Slant 6 Aluminum Performance Head
Here's a quick breakdown of the costs involved to create the patterns and cast a cylinder head(2010 prices, i'm sure they have gone up considerably).
-Basic 3D modeling time and labor and prototype R&D, flow analysis,etc.. to make a few full size scale sample heads....$75K
-Cost to cast about 30 cylinder heads....$15K
-Cost to have raw castings shipped to your facility....approx $1K
-Cost to purchase valve seats, valve guides other misc. hardware needed for bare cylinder head....$9K
-Cost to machine raw castings into ready to assemble unit.....$18K
-Total cost per cylinder head to complete.....$1433-ish
-Modest profit markup of 25% brings approx. retail price to.....$1910
Sounds fair doesn't it....????? With each new batch of 30 cylinder heads you have to fork out approx. $43K to start the cycle all over again. When you sell them, that's just going to recoup your costs to get them cast and machined.....when do you start getting reimbursed for your initial $75K to begin with......? Never....!