Thread: Crate 350

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I am going to try and get ready to get a crate 350 motor soon for my 85 C10 pickup. The motor currently in it is a 305. It is starting to smoke a bit, drinks tons of gas and has about 123,000 miles on it. The previous owner ran the heck out of this motor, pulling trailors full of construction equipment and a huge tool box in the bed and driving that full load in the mountains, etc and it has a lot of wear on it. So I am wanting a plain and good 350 for the street.
I have a nice new manifold, 600 cfm Edelbrock Carb (which I wish I got a Holley instead but that's another story) and valve covers, etc so all I need if I got a long block basically is a alternator, water pump, fuel pump, new lines, plugs and wires. I have a MSD upgraded HEI dissy in the 305 right now that I can use too I am guessing. This does not need to be a strip motor just a great street motor with some good power.
Anyways my question here is WHERE should I get this motor from and which one should I get? I know there is Summit, Jegs, the local dealer (which I don't see them being cheap like Summit and Jeg's, etc) and there is a few others I hear that have them but cannot think of the names.

I'd appreciate any info and help here! Thanks!

look into Jasper, a friend of mine just bought one for his 59 chevy.. from what i understand it was a real deal..

Harmon

Thanks for the info.... Is that just Jasper.com?

FMX,
im not real sure.. someone did the ordering for him.. he blew his up and wanted somthing quick and he didnt want to spend a ton of money..

i lived in winston salem for four years..

Harmon

There are some places in the magazines that advertise the basic crate 350 longblock, but when you add in freight, it is hard to beat your local Chevy dealer. I bought one for a customers vette, and the price was right around $ 1300.00 exchange. If you don't have a trade it is $ 100 more. Call your local dealer's parts dept and ask about thier least expensive longblock.


Don

The dealer crate is 4 bolt main 350 255 hp old style block(2 piece rear main seal) - I put one in my 34 very good motor(also known as "target motor") ran like stink always good oil pressure fairly smooth for a production engine( not b&b). I would buy one again. 31 5w

Yup, for a stocker the factory crate motors are hard to beat. Especially when you figure any warranty issues are handled right there at the dealership and not some mail order house a thousand miles away and the resultant shipping charges back and forth for warranty issues......

I just called the local Chevy dealer to see what the current price is. They are now $ 1700.00 with a $ 100.00 core fee. Still not a bad deal. However, he told me if you are not doing a direct exchange into a car (switching out an engine that is exactly the same) you only get a parts warranty for 1 year, not the 3 year regular warranty. So if you are putting it in a hot rod, the one year is what you get. I think this is a recent change, because I remember it as being 3 years before.

Still, not a bad deal on a new longblock. He said Vortecs are about $ 2500.00 or so, depending on the model.


Don

The 3yr /1yr warranty has been that way for at least a couple of years. I found out at about that time when I thought I was going to have to replace my 350 in the 34. If he puts it in the 85 C10 he should be good to go with the 3 yr. Was the $1700 for the 290 hp 350 or for the 260hp model? Last year you could get the 260 hp crate 350 for about $1400 from Summit or from a nearby dealer that sells nationally (Apple Chevrolet in York PA). Regardless the 350 crate is the way to go, especially if you plan to add your own goodies, like preferred intakes, carbs, cams, etc.

Get the scoggin dickey short block,vortec heads with beehive springs and rpm airgap ,change the cam and you will be at about 350- -375 hp.I have this build in one of the vizzard books,if you want I can type it out here?He starts with the long block and changes intakes,then heads ,headers and gives the dyno numbers along the way.The build I listed is the end result,so I could post a tamer version of this too.

my dad just put a GM 350/ 260 HP in his '72 C10 and used all the parts from his old 350 that the crate motor did not come with ( manifold, water pump ect... ). plenty of power with a 3/50 warranty and no core charge. the motor was about $1,500 crated and freighted to the door, he bought it from Jegs. it is a 3/50 warranty as long as you put the engine in a 1970-1986 GM vehicle originally equipped with a V8, all other cases it's a 12 month parts only warranty.

The one crate 350 I bought was for some guy who had me install it in his vette. I never work on someone elses car because if I screw something up on one of mine, oh well, but on somebody elses, it's more like "oh s***." But this guy kept coming to see me at work because he knew I build hot rods. At first he wanted me to rebuild his old engine, but that was not going to happen. Really a lot to go wrong there. So then he offered to buy a crate longblock if I would install that.

I mainly did it because I wanted to see how one of these would work out, and I have to say it was the best install I have ever done. Nice clean block and heads to start with, all I had to do was pull his engine, clean up the engine bay and also his old/ reused parts like intake, etc. and put it back in. It fired up on the first few cranks and ran like a clock. Everytime he came into my work after that I was thinking "oh oh, did something go wrong", but he was only coming in to tell me it was still running great.

Like I said, if I didn't like building my own engines, these Goodwrench crate engines are hard to beat. Looks like Jegs and some others are able to discount them further than even the local Chevy garage, from what Matt167 just posted. Probably they buy so many of them.............


Don

Thanks for the info guys! I will look at the local dealer then, I am glad I asked about this because I didn't think about the warranty and shipping thing. Shawnlee, that info would be great as well just to learn a few things from. I'd like about 320 HP and I think that would be perfectly fine for a street motor to have a little bit of fun with. 300 HP is fine as well.

Scoggin dickey part #10067353 .......350 ci
eddy dual plane performer
1 5/8 headers
comp cam 268 xe
peak tq at 3800 ,377 ftlbs
336 hp at 5300 rpm
# 2
The above short block ,instead of long block
268 cam xe
performer rpm vortec
stock vortech heads,either with spring pocket machining or beehive springs,for more lift
1 5/8 headers
both with 750 cfm carb
peak trq at 3500 400 ftlbs
peak hp at 5700 371 hp

Those new GMPP crates are hard to beat. I recently put a 290HP/350 in my '69 Camaro. I had it shipped directly to my house from some company I found online. I could have saved hundreds dollars if I got it from my local Chevy dealer or even more from a buddy that works in a parts warehouse.

The only thing that was strange about the one that I got is that it is set up for both a right and left side dipstick. There were plugs provided to block the one you weren't going to use. If you're not going to use the included oilpan, or ever need to get gaskets, take that into account.

Check the details of the warranty too. If I recall the details of mine correctly, to get the three year warranty it needed to be installed by a licensed garage.