Although I certainly would not build a "good" performance or race engine that way, I too have had pretty good results with "quick and dirty" cheapo " engine rebuilds. In high school, around 1974, I took the old, VERY tired 272 Y Block out of my 57 Ford Sedan Delivery, that I paid 50 bucks for, and drove to school, and me and a buddy did a dingleberry ball hone on the cylinders, had the crank polished, and bought a cheap rebuild kit from the Sears catalog, which had new rings, bearings, gaskets etc, and put it together in the basement. Ran it for a couple of years in his 59 4 door, then I ran it for a few more years in my 57 Custom sedan, sold the car, then heard that the 57 ended up in a wrecking yard a while later. Another buddy bought the engine out of it, and it has been in his very nice 57 Fairlane 2 door hardtop, for close to 30 years, and last I heard, it was still running fine although he only puts a few hundred miles a year on the car. And in 1990, the old 360 in my 74 F350 was getting really tired, so I bought a 390 from a 1976 F250 from a neighbor, again, did a ball hone on the cylinder walls, bought another cheap cast ring rebuild kit from a local parts store, put new rings on the original cast "410" pistons, but did have the crank ground .010-.010", and had the heads rebuilt, doubt that I had over $500. in the engine, including the core, parts, and machine work. I drove the truck from 1990 thru 2014, including several trips to dragstrips around 1000 miles away. Never needed to add any oil between changes, it just ran great. I bought my V10 F350 in 2014, sold the truck to another local drag racer, and it is still running great. He pulled the engine out over the winter, to replace the clutch that I had installed in 1990, and replaced some seeping gaskets (valve covers, intake, oil pan,), but after almost 35 years, the cheapo rebuild is still running well.
