On the surviving part and $25000 I don't spend near that much on the 400's I've built. Most of mine are pumpgas motors that anyone can build. On the lubrication issue their are acouple of little tricks that anyone can do at you garage to remedy this problem. I'm not a rich guy and every dollar counts when spending my money just like you. My biggest problem with the FE's in machine shop world was border line machining and having to catch some of these hidden problems before it bit me in the wallet. I've built some Nice FE's and even just getting a tranny to bolt up true to the engine has been a trick on an occasion. had to pull torque converter and indicate to engine at crank and the do offset dowles to block to compensate for borderline machining. which was causing the tranny seal leaking issue. Customer didn't want to pay for this problem and was a pain in the but. About a $2800.00 engine. This paticular engine was just a truck engine and went through a lot of crap to keep the customer happy. I didn't make any money on this deal but customer happy. I lost my butt on the deal in time!!! I've had less problems with the newer engines but problems are still out their for any engine. I got out of the machining business yrs ago and just do my projects now and work in natural gas engines. It pays way better than any machine shop job. I know I'm gonna catch some flak but I've done some time with these engines and they made me a smarter builder and won't forget these lessons. FE good engine but better be sharp!!