Never mind. I don’t think I’ll be doing business with Blueprint. Blatant rip off artists, no offense
@Johnny Mac .
I’m calling bs on a 360 stroker is $3000 MORE than any350 Chevy stroker to mass produce. We all hate AND live with the Mopar tax but I’m not forgiving this hihhway eobbery just because that crooked company has a guy that’s a FABO member.
I know one thing, the mopar tax isn’t $3000 in reality. It means Blueprint is squeezing blood out of turnips (Mopar folks) cause they know we’re accustomed to just paying more. **** them. No offense, Johnny. I know you don’t control pricing. Don’t come to me trying to justify this though.
Go fish,
not sure if i missed a question (with the "never mind") part but I'm happy to talk mopars any time, sorry if i did.
Really hurts my heart that some have that opinion, so I will just point out some points publicly, not directed to change anyone's mind, but just for anyone interested. I can very easily see you have your opinion, and no point in trying to change it. So I promise this isn't meant to get into a banter match with you, but I will make a statement for others wondering the same.
Question: Why is Chrysler 408 more than a chevy 383?
Well, there are many reasons, and I can assure anyone reading this, that neither the iron headed 408, or the aluminum headed 408 we build, have any "Mopar tax" built into them. In fact, they carry much less margin than any ford of gm engine we build, and I go to bat for this engine constantly. It is literally the ONLY core block we purchase today. So instead of starting with a Brand new blueprint casting that simply needs Machined, these blocks need inspected, cleaned, repaired, magnafluxed, and sonic checked. Where the brand new blocks do not.
The "Mopar tax" makes me sick. I hate it, and I have been specifically quoted (especially in reference to the new hemi) that I also can't believe what some charge for them. No they aren't cheap engines. Not in the slightest, but do some googling, especially for ones being built with new blocks, and we are far from the top.
I digress back to the 408. It makes more hp than a 383, has forged pistons, nicer ignition also. I understand thats not thousands, but add the block labor i mentioned above, and you can see where some of it comes from. Everything else in the engine, minus maybe the caps, oil slinger, and the fuel pump eccentric, is brand new. we don't (can't) even use the crank.
Now onto the BIGGEST contributor, with one major sub point. The heads on this engine are edelbrocks. Those are approximately 1100 retail a piece, complete. Instead of buying them like that, we actually completely build them by hand opposed to buying them complete. This ensures quality, it ensures they are built right, and allows us to use our springs, etc. the heads are easily double the cost of our BluePrint alum Gm / ford heads. The sub point to the heads, cranks, pistons, etc is volume. We sell thousands, and thousands, and thousands of sbc engines annually, and that leads to buying power and bulk buy discounts.
Some may ask, why don't we have a BluePrint mopar head? Well, after years and years of pleading my case, I'm actually in the process of designing one now. My goal is to incorporate them on our engines, and yes those will cost us less, so we can pass that onto our consumers. I Also added some pretty cool features to them, with some awesome suggestions and feedback from the forum. Volume = the ability to vertically integrate, design more parts, and share that savings while adding quality control steps, and in house QC. I wish we sold more of these, if we can keep building the volume, maybe we'll even have a block to go with those heads I mentioned above some day.
other data points:
Our 408 ford dressed with a carb, is within $1000 of the Mopar 408 dressed the same. (Heads are BPE on the ford)
our 400 SBC dressed with a carb, is within $1500 of the Mopar 408 dressed the same (heads, block, crank,rods, are all BP, purchased by the thousands)
most of you know I have a 600+ HP 408 stroker that started life long before I started with BluePrint. I'm embarrassed to admit what I have in that engine! I WISH it was what BluePrint sells them for.
So anyways, like I said, I won't change anyone's mind that already has a negative opinion of us, but I do want other readers to have some context of the method to my madness.
We're not a reman company, we're a performance large scale engine builder. We don't compete with small shops that do custom work, or someone that may be looking at a more stock type rebuild. It's just not where we fall in the marketplace. Nothing against either of those at all. Different strokes for Different folks is all.
Anyways, hope anyone reading appreciates the context, and if not, no worries. everyone has their opinions, and there's a customer for every engine type. I wish everyone well that goes either direction, and I'm more than happy to help anyone out that needs some mopar help.
Johnny Mac
