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I'm just about done with my Camaro so when I finish I want to start working on my S10. Bigger motor, better tranny, slam it...blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I really don't want to spend as much as I did on my Camaro so I was thinking of buying a GM Performace Part Crate Engine...the ZZ4 HO 350.
The thing is I've heard that these engines are made of poor quality parts and don't hold up under much stress. I'm buying a blower from my friend who just wrecked his S10 he raced and install that on the ZZ4HO 350 from GM. Have any of you bought one of these motors? What is your opinion of these motors?
Thanks
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I bought the GM base 350, changed the cam to a 487-490 comp XE cam, edelbrock intake and carb, headers, all that good stuff, and it runs like a solid champ, i'm very glad I got it and it was a great price. My friend just put the ZZ4 engine in his 84 TA, he changed the cam as well, and he loves it, he beats the livin ba-jesus out of it too, and it's still solid as a rock, but he's only had it for about 2 months. Between the two of use, we're both very satisfied with out GM crate's.
The zz4 is a little stronger than base crate motors I believe. It has a 4 bolt main block and I thing the crank is forged. But I could be wrong about the crank. The pistons are nice pieces (hypereutectic or however you spell it) but not forged. And with the 58cc heads a blower may be too much. You might want to just get the zz4 bottom end and then maybe get vortec heads to go with it. But then you would have to worry about the blower manifold fitting the vortec heads. Maybe just the zz4 bottom end and some aftermarket heads with big chambers.
But really in my opinion getting a good block and buying the forged pieces as a kit and having it balanced and built by a good shop would probably cost you about the same and you would have a really strong bottom end. And the stroker kits seem to keep getting cheaper.
monkey, I think you've heard your information about the "goodwrench" crate 350. The one made in mexico that costs about $1200. They are 8.3:1 dished piston large cc headed truck replacement engines, and are supposedly made of very soft iron. They are non roller blocks. Contrary to what alot of people say- I put in a comp 280H cam and get 300hp at the flywheel, with the crappy heads that come on it. This was after the 50k mile warrenty, of course. I've had good luck with it. Put some small heads on this motor to boost the compression and you'll get that s10 movin.
there are no such problems like that with the zz4 as far as I've heard.
oh, and if you're going to use the blower- get the goodwrench motor- it's got the perfect compression for it.
Im running a GM goodwrench crate. Not the GMPP crate motor but a GM crate all the same. So far it seems like a nice motor. Had it for about 2 months and beat on it some and its holding up well.
I've had the mexican goodwrench motor in my camaro since 04, and it runs pretty damn good. I would like to find out just how strong those blocks are... would it handle N.0 with forged internals??? im also under the impression these blocks are made of shitty iron
I'm running the same goodwrench motor. I've put only 3K miles but runs pretty well, its better than rebuilding and came with powdered rods and a high volume oil pump. My recommendation is to immediately ditch the cam though. It had no power above 4K and was a whole different motor when I put the XE264-4 in. I also plan to port the heads and replace the head gasket with .015".
