BLKMGK

Pick up a Super Chevy mag or a StreetRodder mag. Both of those will have ads for the 383 crate motor and you can get the cam from any of the GM dealers. For that matter any GM dealer will sell you a crate motor but if it's not performance oriented it'll probably be at list price! Figure tax vs shipping too - you may be best off getting one shipped. $3799 is the price I last recall seeing for the ZZ4 motor with the hot heads - ala 383. The cam comes with new rocker arms and springs too I think and would be an add-on. It's NOT cheap, several hundred bucks as I recall but I'm fuzzy on that. This link will give you a starting point. http://www.paceparts.com/crate_engines_and_partials.htm Be sure to check out the ZZ430 motor which is the ZZ4 with the 383 heads and the hot cam. Parts list for that motor tells you everything you need to know. Jim Pace will send you a catalog too - I've got one Here's the motor we're looking at -> http://www.paceparts.com/fast_burn_385_engine.htm I'm still not decided on a motor yet myself but that crate and maybe that cam later on sure is tempting. May have to see what the delivered at the door price is Do note that the balancer and water pump will have to be swapped and that this "ZZ5" has NO distributor it seems. Hrm, give me better heads but take the damned HEI off. Grr! P.S. Yes, you CAN hop that motor up for more power but at some point the pistons, not the rods, will become an issue IMO. [This message has been edited by BLKMGK (edited June 18, 2000).] [This message has been edited by BLKMGK (edited June 18, 2000).]

Looking over some of the sites that sell pulled LT1s and looking at what I'd spend to buy a crate motor and then injection down the road I have to ask - how many are running LT1s pulled form wrecked cars? I'm not so much concerned with swapping in the whole injection system as I am curios as to how well the thing fits at all. Gear driven water pump, reverse flow cooling, big damper, oil pan(?), how does it fit? I've seen maybe one site that had pics of such a conversion but would really like to know just how much harder one of these swaps is over say a crate motor with regular water pump. What about the direct fire ignition, does it cause problems? $3K or so for the motor with injection setup is awfully tempting! Not being a GM guy - how much HP do those motors make with their aluminum heads? I already know better than to get a 'Vette motor. Inquiring minds want to know.... THANKS!

P.S. I forgot to mention how I found my trans. I hung out in some F-body BBS type WEB sites (defunct now it seems) and saw a posting from a guy who had motors. I E-Mailed him and found out that he worked in a salvage yard in Alabama and that he had like 6 late models of interest. Only one trans was left and I jumped on it! The guy was really cool, even dropped the price some when shipping turned out to be higher than anticipated. Looking back it might have been a bit more than $1400 but it most certainly was noticably cheaper than $1799+shipping! Shipping ain't cheap BTW...

In my case the T56V8 has yet to be installed. In fact up until about a week ago my project was stalled badly. This week I found an awesome 72Z that needs nothing other than a good V8 swap I expect that my project will move MUCH faster now and am shopping for a motor myself. If this trans would bolt to a 351W I'd be nearly done - don't know much about Chebby stuff... As for balancing - internal makes for a smoother motor I'm told. Just watch where they do th ebalance - if they pull metal from the flywheel or twiddle with the balancer you've got to make sure any new parts are balanced to the old ones. In my mind "internal" is just that but it seems some balance shops want to tinker with the external parts too - booo! I agree with Mike about the aluminum heads and intake. I'd also say that you'll want forged pistons. You never know when the desire for a power adder will hit and hyper or cast pistons don't hang as well with detonation. Actually, Mike's price sounded pretty good to me, I've not yet gotten back many numbers but the one's I've gotten so far are edging on $4K and I didn't want to spend that much if I could help it. We'll see! P.S. Before you go ordering up a serious rocket of a motor be sure to consider the exhaust it'll be exiting out of. I assume that most of us want the easy to live with block huggers - most of those have pretty tiny primary tubes. No sense having a motor that makes a zillion ponies if it can't breathe right! I think 400hp is enough to do some serious cooking....

I'm in the same boat - looking for a motor. When Mike was having trouble with his new engine a crate motor sure sounded tempting didn't it Mike? But now I'm in the same boat and I'm not sure that 385hp with a warranty is going to be enough. I'm in the process of calling around myself and having a shop I work with do some checking. Not yet sure what I'll be doing but take a hard look at the new GM crate motors - the 385hp one in particular. It's NOT a stroker but rather a ZZ4 withthe Hot Heads on it. Slap a cam in it and get 430hp. Just how much HP do you really need anyway? What's your goal? As for the T56 - buy a used one from a 94+ F-body. I got mine complete with clutch, flywheel, hydraulics, and shifter for about $1400 or so out of a junkyard. These are tough transmissions - I expect it to be in fine shape Good luck!