Don't totally discount it. Just do your due diligence. Spend some time and choose wisely. Ask around and find out the good and the bad about any perspective builder. There are quite a few good builders out there. Don't be afraid to go to the other side of the country to use a builder that you are comfortable with. Most guys want to stay close to home. That usually doesn't work out well. Sometimes it does, but more often than not, they start a thread like this.(not the case here though)
Most importantly.....DO IT ONCE, DO IT RIGHT. That is the best advice I can give you. If you can't afford to do it right, then don't do it now. Wait until you can afford to do it right. It will be money well spent in the end.
Eddie

I have the same boat exactly as Eric. Engines, year model, graphics, etc. The exact same! And also originally from Ducky's! So I read this thread with interest. WOW! A 2 hr read start to finish. But what a lot of great information. I sure hope this works out well and you end up with a great and fun boat. We have really good and stable bottoms on these 05's and I can't wait till you tell us how it feels at 115-120. As long as it's at RF have you considered getting the bottom blue printed?

Andy

I think he already had his ass handed to him and or I mean blueprinted !!!!!!

Yes thats right but rechecked while its there?

might as well, this far now like cancelled Planet Pluto for a journey

RF just did the blueprinting.

Sooooooo....what you are saying is that 5 re-builds in 5 years is not normal?? Could of fooled me....lol.

Like Triple 300's (aka Rainbow Warrior) said, RF blueprinted the hull several months ago. Now its just waiting for power....power that lasts more than 7 minutes.

lol ok, I am not the one who bent over and took 5 rebuilds in 5 years...there is no way I am a rainbow warrior, you are the KING! you love Jiminey Cricket engine building...

I read the entire thread (took a few hours) last nite.

TRL, I feel really bad for you. I'm very surprised your in such good spirits and glad your keeping your head up.

As for as hurting engines goes, I'm not surprised with that fuel plumbing. I don't even need to see pictures of the hurt engine to know what it looks like as I've seen that happen lots of times on drag race engines. My opinion is that it wasn't a problem with Tyler's engine (long block) that he built. It was fuel starved, went lean, and popped.

I hope everything gets sorted out and comes out running strong. You definitely deserve some good luck for once.