[kopride]

Agreed, I have found, at least with racing motorcyle engines, that the times when the motor is working perfectly and purring, is offset by the time spent overhauling it every 100 hours or so. (I can't tell you how many times that my KTM (with a beautiful aluminum water cooled racing motor) gave me fits and stayed back in the garage with a mechanical issue while I had hours of fun in the dirt on my old air cooled Yamaha.

I thought the whole point of these cars was to put a relatively bulletproof maintenance free motor in a lightweight car and chassis. If I wanted to spend hours wrenching, or waiting outside a garage to talk to a mechanic about why it doesn't sound right, I would buy an old XKE. The ford crate motors seem very appealing in this application.