While the actual manufacturing costs are similar, the pricepoints cannot be.

It is rather simple when you think about it, As a manufacturer you want to make a profit from the parts you produce. You must make a profit in a specified timeframe or it is not worth doing.

The simple facts are this: A SBC part will pay for itself in a shorter timeframe at a lower price do to its larger portion of the marketshare (The SBC engine is pretty much the "top dog" in marketshare across the board). In order for a Ford or Mopar part to do the same amount of profit in the same timeframe you need to raise the selling price as the marketshare is just not as big. Unfortunately, that's just the way it is.

I spend my days answering the telephone/emails/attending shows for TFS & the most common answer I get from people when I ask why they are putting a SBC into a Ford is this: The #1 reason is because they like the looks of the Chevy better than that of the Ford. Followed by the cost difference.

The only thing I know for sure is this: I know that I am in the minority as I really do not care one way or the other as to what engine is under the hood of anything...

 

I thought that Nissan motor was a skyline motor or something like that. Probablys has turbos and good engine management, good and high tech. I liked it in the mustang in the movie It was a good fit and diffrent. If you want good light and nimble its a good way to go. A production 302 will split in half around 500 hp.

 

I am in the minority as well. I pretty much put anything i can get my hands on under the hood.

 

I have a 90 Saab 900 and frequent a forum for them. There is a discussion on there now on how to jam a V8 of some sort in there. Mind you, these are FWD cars with a fore-aft engine with the flywheel at the front of the car, and all the accessories on the rear. There is no oil pan, the transmission case performs that function. They have the "Saab in a Saab" purists warring with the "put an SBC in it with Jag IRS conversion" folks. Someone there wisely suggested that if you want a RWD V8 car, you simply buy one and not completely revamp a Saab to get there. I see a lot of parallels with this forum.

 

Same here, I use what I have on hand. My main reason for using the Mercedes diesel is for fuel economy, plus I like to be different from the crowd.
Jeff

 

edlebrock just came out with the new E85 carb If i didnt purchase a new carb last year I would be getting one of these, in fact I might just get one anyway to run E85 fuel in the effie.. I always thought that would be cool. pull up in a 51 year old truck and put E85 in it.

 

Volume is king!
I'll try to not start a flame war, but will give some historic background for education without giving judgements.
Back in the earlier days of hotrodding after WW2 what was winning the bullring races were stripped down Fords. Light weight, easily stripped of "excess" parts and very available at low prices on used car lots and junkyards. The Ford V8 was a popular engine choice, but the 4 cylinder has a strong following as well. In the early 50s dragracing as an organized sport was born and appealed to the amatuer gearheads of the day, so many of the "Jalopies" as we called them back then moved from the ovals and the street to the strip.
As always there were those who wanted to go faster than the other guy so a quest was made for more HP. The OHV engine was able to put out more HP for less money than the flathead so the Olds, Buick and especially the Chrysler hemi started showing up in the same Ford chassis. In 1955 a new star was born, the CSB. Using "modern" casting methods, and a revolutionary design engineered by a brilliant racer turned designer named Arkus Duntov they were able to produce a compact, lightweight, high reving mass produced engine that put out more HP / cu in in stock form than the modified V8s (except the Hemi, which was a huge, heavy, limited production torque monster that tortured lightweight chassis, and were available only to a limited few with deep pockets and a lot of factory pull) almost the exact same size as a Ford flathead, and it even had a rear sump oilpan that easily cleared the front buggy spring and beam axle. Within a couple years the SBC was the engine of choice. Ford OHV V8s of the day were heavy long strokes with small head ports and valves not really suited to racing, and Ford kept changing the engine configurations even within family lines so interchangabilty of parts was difficult and aftermarket suppliers didn't want to set up to manufacture parts that only would fit one size and in some cases even year engine, whereas you could build up most any size or year CSB into a racer by swapping parts right off the dealer's shelves, they were offered in so many sizes and HP ratings right from the factory. The aftermarket embraced the engine as well since one part would fit every engine in the family and there were so many on the road as well as racing and the engine responded so well to modification there was a large market for their products.
Ford didn't get back in the picture with a thinwall casting smallblock until 1960 and then still didn't use consistant configurations.
...and that's the rest of the story.