GM crate engine questions

[JDaniel]

Hi all , few questions.
i want to put a NEW crate engine into my G20 Van and saw this one on summitracing: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/NAL-10067353/
because this van is my daily ride i don't want to go extreme, so a stock engine will do.
now: who has any experience with those engines, quality, performance...?
i want to build it up with an edelbrock intake ,600cfm edelbrock carb and a set of headers.
is the price good or can i find the same engine for much cheaper?
Because here in belgium the intel is pretty little for such things ,that's why i ask arround overhere.
Thx in advance and hoping to get a few answers where i can do something with it.
Peter

[eventhorizon66]

That is basically a stock 350.  I have that exact engine and I'm not impressed with it.  Quality is OK but nothing special, as far as performance goes: the cylinder heads are some of the worst ever cast by GM, the cam in tiny, and compression is very low.  If good machine shops are scarce over there or you would rather not build it yourself, then it would be OK for a stock daily driver, but don't get your hopes up about performance.  If you do know of a good machine shop, try to find a 1996-1999 L31 350 core (found in 1500 pickups/suburban/tahoes) and rebuild it.

I also "upgraded" to an edelbrock carb, intake, and headers.  Of those three I only recommend the headers, if you can also afford the expense of a completely new free flowing exhaust.  I wish instead of the edelbrock carb I had simply rebuilt the stock Q-jet (I'll be doing that with a late-70's core in the near future).  Trust me, these parts will not "build it up" significantly in terms of performance.  If you use this engine, keep the stock intake, rebuild the carb, and run headers if you want.  It will never be a performance engine unless you sink some money in heads, cam, etc. and then you should have either started with a better engine or rebuilt an engine yourself.

You could grab that engine and simply replace the heads with vortec L31 heads.  This would boost compression and airflow.  And the small cam would still work for a low-end torque engine or you could replace it with a little "RV" cam.  Then you would basically have slightly milder version of this engine: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/NAL-19210007/ for alot less money and a little more trouble.

[Stewart G Griffin]

Yeah i had that engine too---16.8 1/4 e.t. and about 16mpg.

i think they sell a short blocker version so then it would be easy and cost effective to upgrade to vortec heads.

i'm think the "929" cam might be good?

[JDaniel]

so the engine is similar to my stock tbi engine? (except for the tbi offcourse)
now i have a stock tbi 350 engine from 1992

[Stewart G Griffin]

Similar but with minor differences----your eng may have roller lifters(not sure?), at the very least it has 1 piece rear main seal,different intake bolt angles,  valve covers.

[JDaniel]

i mean performance seen

[eventhorizon66]

That Goodwrench crate will have a bit more umph than your TBI engine.

TBI L05: 200 hp 300 ft/lb

Goodwrench: 250 hp 350 ft/lb
*That's what Chevy High Performance magazine said it was worth with headers, edelbrock intake, and Q-jet, but I'm skeptical.  And since your stock intake will not work with a carb on this engine, you will need to use an intake like the Edelbrock 2101.

Why don't you just rebuild the engine you have now and keep the TBI?  With a few TBI mods, a bit more compression, and a bit more cam, you can reach 250 hp and 350 ft/lb with the stock TBI heads.  I think this would be the best choice if you know where to find a good machine shop.

[JDaniel]

that's the problem here ,when i rebuild my engine i can buy about 3 goodwrench engines for that price.

[eventhorizon66]

Whoa it is really that bad?

What about using an adapter plate to reuse your TBI with that crate engine?  You can even run EGR if you want.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/EDL-2101/ (non-EGR)

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/EDL-3701/ (EGR compatible)

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/TRD-2211/

*Actually I just remembered you can modify your current intake to work with a pre-86 engine.  You must grind the middle four intake bolt flats to match the angle of the outer bolts.

[JDaniel]

that is a good option ,thx for the tip on the adapterplate.
you guys overthere have a lot more experience with those v8's then we have here , so thx for helping us out on this!!

[eventhorizon66]

Here is an easy way to make your current intake manifold work with that new Goodwrench crate.

http://www.persh.org/pickup/TBI%20Intake%20Manifold.htm

But what he does not mention is that you must use slightly longer bolts with this mod.

[JDaniel]

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/NAL-12499529/
think i'm gonna go for this one

[GUITAR1989]

I was just looking at that engine last night when I was comparing prices for my overflow tank and a stearing wheel. looks killer man hope it works out for

[eventhorizon66]

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/NAL-12499529/
think i'm gonna go for this one

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

I hate that crate!  That is the the same engine as the Goodwrench, but with a cam that is timed with too wide an LCA and is a little too big for the low compression.  Result: less torque than the Goodwrench at all rpm's, especially on the low end (not worth 30hp on the top end).  To add insult to injury, you are paying almost $500 for a camshaft.  Instead of doing that, you should just get the Goodwrench and swap in a cam along the lines of this one: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ISK-201258/ (which should work with stock springs, increase torque, idle like a stocker, and return excellent fuel economy).

[JDaniel]

ok thx for the info mate , think i stick with the first one then, i can always change the cam if i want.
happy that you guys can help me out with this ,because we have zero info here and no one ever bought suchs an engine overhere so it's all "censored word's will get you removed from this forum" new to us.