Freiburger:

You asked on page 21 of the May CC issue to let you know if we actually like the late-model coverage and I'd like to tell you how important it is to me. I love old cars as much as the average man (talked to him the other day) but the reality is I don't have time or money to buy performance parts and restoration parts at the same time. I'm also not going to wait 3 years for the local body resto guru to finish a $6000 rust repair and body work job that I have to get a loan for. Gas prices aren't going down either. I'm not disinterested in older cars but at this stage of the game (age 29, married with kids and a mortgage) I don't have time to throw thousands of dollars at a restoration AND go-fast parts, and I really need the go-fast parts in a bad way. A nice looking slow car is still a slow car.

That's why the reader LS1 backlash scares me. How could a gearhead reject that engine? It must be a fear of computers or a total lack of bargain hunting skills. Ebay's 'Completed Items' shows that a 5.3L goes for as little as $500-$700 for a running example with 50k miles. Personally I'm tired of stamped steel oil pans, valvecovers, timing covers. I'm also sick of scraping RTV, removing the intake manifold for cam changes, of small oil leaks that I just can't seem to fix, of crappy stock head castings that mandate aftermarket heads, of valvecover parting lines that are too shallow and cause the valvecover gasket to be constantly immersed in oil, and I could go on and on. Are these same guys complaining about the high cost of big blocks and forced induction equipment? This is really getting me riled up. I better go sleep this off.

Jason

It's not so much the engines themselves I think, it's the LS1 overkill that ran rampant during the Jeff Smith era.  I myself would roll my eyes and flip the page to something else.  When I first started reading CC back in '99, what hooked me was the "fun factor" and the lack of a barrage of shiny Chevys.  Features on BOP 350's, road trip-type test drives that looked like a lot fun for the participants, and the old Crandon, WI beater enduro(R.I.P.) are what started my infatuation with the mag.  I always thought of Car Craft as a roll up window carboureted kind of mag, but the late-model stuff is OK, as long as it dosen't posess the lion's share of pages.  

Okay, I've slept since the last post. Much better. I've been a subscriber since '92 and my favorite era is the current one. I like the emphasis on tech and getting the job done cheaply. I don't think there's been too many LS1 stories. The only two I remember from the past year have been the 400hp 5.3L dyno story (I hope that wasn't HR, I subscribe to both but can't remember which zine had the story) and the recent 'How to Build a Gen III' story. Are you referring to all the feature cars with LS1's, bear?

I was giddy when I saw Freiburger's story on the FE build up for his '65. I bought some low-riser 360 FE heads from the junkyard last year just because they looked cool and the selling price was only $20. I'm also looking forward to the AMC 360 build up because they're so plentiful in some of my favorite Jeeps.

But there are easily two or three 4.6 Mustangs for every LS1 F-body!  We at least want EQUAL TIME!   Ford has built a couple million Modular V8s every year for over ten years.   And considering that over 400 hp on a stock-looking "all motor" 2V Modular isn't that hard (and as much as 900+ hp* with power adders on stock-type crossbolted factory blocks), these engines have plenty of untapped potential.

I don't care if they do LSx stories, but they should also do Modular builds too!

*Example: Richard Holdener dynoed 911 h.p. on a factory-stock, assembled-by-Ford short block, unported '03 Cobra engine fitted with an HP turbo kit,  some Comp Cams and a F.A.S.T. EFI computer.

And not just Mustangs, but my crown vic, tbirds, cougars, etc...  

Absolutely!  

I don't like all high dollar engine builds, nor do I like all junk yard scavenging builds. The balance between the two is what is key to keeping the dreams alive with the bigger builds, while at the same time showing what the average wrench spinner might be capable of in his own driveway. The LS engines scare closed minded people who don't have any experience with it, just like the TPI engines did back in the 80's and the LT1 and Vortec headed engines did in the 90's. Just don't kill off the LS engine stories completely, otherwise CC will turn into the trailor park king of old engine projects.