Don't mean to come off as arrogant, but you guys brought it up. It's probably the truth when I say that I have more practical and theoretical experience, than all of you arguing against me combined.

Have already spent more than two sems working for a Fortune 500 company that produces engines you see on the road every day. Experience in competitive intelligence and product dev. Yes, I have first hand experience with the LS_ engine assembled/disassembled. Same goes for other Domestic, Japanese and German engines (yes BMW too) diesel and petrol, some of which aren't even available in the North American market..ie MB, BMW, Audi diesels. Have done engine builds. Go through a systematic and analytical method in disassembling an American v. Import engine, then analyzing specific components, and you'll appreciate my arguements.

Beyond that I also have a decent amount of experience in engine manufacturing.

And btw, one of the guys I worked with was a lead engineer in the development of the last gen Viper. Among the other notable coleagues I was privelaged to learn from: engineers from Garrett, Borg Warner, Mahle, etc.

As far as transmissions go, unless we're talking about the actual mechanics of modern automatics, they're very simple. Dealing with gear ratios is almost completely theoretical.