I got an Email this morning from a person I know that they have received a shipment from UPS of a full set of GM crate engine bolts so you can open up and reseal a crate motor . For the poultry sum of $140 from Dennis Boyd in Orlando you can now open them up and build them the way you want them . I am told that if you don't want to do it yourself for $9000 Boyd will ship you a Super Crate that will kill the $3200 crate you buy here locally .
I had heard this rumor for a while but this is the first person that I know around here that actually got the bolts .
The crate thing was a good idea but I figured it was just a matter of time until this was going to happen . After I see these bolts tonight for myself I will have more to say on this .
Interesting. I have heard rumors (and that is all they are) that some people have been messing with the crate engine anyways. Now they can cover their tracks... And here we are back at step one with everyone having built motors. Personally I think that is what the racers want anyways, not very many guys going with the crate these days. Going to be interesting to see what happens with the rules now. Will they randomly call back crates? I never thought much of the "sealed" idea, for exactly this reason. Too many people have access to the keys and sooner or later (almost two years later) someone gave out a copy of the key. Let us know whether they are the real deal there Pinecrest...
Oh well, It figures an engine builder would f*** things up. If it does come to this the price of racing will go up again.
Thunder6, "not very many guys going with the crate these days"
Get you head out of the sand young man, crates are popping up everywhere. Some track have so few builts left you can count them on one hand. Every time one of the last ones blows up, the pit bunnies sing a chorus of "Another One Bites the Dust"
Its follow the leader racing, cut and dry! went to Cayuga a few weeks ago to watch the crate Asa series and i left 75 laps in. I NEVER LEAVE BEFORE THE RACES ARE OVER. It took one lap to get single file then it was the most painfull race i have watched in a long time. I have heard the sunset llm show is fantastic(probably the only thing positive thing i have heard about sunset in years). And the reason it is good racing is because there is passing. It is not dominated by crate engines, from what i have heard their is a pretty even mix of built and crate engines. Funny that sunsets points leader runs a built motor. Anyways, if tracks would pull their heads out of there asses and even it up so a built can compete you might see some better racing. Sorry from the stands, but a cheap motor doesn't constitute good racing. I look forward to watching the crate fad die a slow painfull death. Real race engines don't come in crates.
I can see the higher classes doing this (eg. Late Model) but for the Stock classes why? Well even the higher classes, the crate is there for a reason to save $$$$.
Now the way I see it, this is just plain CHEATING nothing else, if this cranks your tractor (Cheating) then do it. Your just fooling yourself and you will get caught.
My crate engine that is 4 years old has new valve springs this year, other than oil changes nothing has been done to it. Four years $3400 is a good deal, I remember when it was $12 - $13K a year for an engine in the stock classes and the good teams would do a rebuild once a year. All the cars run with in .50 to .70 of one another at our track and the fast guys are the ones that get them to handle.
When we do get teched, our track will pull heads if they think there is an issue with a sealed engine. But, the worst is people hear rumors of people getting the engines resealed. Eventually it gets to Tech and then the engine can be pulled. Do you really want to risk it?
Heck, save time and money and just put in 1.6 rockers on the exhaust only, this will give you more power than the people that don't.
Again if you want to CHEAT go for it, but it just proves you can't make a car handel.