Well guys, I'd like your advice on this one.

I've got two cars, an 87 z28 hardtop and an 87 IROC both 305 TPI / 700R4 setups.

The IROC's 305 is completely siezed and is getting pulled.

I'm looking for GOBS of low-end torque and figured a 383 would do the trick.

The main thing I don't like about these cars right now is all the extra wiring for the TPI, both engine bays look like a rats nest of wires and theres little to no space to work on anything.

With Power being the number 1 goal, money second, and easily tuned and adjusted the third, what would you guys suggest? Should I stick with EFI or switch to a Carbed setup (This is what I was planning originally)? And would I be better off to just buy a cratemotor or should I build one myself (Building it was my original plan but the more I look at crate motors the more it looks like that would save me a ton of trouble and possibly be more reliable)?

The last factor I'm looking at is that I'm only going to have a month to take apart and put this car back together and I'm looking to be able to drive it daily afterwards. This doesn't mean I'm looking to cut corners I just can't do a lot of custom work.

I'm looking to get this entire drivetrain done for less than 10k.
I was planning about 2k for a new standard trans and another 2k for the new rear end, leaving about 6k for the motor.

What do you guys suggest?

 

well if your looking to get it done fast... order a crate motor... reliability is all about how you drive, proper break in and such...

crate motors are pushed out of the factory left and right.. i don't know how well i trust their reliability just because they probably don't take their time to make sure everything is perfect... but with crate motors at least your get a warranty. I had a block and heads, and carb, and intake, and crank and pistons, and rods... and i ended up spending roughly 3500 on everything else... so it really just depends on what you want to do.

 

i built a l98, had it bored to a 355 new everything. with the machining, parts and labor from the machine shop (i put the engine togethe)it was way more expensive than a crate engine. i should have just bought a zz4. but it was good experiance but rather expensive.

 

pm sent

 

I put Scat H-beams, Patriot Performance Al heads, Forged SRP pistons, and board .30 over with polishing the crank and I am only in mine $3500...

My uncle just spent 4000 on a 325 horse crate from GM and my engine will make way more power than that.

My buddy did a 383 in his 67' Chevy II Nova, with cast parts. He had like 1000 even in it.

You could get a junker LQ4 6.0 and have 325 horse for like 1200, spend another 700 or so and cam it and get loads of power. You could even put a carb manaforld on it and not have to worry about fuel injection if it is that much of a hassle for you.

The way I feel is that you can get a lot more out of rebuilding something yourself than going and blowing 4gs on something you could have spent half that on. I guess it all depends on how much your machine shop charges. I am in an industrial city in WY so machine shops are pretty competitive.

 

The above is good, however, why not go this route? (if you are pressed for time and/or lacking the know how to build one):

http://high-performance-engines.com/...tegory_Code=GM


$2104 (for a .030 over 350 with the power level you are looking for) with a 2 year warranty, NO CORE REQUIRED, and the shipping is included (anywhere in the continental United States):

http://high-performance-engines.com/...duct_Code=HP29



383s available too:
http://high-performance-engines.com/...duct_Code=HP33




Shoot me a PM if interested...in fact, I'll take 10% off ANY engine listed just for members of this board!

 

Buy a crate engine. It takes more than just putting a bunch of parts together to build an engine properly. Machine shop costs can get expensive and typically machine shop time can take weeks or months to get it completed.

If you do build, let the machine shop do the complete bottom end giving you back an assembled short block. The assembly work after that isn't as bad.

As mentioned above, building an engine can cost a lot more than buying one. Unless you special order an engine, buying one becomes a generic off the shelf model. Building one, you build it to the specifications that you want to use it for.

 

Actually, we do custom builds too (forgot to mention that)

 

I mean, I guess it takes a lot of research to build a combo up and make it all work togeter. The only thing that I think is tricky is the valvetrain and head combination. The bottom end is almost paint by numbers. I had my machine shop polish my crank and check all the tolorances for me. When I got it back I miced it again to make sure and put the berrings in and torqued the bolts. If you aren't scared of dipping into some intense reading and researching, and doing things yourself, build. If you want something that is right now ready, shipped to your door, buy a crate. It is all up to you, but the way I see it is my car is my hobby, I have time to take my time and research to build it right.