Best engine kits and engine rebuilds and why it works

[callanthony]

I hope I am putting this in the right section if not (sorry). Also sorry for the long post I am just trying to get information as I have been asking and searching for a few months.

I met an old black man 71 years old named Marty and he was my next door neighbor about 9 years ago that had a little shop on the outskirts of Austin and his shops name was “Discount Performance. So on my spare time he would tell me all this stuff about engines as he was trying to help me as he saw my vehicles were breaking down quite a bit as I put a lot of miles on them with my job.

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He told me that car manufacturers do not build vehicles/engines to last due to if they lasted forever then people wouldn’t buy new cars. He also told me he named his business “Discount Performance” and it was due to most people thought when you make an engine high performance that you are going to use more gas and he said it is the reverse you use less gas.


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I purchased a 1997 Ford Econoline E250 Cargo Van 5.4L 8-Cylinder Automatic with 80,000 miles for 3,700.00 and about 6 months later Marty told me I should rebuild the motor and he would do this for me as long as I did the parts running.



I remember him saying that they would put over-sized pistons and bearings in it to give more compression and would use less energy or something like that. So I dropped it off and 2 weeks later picked it up and it was already put together and then Marty put the motor in for me.
Well a few things happened and I am trying to figure out why…
I was able to put 973,000 miles on this vehicle without any issues whatsoever. Just regular maintenance and I had to change out the transmission twice. So I put personally over 800,000 miles on it. Also, I drove this vehicle before putting a new engine in it and I would get around 14 /15 mpg city and 18/19 hwy miles well after he put the motor in I realized and had 2 other people re check my calculations to make sure (I was blown away) that I was getting something like 22/24 city and 30/32 mpg hwy. In this same vehicle and he stated the reason was he built the motor with high compression, high fire and which uses less energy and since I was using it for work and not a hot rod I drove it normal not speeding or anything like that, It would have a little less horsepower but that it would last forever and I would get incredible gas mileage. Long story short got a divorce and wife wanted the van so I gave it to her and it was still running very good. She is still driving the van a year later.
So the point is I don’t live in Texas anymore and I had a friend of mine try to look him up but cannot find him.
What did he do to make this vehicle this great if anyone would happen to know?

I do remember a few things as I said I paid for the master engine kit he just told me what to order, he said that the master kit was a federal mogul and it was the best engine kits ever and clevite had the best bearings, the master kit came with a new cam and I also remember they were turning the crank, boring out the cylinder walls I think and using oversized bearings and pistons. I ran nothing but pure synthetic (royal purple) oil in it and changed the oil once per month every month with a k & n oil filter.
He also did this same thing to my daughters vehicle she had a 1995 Dodge Caravan automatic transmission with 108,000 miles on it he pulled the motor did the same thing and she is still driving this vehicle today (5 years later) with over 590,000 miles on it. She uses the vehicle highway miles mostly, she drives 3 days a week from Austin to Dallas and only uses a half a tank of gas. That is about 400 miles round trip. So 800 miles to a tank of gas. It is a 3.3 liter v-6. 20 gallon tank.
Any help would be appreciated I am just trying to find out the Dynamics behind this so when I pull the motor out of another van I buy I will know what to order and what to tell the machine shop to do. Thank you.