee and a conscience and we take pride in every single engine we do no matter what it's for. If we screw up, we fix it no charge, if you screw up and are a good customer, we will do our best to help you out. The point is we really don't want to see your engine back at the shop unless you just stop by to BS and drink beer after hours. Sometimes it's good to have someone who cares about you and your car build your engine.

 

Anyone no how much horsepower a 440 ci wil give with +0.40 pistons and a 620 cam (aprox)

 

I've been drag racing and building my own motors for some 45+ years. I got started because my grandfather was a machinest and dad was a mechanic.
The only crate motors I would purchase are directly from Ford, Chevy, Mopar..........etc.
I doubt "blue printed" means the same thing to SpeedWay Motors as to a engine builder who builds motors for living..................stay away from cheap motors, because you will usually end up with junk. Some of the reputable builders do a good job, but their prices are a lot higher than people like Speedway for a reason.............good parts and "blue printing" takes time and money to do right.

I am refreshening my 408 drag motor in my Maverick as we speak.................and sure I can go to a reputable engine builder and spend $10/13k for a 750hp motor or spend 1/2 of that and have a machinest do the work and I will put it together. Granted you are probably not looking for 700+hp motor..................but do yourself a favor and find a good machinest and sit down and talk with him about what you want...........pencil the numbers and then take a look at Chevy's short block or crate motor program..................you will save yourself a lot of headache by doing one of the other..................buying something cheap like a crate motor is like buying a cheap house.................what issues are you going to run into and how much time and money will you save by doing it right the first time, "DIRT FT"...........................this is just my opinion, but I have been doing this my whole life..................just a few numbers to prove my point;

Dart Race Block for my 408 (4bolt mains on all 5 mains)................$2k to $2.5k
machine work to make sure the block is correct, line hone/bore/deck height etc $500
Billet Crank from Bryant's.................$2.5k finished
Good H beam rods........(not the Eagle or SCAT made in China).............$1k
Probe pistons....................$750
Balance......................$250
Blueprinted oil pump..........$150
Refreshened Roush/Yates heads.............$1k

About $8k and this was a running motor, my block was an OE 2bolt that was already .040
and the crank needed some work, the Eagle rods needed to be resized, and I needed new pistons/rings anyway...................this motor should do 750hp at the crank on a dyno and push my 3325lb Maverick well into the 9's in the quarter..........with a single carb and race gas.

IMHO

 

I've recently had a HUGE failure with an 8K$ crate engine (dyno tested, too!) from Speed-O-Motive. Engine didn't have more than 2 hours run time, just break in in the shop, and then driving in and out of the shop. NEVER on the road! They never tightened the ARP rod nuts. Each one had a breakaway torque of 10 lb/ft. One let loose and siezed the engine. Of course, at first they claimed it was out of warrantee, because, as most of us do, we drop in the enigne and build the car around it, taking a year or 2 to finally get it finished. After arguing with the guy, and sending pics of the disassembled engine, you couls see it had no run time, he offered to build a new one, with free labor. But by the time you buy a new block, crank, rod, piston, and such, and send the engine back to CA, it wasn't very smart to go thorugh this. I sent it all to a great local builder (Bontempo Brothers Competition) to be done right.
My point in this long story, is that crate engines can fail, and often, the resolution by the builder is not satisfying. He should have covered the cost of parts damaged by HIS error. He did not!
Oh...and while complaining about this crate engine to other car guys, I've heard a slew of other horror stories about failures. And little done to correct the problem.

I think I'm sticking to my not so local guy, BBC, who never failed to give me good service in the 30+ years I've dealt with them.

 

The problem with local builders is a couple of 100 dollars isn't gonna do it. I just bought the Blueprint 632 ci. 815/810 for 11600.00 Local shops 20k and no warrenty.Let alone months to get it done if your lucky. I've bought 4 of them various models.No trouble . I agree with buying local,but not at twice the price. I've seen people loose alot of parts with the econemy and the doors closing around here.Anybody know where that POS Chad Blundell is located in Washington? Ripped me and 2 other people I know off for the tune of 4k.

 

I worked for Marshall Engines (the maker of blueprint engines about 10 years ago as a warranty administrator) and my advice is to stay far away from those engines. Some of the things that do are very good, but the cylinder heads were absolute junk. They used guide liners insteadof installing a new guide. I had more warranty problems because of cylinder head problems than anything else. Jusy my 2 cents worth

 

Agreed. And personally I wouldn't install a crate motor without tearing it down and going through it. Well, actually I lied, I wouldnt install a crate motor period, but lets say I was kidnapped by the Car Craft editorial staff, held at gunpoint and physically forced to use a crate motor, I would tear it down and go through it before I ran it.

Wow! Someone on the HAMB actually GETS this??!! Thats right, late model cads, 302 fords with 97's stuck on top, 460 fords, and 440 mopars are off-topic. You are right sir. Honestly, I dont know why so many people have so much trouble grasping this. Congratulations on your clarity and insight!

 

A friend of mine bought a Marshall engine through a local parts store. It had a rattle that he asked me to listen to. I thought it was piston slap. He tried to get it warranted and got nowhere. It rattled enough that it set off the knock sensor. Luckily, the parts store he bought it from stood behind it and had it bored and oversize pistons put in it. They quit selling Marshall engines.

The problem I've found with the good local machine shops is that they are always very busy and don't need any more business.

 

I'd buy new from GM parts counter or use a local rebuilder. A cheap engine is usually just that.

 

So 350 blocks and 400 cranks were around prior to '63? I can help you out with your history, seeing as you seem to really be in the dark...

 

You left the / out. That means blueprint and machine. The forward slash takes the place of the "and".

 

Then anyone who was born after that isn't traditional either and should get off the HAMB.

I know totally about the focus of the HAMB but the whole traditional thing gets a little tiresome at times.

I love hot rodding in almost all it's forms and just focusing on one part of it gives one tunnel vision and you miss some cool stuff.

I think you can like traditional rods and other stuff too.

 

I'm good. As to the young guys, well... And what is or isnt on topic for the HAMB has nothing to do with what you I or anyone else "likes'. I have all kinds of off-topic stuff, I dont generally post photos of it on here, or talk about it on here( posted a pic of my '66 chevy II this morning, after two people asked to see it). Hell, I am even thinking about building a low buck V-8 S10 parts chaser. I REALLY dont see what is so hard to understand about this. Join other forums if you want to talk about other stuff. I am a member of a Chevy II forum, a Falcon forum, two Mopar forums, a brit bike forum, Speedtalk, and a few others. I think my chevy II is REALLY cool, if I didnt , I wouldn't own it. If I posted stuff about it on the Falcon or Mopar forums, it would be deleted IMMEDIATELY, and if I EVEN ONCE bitched about it like half the whiny little wankers on here do when they get called on off-topic stuff, I'D be deleted. they would boot me from the forum, no questions asked.

I am guessing by the fact that you dont get the idea of a forum that has rules and isnt a free-for-all, that you are one of the guys that was born after '63, probably well after. Self indulgent, all about me, I should be able to post about whatever I think is cool, ect. just a guess...

 

It should be an "and" I guess you didn't see the emoticon either. Bad punctuation right there. For a man with that sig you sure do take everyone else's stuff serious. Lighten up Francis.

 

Well, the second half of post #41(the first half is DEAD serious), the first line of #47 and all of #44 are total chain yankings. The "I think its cool, so it should be on topic" thing is total bullshit, and you see it on here all the time. But yes, I did miss the emoticon. My bad.

 

Coincidentally the new issue of Car Craft ( maybe Hot Rod, but I think it was Car Craft) had an article on how they tweaked a few things on the cheapo GM 350 and got 500 HP out of it. It might be something to look at if your buying a crate motor.

 

That's what's wrong. Period correct is hard, it takes dedication. Nobody wants to put forth the effort but "everybody" wants to be part of the club. But then "everybody" want to change the club to include everybody else "Because we're all Hot Rodders right?" Then they gang up on the hardcore guys and bitch about how they dont understand all this traditional focus and they really need to be more accepting. So the hardcore guys get tired of arguing about this shit and just stop responding because now all it creates is drama.

But we need those hardcore guys. We need guys like Brian Bass and Bob Bleed to push the envelope while staying within these etherial set of rules that exist within this weird little sub-community of hot-rodding. We need guys like Rikster and Evel and Ryan to document and educate everyone about it. Without it, the "hardcore" guys, we wouldn't have cars like the Bass coupe or Live Wire. And Evel would be running a th350 in Live Wire instead of waiting months and looking hard for a lasalle transmission.

I personally appreciate those guys. Hell my car's not even in the club, I have a superbell axle on it, which is freakin lame, but I'm impatient and it was right there in front of me. Now that I think about it I need to swap that shit out...

Personally I like the hardcore banger guys that give the AV8 guys shit for dropping the banger. Circle of life. NOBODY gets a trophy. Like the old days. I was there.

That was a lie. I'm 31. I had Ninja Turtles.

 

When I had my shop, all my Ford & Chev engine hard parts were bought from Speedomotive.
It was Al Teague's business. None better.

There is a Fresno machine shop that 'specializes' in cast crank returns for forged cores.
Three instances was convincing. (all in 1995)

 

You guessed totally wrong I get the idea of the forum and the rules and that isn't an isuue, never has been.

I like the HAMB for what it is and also like other types of forums for the role they fill.

I like all kinds of hot rodding related stuff and this is not the only place to find some very neat stuff and talented individuals.

As for my date of manufacture, it's 1954 So that puts me somewhere near the old fart club range

 

Wow....
Very well said.
Except for maybe the Ninja Turtle part...

 

~ Funny shit!

 

Well, I guess pretty much everybody knows where I stand on this. well said Dreddybear, Ed.

 

I like how a thread asking how such and such a motor is turns into debate 85,982,743 on what's traditional and on topic. I'm all for traditional, but have you been to a wrecking yard lately, pre-65 motors in good shape do not grow on trees anymore for one, and for two, if you're actually going to drive the damn car, it's nice to be able to find parts even when you're in Armpit, Nebraska, population 75, and the only parts store around carries more stuff for tractors than anything else.

 

Armpit Nebraska? why thats right across the river from where I live in Bum F**k Iowa Sorry couldn't help my self

 

Y'know I agree with all of what you said. I was merely pointing out that one can choose to like a number of things and pursue that in the appropriate places.

The HAMB is awesome for what it is.

 

Bunch of guys writing their names in the snow. 37 feet no wind.