crate motor be better for me?
 

well, since i guess i dont know what i want with my engine, would a crate motor be better for me?

i was looking at either the 330hp 350 complete, or the zz4 350.

I also had a 305,I got rid of it and got the crate engine with around 230hp 300tq ("official" engine name escapes me) $1400. Its a great engine, and I believe the 330hp one is $2000, which is a pretty good price. It's hard to beat a brand new crate engine. I say go for one of the two you listed. I went from around(I think) 160-170hp to around 230hp which is a very very nice leap. But really I think it's a good idea that you wont regret.



Also, do you have to pass emmissions?
LS1, hint, hint

no emissions

Yeah, why not a LT1 (LS1 isnt a good choice for a truck, and they are $$$)? They can be had for pretty cheap and make good TQ. If you really want to set your truck apart from others id say its a good route.

But if you want some carb simplicity, Id go the HT383. Its something like 400TQ and 325HP.

http://www.sallee-chevrolet.com/Chev...8s/HT_383.html

Id say go LT1 though, its very trick. Look around some junkyards in your area, they can be had for a good price.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=33615

Here ya go!

if yo have a 350 tranny, go with the zz4. but if you have the 700r4 id go with the 230hp. just my 2 cents. that is unless you need a new tranny aswell

i went with the stock original crate 350, i think the whole fact that its all new parts is a great deal for 1379.99 from scoggin dickeys. eric if u get one from scoggin dickeys the shipping all around oklahoma is 100 plus the good ol 100 core charge :(, but the block cost' was 1179.99, core of a 100 and shipping of 100. plus i forget what kind of warranty they give as long as its unmodified from the intake down

If you do get a crate, atleast get something with some good heads that you can upgrade later. You WILL need more power. Its an addiction.

yea i know lol but right now im paying off the loan so i can later get a 700r4 from bowtie overdrives and rebuild a rear end and do some over well appreciated work:)

Re: crate motor be better for me?
 

until you figure out what you want its not going to be any easier trying to pick the right crate motor than trying to pick the right combo to build your own. you NEED to figure out what exactly your goals are. is it going to be your daily driver again? is it going to be just a nice looking cruzier with a little pep? or do you really want a quick truck that you can race and play with on the weekends?

"good weather" daily driver for sure. i've missed it to much the past months for it not to be:)

as long as its not raining down lots or snowing or icy, i'll drive it:)

in that case i think the zz4 would be perfect for you. and it will take a bit of spray if you get the urge to go a little quicker

:confused: :confused: :confused: Please Explain??:confused: :confused: :confused:

So I guess that GM messed up by putting LS1 based engines in all thier Trucks??

The LS1 is a FAR better motor than the LT1 in every aspect. No reason it wont work well in a truck. If Iwould have had the money and the time to have it wired up I would have done just that.

I have seen complete engine/tranny setups go for 3k-4k with wiring harnes and PCM and all. :):burnout:

my advice ( in all seriousness this post) is to get the crate motor. It comes with a warranty. If ya get one that comes from GM it hink its similar to a new car warranty. but at least ya know it was prolly built right and if it isnt it goes back with no ou t of pocket expenses ( if youre doint the swap yourself). If i didnt get a almost new crate motor when i changed out the motors in my 86 i woulda parked the truck in the yard until such time as i could have gotten the new crate motor ( mine was a v6 but had i went for a crate i woulda upgraded to a 350 cause crate v6's are quite expensive)

I thought you said in one of your previous threads, money is a concern and you could not aford a crate engine? Crate engines are the epitome of ease when it comes to purchasing and installing...but you could duplicate the performance results by having your own engine built to similar specs for less than it cost to buy a crate engine. Engine builders need your business to stay in operation..and the good and honest ones will build you just as good of an engine, and back it up, for less money.

Just as an example, my last small block set me back $650. I putzed with it for four years, changing this and that (looking for more power), racing it, driving the snot out of it...and it made MORE power than the zz4 for less than half the cost when it was all said and done.

I say find a good engine builder, make a list of what you want and what the vehicle intentions are...they can help you...they do this for a living.

On the LS1 thing...they are excellent engines, but they don't just "bolt in"...they require more work than a lt1 or traditional SBC to get them installed and up and running. Remember, Eric isn't as rich as some of you! :D

Geez man...there you go hating on the LT1s again. Im seriously just going to have to drag that raggity camaro up their and LT1 spank you around a little arent I?

I 'm running the $1300 230HP crate motor. Changed the cam and now I'm about 300HP. Good enough for 14 sec 1/4 miles. Heads and new cam are next which should put me about 450HP. I see 13's before too long.

You dont have 300HP coming from that motor. Any way you look at it you dont. It might feel that way, but its not. You might be running 270-280. Those heads are really holding you back, even with a set of vortecs you need a pretty dang big cam to even approach 350+ HP.

Maybe a set of nice AFR heads would get you up in the 400hp range. Your just gonna need a HUGE cam to do that without nitrous. Wont be too daily drivable, but I guess thats part of the fun of having a 400+hp 350. :D

Whoa Whoa Whoa Firechicken boy! :D Im not baggin on LS1's on any regard (Id take one over an LT1 anyday)

I just meant that it would be more practical for him to bolt in a LT1 than an LS1. They are cheaper and have more Lowend than the LS1's wich would do wonders for an old heavy truck.

The whole reason I picked it anyhow was because of the money aspect. They make good power thats fuel injected for pretty cheap if you can find a good one out of a junkyard. And they are pretty trick to boot, not as trick as an LS1, but its cheaper. Tradeoffs I guess :burnout:

An Lt1 would also be a nice motor like said above. It would be cheaper, however I've heard of problems with the opti spark(did I say that right?). What do you have to change with an LS1? engine mounts, ect?

Either way I think it's a given that you should get the fuel injected 502, and put a massive single turbo on it.:eek:

I dunno about the optispark. my buddies camaro has trouble idling and that might be the culprit. Id have to research it a bit more.

If I could get my hands on one and a good matching tranny, id cam the crap out of it and hopefully have some good power. The stock heads are pretty decent from what I hear. Theres a couple good boltons that you can do too. Nothing like LS1 boltons, but they make decent power.

Yes, a GM Goodwrench 350 makes around 239 hp stock. This was proven on a dyno. This was with a stock Q-jet, aluminum intake and stock exhaust manifolds. Stock cam, heads and all.

I have one, but added Edelbrock heads, a modified Q-jet, and a CompCams XE268 cam, along with a bunch of other stuff. I will put it up against anyones 350 in here.

The biggest hold back on these engines are the heads. They royally suck, but so do any of the stock emissions heads. I guess you've never read what can be done with this engine? Did you ever read the series of articles Chevy High Performance did with this thing?

http://www.73-87.com/chp/chp.htm

DD2K shows he's making about 350 horses, factor in the innacuracy of DD2K (typically around 30%) and you still come up with well over 300. with the Vortec heads, you dont need that big of a cam to run those kind of numbers. there's a guy on thirdgen.com that runs in the 10s with a set of Vortecs, and an XE274. not much to the car at all, and its completely street drivable, still retaining the 700R4 and 3.73 7.5" 10 bolt. Vortec heads are designed to make torque, which is specifically what a truck needs, because they're heavy. you dont need to run any bigger cam than you would with a normal 64cc head.

Ive read that buildup religously! I just have a hard time believing that he makes 300hp with only a cam change. Those heads arent that great.

I guess im just thinking "real world" numbers, not flywheel. Not these fake numbers like 15hp from K&N.

Well... after playing with DD for a little bit, its telling me that if I threw a XE268 on my TBI heads that I could make something like 310hp. I just cant believe that, these heads dont flow that well. I dunno, maybe im just unoptomistic.

Well, I was told with what I was running in the 1/4 that just equate to about 300HP at the crank. Besides the motor is rated at 260 with a manifold, carb and headers. So a mild cam change should be enough for and additional 30-40 horses.