For the past year or so I have been in a serious debate with myself over which crate engine I should get. For a long while I wanted to go with a 502. But after searching for information on this board as well as other places, I may have changed my mind. I am not an experienced driver, I am 20 years old and the fastest car I have driven has been my 88 305 tbi Camaro with 170 stock horsepower, after the mods I did, I am guessing it is around 200 horspower now. This seems like a decent amount of power, I am used to driving four cylinder ford tempos! I think that the 502 might be overkill for me. I only drive my Camaro on nice evenings and on the weekends. I would like to run my car on the strip occasionally but not too much. I just want to be able to have a lot of power to spin out and to sound intimidating. I trully love my Camaro and wouldn't sell it for a million dollars. I plan on keeping this car for the rest of my life. I think that I will be happy with a 350 for a long while, there are so many possiblilites with it and a lot can be done very inexpensivelly. The 502 is very expensive at around 5 or 6 thousand dollars and I can get a 350 for around 2 or 3 thousand dollars, and then I can have fun by tinkering around with it and modding it. If I ever wanted more power I could get a super charger or nos. What do you think? And I have a couple questions for you.
1. Which 350 do you like best and why? I have been thinking about the base 350 ho and the zz4 ho and the deluxe 350 ho. Are these all the same engines with different cams and stuff or are they really different. Which one would be the most durable and best for building up? Thanks a lot for all your help. I think that there are a lot of people out there that may be thinking the same thing as me, so I am sure others would like to hear all your thoughts. Thanks a lot for hearing me out and for your thoughts!


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1988 Carmaro RS

Bustit.Org

To see pictures of my Camaro, go to Bustit.Org and click on the About me page!
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I dont know off hand all the specs of the ZZ4 line up but I would reccomend getting the one with the most power "the 58cc head one" The BB 502 would be nice but a pain in the butt to install and outch $$$$$. I jumped from a gutless 200hp inline 300 6 to a 400hp 355 and it only took a week to get used to the power increase. Now I think 400hp isnt squat . Yea pity me
SSC


[This message has been edited by SSC (edited August 08, 2001).]

 

for your situation, i'd say going with the 330hp gm crate engine. gm makes a tbi intake to match what you have but otherwise i'm sure you could contact edelbrock and ask about installing their multipoint conversion for tbi trucks onto your camaro. either way, just putting in that engine with the tbi you should notice a really decent increase in power without too much work. (except a huge problem with the factory chip).

 

Take a look in the Engine swap boards and archives. You'll find some good info in there.

I've heard and read good things about the ZZ4. It's a bolt in job and the engine runs great and gives you good gas milage as well.

The 330hp GM I've heard a few horror stories about. So I'm not too sure about that one. There's a topic in the engine swap board going on right now about the 330hp GM.

And I'd just like to add one thing.
For a 20yr old, you sure do have a good head on your shoulders!!!
And it takes alot of knowing ones self to figure out you might not be able to handle a high output engine.
Very very smart young man we have here.

When I was in my 20's I had a 450hp engine in my car and I wrapped it in a tree. I thought I could handle the power and found out the hard way that I couldn't.
Fixed the car and myself and then had a little more respect for the ponies under the hood after that incident.

Save a few bucks and get the smaller engine and use the rest to improve your driving skills at the local track. You'll have some money left in your pocket and a whole lotta fun zippin down the track. You'll know when you're ready for more power.

 

While I respect SSC for his proven knowledge, I disagree with his choice of chamber size. The 58cc head has some drawbacks that become very serious if you ever want to squeeze more horsepower out of the heads. I'd look for one with the 64cc head. The valves are less shrouded and will accept larger ones if you ever decide to upgrade.

Big block swaps are not for the faint hearted. It takes alot of patience to shoehorn one into a 3rd gen. non-engine costs for things like exhaust, bracketry and reinforcement can easily run in to thousands of dollars. If you ever do consider one, be paitent and wait for bargins to come along. I was able to save alot of money by aquiring the things I needed over 2 years.

 

Thanks a lot for all your suggestions. I am leaning toards a zz4 but I'm still open to suggestions. I know that 350's can be built up to be huge power plants. So I think I will go with one. At first I can just swap it in and get some valuable experience driving. Then in time, when I feel the need for more power I can start doing some mods to it. Any more suggestions?

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1988 Carmaro RS

Bustit.Org

To see pictures of my Camaro, go to Bustit.Org and click on the About me page!
GTS Black outs for front
GTS Black outs for back
LeBra bra
K & N air filter
Flowmaster 80 series with Edelbrock Chrome tips

 

As I respect you 87RS402, and If im not mistaken you have the BB with the supercharger? Sweet car sweet engine, makes me drool evertime I think about a BBC

Now that I have the catalog in front of my face and can see the specs, why not go with the 385? Toatl cost of the engine and install would be the same or less than the 502 and it produces bb like power with sb ease.
To me personally when I think of HO crate engines I think no mods its already built to the hilt the only other mod that could make more hp on one of these is a supercharger.
SSC

 

No that's Qwiktrip. I had the BB powered 87 RS and now have a 350/5 speed Z28 that's going to be a 396/6 speed when I can get all of the parts and pieces again.

 

If you are questioning the amout of power you will get from swapping to a 350tpi (L98), then consider buying a used 350tpi and building yourself a 383tpi. I have head this engine puts out an insane amount of torque. You can pick up complete L98's with intake and computer pretty cheap (compared to any crate motor) and putting it together is half the fun. On the other hand I think you would probably be happy just putting the tpi setup on your car and working with what you have. 502 is a little crazy for something that will not be MADE for the strip. Think about the money you could save and still haul @ss!
good luck...choose wisely

 

Sounds like you're like me. I'm 19 an experiniced driver. I've raced before cuase my uncle does it, and I got into it a few times. But I'm not looking for 650HP, I couldn't believe I could buy that crate...

I think what we are both looking for is something that has the power and is great to show off. 383 or 400 might just be right. With 260 or 300 HP its got that, I've got more than you rice boy and stang boy, but my insurance premiums aren't gonna go off the charts and I probably won't kill myself if my ego gets to big.

 

I checked out the 385 and I must say that it sounds good, all you have to do is add the fast burn cam and you can get 430 horsepower!!! I wasn't aware that most crate engines were already upgraded to the roof. You mean the only way I would be able to get more power is to get nos or a supercharger? Besides of course, headers, exhaust, k&n, computer? Thanks for all your help!

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1988 Carmaro RS

Bustit.Org

To see pictures of my Camaro, go to Bustit.Org and click on the About me page!
GTS Black outs for front
GTS Black outs for back
LeBra bra
K & N air filter
Flowmaster 80 series with Edelbrock Chrome tips

 

No, crate engines are not built to the hilt, but built with a specific HP/Tq curve and peak in mind.

I/e you can buy a 230HP crate engine, change the cam, heads and be pretty close to the 330/350, etc engines, other factors such as pistons used along with the heads to aid in quench, may not get you exactly the same as the higher HP versions.

Other thing the higher HP versions usually come with would be forged internals, 4 bolt blocks, etc, to aid in withstanding the abuse a higher output engine will have. There;s other things too, but the point is any engine will respond to modification with heads, cams, intake exhaust, etc...but maybe not to the full potential without a little additional work that was built into the higher output engines.