Some builders will charge more when you supply the parts, as they may not be the trusted parts that the builder uses and may cause more work for the builder. This happens to my father all of the time...he charges double if you don't use parts that he supplies (he builds old school stuff though, no GENIII stuff)

 

Not to mention, that part of his business is the selling of parts. When you supply parts to a professional, you are cutting into his profit margin. Most shops will charge additional labor, or not accept the job at all.

 

Then those people are idiots. Instead of making 1k-1500 they didn't make ****. This guy quoted me for 24hours of labor alone

 

While he did not get your business, he is instead working on something else where he will make his normal profit margins.

 

he would make the same "profit margins" either way...he has to buy the parts, using his credit card, then charges me for them...instead i would've bought the parts, not costing him ANY money and he could make 100% profit on his labor alone...i don't care either way because i personally don't like the guy that he is thinking of having build his motor.

unless you're one of his butt buddies, you get sub-par service from him...seen it on more than one occasion

 

I would build a motor with customer supplied parts no problem. no warranty of course. so what about the arp ls1 stock replacement rod bolts. do you have to hone the rod bolt holes to use them? I am thinking of putting in a set on my 5.3 before I squeeze it. I have a set of arp 2000's ready to install.

 

The rod bolts in the early ls1's 98-99's were deemed weak because of some failures (most of which occured when people tried spinning the **** out of stock bottem ends.) If your not going over 6500 rpm I would let it ride and spend the money elsewhere unless you have the block out and are sliding in some serious duration.

 

Ok to bring this back up. Since it seems rod bolts are not that necessary from what a few have said.
What rpm are people turning to with stock bolts?
i've always heard 6400 ish was the max.

 

Mine is set to 6500, but that was decided on because of the cam I'm running, not the stock rod bolts.

 

6900-7000 on mine all the time at the track...



I have read that it is a problem with stretching the rod bolts not snapping/shearing them....