Ford Repair: used motors, arp bolts, exampel

Question
QUESTION: what do you think of used drag motors sold on ebay is it crazy ,dose revs &stress make them knot worth rebuilding at all,that's it for motor life,or OK. Thank's erik

ANSWER: Erik-

  It can be dangerous if you don't know the history of the motor.  There's a good reason most serious drag motors are torn down at least once a year to be rebuilt...and that's because people beat the hell out of them and their components are often designed for horsepower over ultimate reliability.  However if you're looking at a street/strip motor you're probably a bit safer than going for an all out drag motor.  Hope this helps.

Steve

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Steve, I noticed that most of the motor's are not really much more than alum heads OK pistons,&high end nut's an bolts,they say     exampel=      "ARP,H beam rods cap bolts"-----------
only says it has arp bolts,not rods,,long adds can really be trick'y,,and i only half way know whats what,I'm looking at nice set up now,but if i get it,I will buy all forged 331 kit 1050++ ,then another 1or2g's for ballancing ,etc,etc
or ???? thinking or just get 331 sb is 2g's :i have nice ported 66 heads then all the little things,will kill me, but all new,,,or 345HP creat motor is 3500,,, what is best,,,drag motor has 6or7 g's in part's//good stuff????????? erik!  

Answer
Erik-

  Well whether you build the motor or buy it built is up to you...there's not a huge difference in price.  Doing it yourself will require a block, the engine kit of your choice, and a machine shop.  Machine shops would probably charge a few hundred dollars to do the actual assembly but you'd pay more for the actual machine work.  You'd need the block decked, line bore honed, bored, torque plate honed, hot-tanked, and magnafluxed (and, if it's a stroker, you'll often need the bottom of the bores notched to clear the extra stroke).  These steps aren't necessary for a street motor, but they'll keep a performance engine living a happy life.  Buying a short block may not be a bad idea since it'll come fully assembled and you'll know exactly what's it in and sometimes they'll even come with cams, oil pumps, etc.  Even if they don't, any shop could install them for an extra fee and save you the trouble.  If you go with a short block, I'd recommend either DSS Racing or California High Performance (a.k.a CHP, a.k.a Probe Industries).  I assume the 345hp motor you're talking about is the Ford Racing crate motor?  If so, steer clear of it.  It's fine for mild street use, but frankly the parts used are pretty cheap.  It's not much more than a warmed over stock motor.  For $6K-$7K you could build one hell of a motor.  You don't need to spend that much to get a great setup, but if you've got it to spend you could make a bombproof engine capable of 4-digit horsepower numbers (it wouldn't make that much power on it's own, but it could probably handle that much).  Hope this helps.

Steve