Quote Originally Posted by Iron Indian View Post
I thinking about building up a 3800 soon, not sure yet if i'll assemble the bottom end myself or not, most likely probably not. For the bottom end I plan on using 9.5:1 Diamond forged pistons uncoated, L67 rods (since i've seen way more L32 failures than L67), a new crank (again, seen alot of failures from turning these), ARP hardware most likely and thats all I can think of at the moment. Not sure if I should go with Clevite bearings or stick with stock, not sure on a cam either.

Whats your setup? What did it cost you? And no, i'm not interested in a junkyard short block. I'd rather build something potentially stronger than stock.
Shawn - you probably already know all of this, but just get an L36 shorty - you can get them for ~$250 all day long.

Tank it and polish the crank - ~$125-ish
Deck it - ~$75-ish
Resurface heads - ~$60-ish
Valve job - new seals - ~$150-ish
Clevite bearings (yes ) - ~$22
Main bolts (I wouldn't mess with studs - because if you do, then you "should" get it align-bored, too.) I would use studs for the heads, though - and I did.
Mains - ~$50
Head studs - $80
Rod bolts - ~$100
All new gaskets/seals, etc - ~$170-ish (full gasket set from ZZP is $160)
Cam - gray area here - VS or XP is tried and true, but it's all about preference. ~$320
Diamond 9.5:1's - ~$700-$900

I've already decided that my next GP will be turbo.

-Swash