Experiences with 290hp crate gm?????

[LIVE2WIN]

This is the same thread as "GM crate motors" but I was hoping this would catch someone elses eye with a new title. I am about to buy a crate motor to put into my 75 k5 and I was wondering if anyone has had any experience, bad or good with the gm 290 horse crate motor. I am trying to decide between that and the 330 horse motor but i really dont see any difference between the two up to 5xxx rpm where the 290 motor stops and the 330 motor goes to about 6000 rpm on the gm dyno website, and i barely ever see 4500rpm with my current engine. There is a grand difference between the two. ($1820 for the 290hp,$2600 plus $200 for vortec intake for the 330hp). Money is tight since i am going to school. I have 4.88 gears and 38 inch tsl locked front and rear with 1/2 ton running gear. I really dont like breaking things and the motor would be a definate upgrade from my worn smoking engine now. I was wondering if there is a really big difference between the two motors other than what I have seen and if the 290 horse motor sound "tame" can you order the motor from gm with a "hotter cam" to make it sound better. I was also going to put a holley truck avenger carb on the truck. What experience do you all have with those along with 10 bolt 3/4 ton front axles. There is a big difference between the price of one of those and a dana 60 but if i am only going to run at most 38.5 in boggers should it be a problem? Thanks for your help!

 

[blazin' j]

i personally would get 1 tons first...any addition to hp WILL put a strain on EVERYTHING else...plus "only 38.5 boggers" are EXTREMELY aggressive tires...just my .02

 

[UPS]

In June of last year I bought a GM Performance Parts ZZ502 completely assembled. It came with everything on it except the starter and carb. They came with it just not on it. All I had to buy were headers and all of the accessories and brackets.

The heads weren't torqued correctly when GMPP assembled it and with 190 miles on the engine it had a little coolant in the oil and oil in the coolant.

So, I called GM Performance Parts Warranty Division and they had my garage send pics of the heads to them. They said the engine over heated and made the head bolts loosen.

I called Edelbrock, who makes the heads for GMPP, they said when an aluminum head overheats it doesn't make the head bolts loosen. I also called Fel Pro, who made the head gaskets, and they said if the heads were torqued correctly when it was assembled they would have a ring going completely around each combustion chamber. My heads don't have this complete ring around each chamber.

I told the manager of GMPP Warranty Division what Edelbrock and Fel Pro said and she said it didn't matter they weren't going to cover it.

So, the 2 Year 50,000 mile Warranty was of no value to me, it actually cost me money.
I will be checking the rest of my engine over before I reassemble it.

If you do buy a GMPP crate engine make sure you check it over before running it.

If anyone would like to talk to me about my experiences with my engine please PM me. There is more to this story.

Mike