Turn key engines/or crate

[rchdrm]

Any praise or horror stories for turn key/crate engine companies?
I am looking at options for the 68 and have found someone local to rebuild but it appears the cost of some crate engines beat that price considerbly and I have to pull and install in both cases.

Any experience with Autozone's, Jeggs, Summit etc...

[Indyuke]

Got a mustang (bad ferd) roller longblock from schucks. I have about 20,000 miles on it and am extremely pleased. Have really rapped it out a couple of times, overheated it several times, let it freeze in 5deg weather for weeks on end and it only cost me $1600. I probably have about $2000 into the entire motor replacement/very mild build. I did get a high nickel content block with a four bolt main, which is much harder to find than a chevy 350 four bolt.

You can get crate engines from the same company. Their name is Vege.

I would think summit or jeggs would be best companies to buy from for this kind of thing though.

[jholley]

These guys sell some good crate motors and they arent too awful far from you.

http://www.sdparts.com/categories/CrateEngines.aspx

[leddzepp]

I purchased a re-built 6 banger for one of my Jeeps years ago from Autozone. It was re-built by a company called Evergreen, out of Washington state....NOT by Autozone. I paid $1200 for it (with exchange), came with a 3 year unlimited mileage warranty. It is still running good to this day. No shipping cost either, Autozone takes care of that. If I need to buy another longblock in the future, I will do this again.

[jbristo67]

Originally Posted by jholley

These guys sell some good crate motors and they arent too awful far from you.

http://www.sdparts.com/categories/CrateEngines.aspx

That is here in lubbock. Have a friend that used to work there. They are the number 1 performance crate motor dealer in the world when dealing with anything from detroit

[Sinister]

I just got off the phone with Autozone. I used to have a '72 Caprice with a 400 cid smallblock with a 2 barrel carb. They have a 400 cid sbc for $1400, $300 core. The 2 barrel carb is important, I think the 4 barrel carbed 400 they list is a 402 bigblock.
I think a 400 may be my next motor.

[jbristo67]

Huh

[Sinister]

Originally Posted by jbristo67

Huh

400 cubes.

[sdailey]

Originally Posted by jholley

These guys sell some good crate motors and they arent too awful far from you.

http://www.sdparts.com/categories/CrateEngines.aspx

I bought the 290hp 350 long block from them last year when they offered free shipping. In hindsight though I wish I would have bought a turn-key engine from them.

[ll____b0t____ll]

A couple years back I had a 1965 Malibu 4 door slammed that I was putting together for my wife as a surpize first car .
This car was factory original with the #matching 283 still running kinda lol, no rust what so ever not even surface rust on original paint.
It had been purchased new by an elderly couple as their first car as a new couple.
They kept it garaged and running all those years until 1987 when a ignition problem (needed points) got it retired.

I decided to order a Summit 350 crate and drop it in as the stock 283 had more miles on it than most 283's like to go .
Well before i dropped it in i decided to remove the heads to use better head gaskets as i hate having one go out .
And there it was when i ran my fingernail on the cylinder bores....a lip.
Not a giant lip but enough to make me sure i had recieved a block that hadnt been freshened up.
The clearences where off do to this and it burned oil.

Well about this time the wife saw the car and just plain said it was ugly as a 4 door and well I figured instead of trying to change her mind and make her more apt to hate cars ide get another moter and sale it.

About this time a friend showed great interest in the car and i let it go to him and helped him install the Jegs 427 small block they have .
I told him to check the gaskets as i did and what do you know ... great machining and that car was a total tire shredding dream car for the guy to this day.

My advice would be remember you get what you pay for and I cant build a moter that would live up to my standerds for $3,000 so I dont expect others to either.

[sinister72]

Build it yourself! Great experience and even a greater sense of pride.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by sinister72

Build it yourself! Great experience and even a greater sense of pride.

I agree & disagree w/this one. While it can be a source of 'pride', it can be via a very expensive lesson if something is over looked. Assess the time frame available, tools & space @ your disposal, & be honest about your objective.

If it's building a motor for a long term project, it's worth a shot. If it's just to freshen things up for more years of basic service, a rebuilt unit is just as good w/the right selection of 'accessories'.

[garold99]

Stupid question, but whats the difference in turn key and crate?

[Lugnut64052]

I've had terrible luck with ATK engines. Several parts store chains sell them.

Installed a few when I was fixing cars for a living and had some sort of issue with every one of them. Don't remember the details at this late date, but they left a bad taste on my brain.

Last winter I put a reman-ed 3100 motor in an old Corsica one of my kids is driving. Local NAPA store sold it to me and sure 'nuff; they're selling ATK. I thought "well, I'll give them one more try."

Installed it and fired it up. Had a lifter rattle. Figured it might just be one lazy lifter that was taking a while to pump up, so I backed it out of the garage and went for a test drive around the neighborhood. The rattle got louder, then quit, and it simultaneously developed a miss. Back in the garage I pulled the rear valve cover (yeah, the one under the coil packs and all the other schtuff. 'Course it couldn't have been the front, easy one). One of the rocker nuts had backed off and the push rod finally fell off down into the lifter valley.

Before I installed the engine I took a cursory look at the documentation. There were big, trumpeting headlines all over it to not jack with the valve lash under any circumstances, lest you void the warranty, blah, blah, blah. Thought, "all right then . . .whatever." So I slapped it in without checking it. There's no adjustable lash on those engines anyway-- you just run the nut down until it stops. It's a no-brainer.

Liketa never got the push rod fished out of the lifter valley, but I eventually did. Put it back together and it ran fine. But the best part of the story is, it had three other loose nuts on the same head that were starting to back off and just hadn't gotten loose enough to start causing problems yet.

ATK = junk. Never again.

[67C10SWB]

I definitely agree that depending on the performance level of the engine you want the cost of a good rebuild with some horsepower vs a crate engine can be very close in price. I have purchased 3 crate engines in the last 9 years and each one has cranked and ran with no issues and the cost was well worth it. I have also built some pretty nice engines in the last 15 years that were not slugs and It was nice to install a new engine with a warranty!! The engines = HO 502 from sallee-chevrolet, a ZZ4 350 from Year one, and a 383 from Summit racing. Good luck!! Mike

[Tx Firefighter]

I'm a real fan of GM crate engines. Zero mile, 3 year warranty that's good at any GM dealer coast to coast. All parts are brand new.

The link to Scoggin-Dickey above is a good one. Even though they are a GM dealership, I bought a Ford Motorsport crate engine for my wife's Mustang from them. They charged me 70 dollars to ship it to me. Heck of a deal.

As hard as it is to find a machine shop that does decent work in a reasonable time nowdays, the crate looks better and better too. Around here, it's not unusual for a machine shop to take a month to do basic machining on a block. You can have a crate engine installed and run for a few weeks already within that time frame.

[tinkerdad]

Does anyone have experience with http://www.turnkeyenginesupply.com/ ? Right now it’s my top choice but, I’m a long way from buying one.

[jholley]

Originally Posted by garold99

Stupid question, but whats the difference in turn key and crate?

If you buy a crate engine you bolt on all of your own acessories i.e. water pump, alternator, distributor, carb... If you buy a turn key it will come with them..

[Skirkpat]

Originally Posted by ll____b0t____ll

My advice would be remember you get what you pay for and I cant build a moter that would live up to my standerds for $3,000 so I dont expect others to either.

I put my '69 Suburban Engine in the shop last week, Man things are expensive!!!!

I Hot tanked (85.00) Bored & honed (200) Cleaned rods/pressed on pistons (85.00) New rebuild kit: including coated Hyperutectic pistons .030 over, HV oil pump, Double roller chain, Gaskets, Frz Plugs, HP Cam/lifters,cam,main,rod bearings(300) turn crank .010/.010 (100).....I will have $1,000+ in the short block....

That said, I started with a '70 350 4 bolt main with the heavy truck rods so when done it should be a great running reliable engine, If I did not enjoy building it myself, and feel that I could at least do as good a job as the next guy, I definately would not have done this, it is not really cost effective anymore when you can get an assembly line engine with a warranty for the same, or slightly more already done.

[chevy_mike]

I put in a GM ZZ4 into my '69 Camaro. That engine rocked!

[cdowns]

i was in a very tight time schedule 10years ago and went for a turnkey from www.enginewfactory.com the advantage was carb tuned cam broken in valves set leak checked etc. all the little stuff done the bottom line was it was just a bit more than if i had got a crate and went and got and installed all those finishing touches in the long run well worth the extra money and saved me a bungh of time when i had very little time to spare

[ll____b0t____ll]

Originally Posted by Skirkpat

I put my '69 Suburban Engine in the shop last week, Man things are expensive!!!!

I Hot tanked (85.00) Bored & honed (200) Cleaned rods/pressed on pistons (85.00) New rebuild kit: including coated Hyperutectic pistons .030 over, HV oil pump, Double roller chain, Gaskets, Frz Plugs, HP Cam/lifters,cam,main,rod bearings(300) turn crank .010/.010 (100).....I will have $1,000+ in the short block....

That said, I started with a '70 350 4 bolt main with the heavy truck rods so when done it should be a great running reliable engine, If I did not enjoy building it myself, and feel that I could at least do as good a job as the next guy, I definately would not have done this, it is not really cost effective anymore when you can get an assembly line engine with a warranty for the same, or slightly more already done.

I have more than $1,000 just in heads alone lol and as for bore and hone I pay extra to have them start Honing way before normal for a less bore more hone well you get the idea on that.
I dont buy any rebuild kit as none have the combination of parts i like to use.
I go the expensive route on pistons so they cost more also.
Gaskets are indavidual and just the headgaskets I use cost as much as most complete felpro kit for the whole engine.
The crank work i get done is a lot more than what you paid also.
Ide bet I have more than a grand just in block prep and pistons alone.

I dont think you can compare what you spend on a shortblock to that of a complete or crate engine , it should be complete for complete and short for short.

I wouldnt be shocked at all to have at a minimum of $5,000 for a healthy small block pushing around 400Hp and 430Fpt .
And I know full well what it cost to push one to 650Hp and you cant get near it for that.
Mind you these are all engines you dont have to tear down later to figure out what went wrong.
Its like my father once told me , Speed cost money , How fast can you afford to go.

[wickedred]

Originally Posted by ll____b0t____ll

I
I wouldnt be shocked at all to have at a minimum of $5,000 for a healthy small block pushing around 400Hp and 430Fpt .

For $5000 drop in a LS1 Pull out. Swap the cam and valve springs. Bust 450hp all day long. Done it a blue million times. Completely reliable.

Then again a Nice LQ9 6.0l pull out can be had for around $1000, toss on a 76mm Turbo and knock down 550hp all day on pump gas. That can be done for about $5000 too.

At the end of the day it's all up to what you want. I had rather build my own.

[weasel29gm]

In a hurry buy,if not build.

[Skirkpat]

Originally Posted by ll____b0t____ll

I have more than $1,000 just in heads alone lol and as for bore and hone I pay extra to have them start Honing way before normal for a less bore more hone well you get the idea on that.
I dont buy any rebuild kit as none have the combination of parts i like to use.
I go the expensive route on pistons so they cost more also.
Gaskets are indavidual and just the headgaskets I use cost as much as most complete felpro kit for the whole engine.
The crank work i get done is a lot more than what you paid also.
Ide bet I have more than a grand just in block prep and pistons alone.

I dont think you can compare what you spend on a shortblock to that of a complete or crate engine , it should be complete for complete and short for short.

I wouldnt be shocked at all to have at a minimum of $5,000 for a healthy small block pushing around 400Hp and 430Fpt .
And I know full well what it cost to push one to 650Hp and you cant get near it for that.
Mind you these are all engines you dont have to tear down later to figure out what went wrong.
Its like my father once told me , Speed cost money , How fast can you afford to go.

I think you missed my point, I purposely am building on the cheap. Suburbans are not sports cars, actually they are the polar opposite of something fast, LOL wouldn't you put a racing engine in a racing car, and not the tow vehicle? LOL at least thats what we do around here ?