Crate Engines

[Sethanon]

I bought 1975, about 9 months and engine dead. I was thinking of putting ia ZZ4 GM crate engine in it. Is this a good idea?

 

[Roy]

GM crate engines are a great idea and a true value. I started to rebuild my motor last year. Purchased all the goodies, cam, aluminum heads, intake ... blah, blah. After I had the parts purchased, I pulled the motor and sent it to the machine shop to be cleaned, magna fluxed, bored and balanced. 2 days later I learn that the engine had to cracks in the block that were none repairable.

I sold the parts I had purchased on E-bay and purchased a complete 330 HP GM crate engine with aluminum intake manifold, Vortec heads and other goodiesfrom my local Chevy dealer. Cost delivered was $3,300. I couldn't get the engine rebuilt for that at any reputable machine shop, let alone buy any upgrades.

Is it a stock 190 HP POS original engine with matching serial numbers? No, but who cares? The GM crate engines are well made and come with an incredible warranty. Try that with your local machine shop.

And besides, you can dismantle your engine and sell the individual stock parts on E-Bay and should easily be able to get $300 - $400 to help cover the cost of a new GM crate engine.

 

[drags1998]

A ZZ-4 is a GREAT engine,and a good value.I think you would be very impressed with the power!!!! And it comes witha warrantee!!!! If having the original engine in your vette is not that important to you, I would do it in a heartbeat!!!!!:L

 

[johnd]

gm engines are a great value the zz4 is a great engine how can you go wrong? I just bought a crate from ar racing in virgina it was a 385 HP engine for 2900 shipped built with the best parts...it is turn key also so that is great...if you want the e-mail address e-mail or message me I will get back to ya...

John Dykstra

 

[68Roadster]

Does anyone know if the stock exhaust manifolds will bolt to these crate motors.....I prefer to "pickle" the matching #'s engine but use the original exhaust system.

Thanks.

 

[Roy]

Depends on the heads used on the crate engines, i.e. stock or Vortec.

 

[Roy]

On second thought, maybe the heads don't make a difference. I replaced my stock 350 engine with a 350 with Vortec heads and everything bolted up just fine. Sorry for the earlier brain fart.

 

[ALPacer]

ZZ4 Crate Engine

The ZZ4 crate motor comes with aluminum angle plug heads. I put one of these in my Camaro. I had to find special headers to deal with the angle plug heads and manual transmission linkage. Great motor. 355 hp. 405 lb. ft of torque. Runs super. If the motor goes in the Corvette, I would buy another. Check with the dealers like Pace or Scoggins-Dickey. They should be able to tell you if your stock exhaust would work.

 

[68Roadster]

Thanks Roy and ALPacer,
That and finding a dist to work with my tach drive have been the two unknowns with regards to dropping a ZZ4 in place of the original engine. I'd love to do it.....

 

[Stallion]

Can you/is it popular to modify a crate engine like a ZZ4? I would love to have one too, but I don't want to be stuck at a certain amount of power, provided I would want more in the future.

 

[BiggBrakefuelie]

The ZZ4 is a great engine from what I`ve heard.Another option could be a 383 for the extra torque if your mostly doing street driving.It won`t rev as high but it may be more fun stoplight to stoplight.Just another viewpoint.

 

[Jack]

Thanks Roy and ALPacer,
That and finding a dist to work with my tach drive have been the two unknowns with regards to dropping a ZZ4 in place of the original engine. I'd love to do it.....

I'm all but certain that the "melonized" gear on ZZ4 's distributor will fit right onto your 68's tach-drive points distributor (shaft OD .491"). Then you can run your old tach-drive distributor with the ZZ4's OE roller cam. The ZZ4 dist gear is NOT bronze but has a treatment called "mellonized" (?sp?).

BTW ... same would apply if choosing GMPP HT383 ... like ZZ4, it also has OE iron-gear roller cam. Both ZZ4 and HT383 ship with same HEI distributor GM P/N 1104067 with shaft OD .491".
JACK:gap

 

[Jack]

68roadster:
That melonized gear is GM P/N 1045641 ... that's the gear that's on the GM crate motor HEI dist GM P/N 1104067. G'luck.
JACK:gap

 

[68Roadster]

Jack,
Thanks for all the info.
Right now I'm under the back end re-doing the diff, shocks, bushings, re-painting the frame, etc.....starting to feel like a frame off.......the crate motor/pickling the original is probably a year or so off but I like the ZZ4 option. Does it mate well with the original bellhousing/M20 4 speed that I currently have??

 

[Evolution1980]

Can you/is it popular to modify a crate engine like a ZZ4? I would love to have one too, but I don't want to be stuck at a certain amount of power, provided I would want more in the future.

The ZZ4 is a drop in engine for (any, I think) C3. It dropped right into my '80.
The only thing I had to add was the oil fillter adapter. I took off the waterpump that came on it because it's too long for the 80 fan shroud setup. No problem there, as I just took off my hi-po water pump that I already had on my L48. Everything else went in like Flynn.

Directly answering Stallion's question... ANY GM smallblock can be built up into just about any monster. The ZZ4 is more or less the starting point for the HT383 and ZZ430 engine. The ZZ430 is the ZZ4, but with GM Fast Burn heads and (I think) a different cam. That's the only difference I believe. And that takes it from 355 hp to 430hp. When I bought my engine, the ZZ430 was still a "limited edition" run of 430 units. It was also like $7000. It's much cheaper now. As I planned back then, I'll eventually turn my engine into that one. Probably either next year or in 2006. (Next year is going to be brake upgrades first.)

I bought my engine from Scoggins-Dickey a few years back and have not regretted it one bit.
With a Jacob's digital ignition, March underdrive pulleys, and straight back exhaust, I pulled a 13.44 @ 106mph in the 1/4 mile. And that's with a worn TH350 transmission. I'm thinking I can hit a 12.99 seconds or better with the new 700R4 that I have.

Does anyone know if the stock exhaust manifolds will bolt to these crate motors

I don't know if you stock exhaust manifolds will work or not, but why not just pop on a set of Hooker headers or something? Leave all the old stuff on the engine or part out the manifolds as well. I put mine up on eBay and sold 'em with no problem!

 

[Jack]

Jack,
Thanks for all the info.
Right now I'm under the back end re-doing the diff, shocks, bushings, re-painting the frame, etc.....starting to feel like a frame off.......the crate motor/pickling the original is probably a year or so off but I like the ZZ4 option. Does it mate well with the original bellhousing/M20 4 speed that I currently have??

ZZ4 comes with a flexplate for auto trans ... it does not come with flywheel for manual trans. ZZ4's newer crank (like all other later one-piece seal cranks) has different bolt pattern than your old (2-piece seal) crank. ZZ4's newer crank will not bolt up to your old flywheel. ZZ4 will require a new flywheel. ZZ4 will bolt up to your old bellhousing & trans. ZZ4 also comes with "long" legged water pump ... your old motor has a "short" pump ... you'll have to swap in order to align pulleys. If & when you do the ZZ4 thing ... and don't use its HEI, I'd like first shot at buying it from you ... keep me in mind.
JACK:gap