Look you guys. I respect the thought and direction you all have put into this thread.
I have even added my perspective in the past. I myself, looked into building a flat plane crank using an American motor as a basis. But when I added it all up, I just couldn’t see the value. Just a billet crank alone is $3600. And if anyone seriously believes that you can cobble two V4 cranks or make some 4 cyl crank work in a V8 block, has never built a motor before. The amount of time (and skill) spent on machining the block, crank, rods, etc to work together, you would no longer have your dream of an economical flat plane crank V8.
The cheapest scenario I was able to put to paper was a LS based motor. If you went ultra-budget and re-used as many stock parts as possible, you would only need to get a crank and a cam. But right there alone you will have spent $4000 to $4500 on parts. Of course there is the cost of a decent LS motor $2000 to $2500. So even at the low end, doing the work yourself, you will spend $6000 minimum.
And at that point you will still have basically a stock pushrod 2 valve V8 that happens to have a flat plane crank. Cool sound, but no power.
Let me point this out again. For all the people that have said that existing FPC V8’s are too expensive (like Ferraris). Here is a motor that sold on Ebay this week.
355 Ferrari motor. Complete with injection, water pump, and accessories. These are 3.5 liters, 5 valve per cyl, all aluminum, dry sump oiling, and titanium rods. They spin to 9K and make 350 horse with stock exhaust and cats.
This one sold for $3600. Quit spanking the monkey and get on with it. All someone would have to do is make a trans adapter and slot it straight into a Z.
If it’s so economical to build a domestic based motor, why hasn’t anyone here done it?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ferrari-355-f355-engine-complete-no-reserve-motor_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem33577f9568QQitemZ220511311208QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories