I’m doing the new 1985 police car scenario. I can’t get the service cost under double the max cost. This is without even trying to meet the other requirements. Even a pushrod, low revving straight 6 seems to be 2400+ dollars a year in service costs. What changes this factor? I’ve sort of figured out how to manipulate lifespan and max RPM, but this one eludes me.
pretty simple: try using a standard intake / air filter 
that should solve most of these problems.
The second major influence on Service Cost is Capacity.
I found that after some tweaking.
What’s the logic behind that? a thousand+ extra dollars a year to service a racier air intake?
a good air filter actually decreases servicing costs because it does not need to be replaced
Well… it’s not that a standard intake is less likely to be replaced, but an air filter pretty much filters the road dirt and other unwanted substances enter the engine. Says it really in the name! This obviously means less servicing.
Yes but over 1000 pounds a year more servicing? That’s either a rebuild a year, or an oil change every month, or 20 high-flow filters, etc. I could understand a 20% higher service cost, but more than doubling it seems odd.
If its the Race intake, the implication is that you need to constantly change the oil and maintain various things as its sucking in all kinds of crap through the intake.