Motor Selection... choices, choices, choices....

[Calclips]

The father of a good friend of mine has a 1979 K10 with a blown tranny in it. He was going to pull the 350 out of it and put it in an older Caprice Classic, leaving the truck sitting with no motor/trans. I am very interested in purchasing this truck, as it is a solid and rust free truck and I live in Michigan. The truck won't be a full time daily driver for me, so I'm left wide-open on motor selection choices. I know a guy with a race-ready 427 already built and sitting on an engine stand in his garage for $4000 bucks... This sounds like a pretty good deal to me, and that 427 would sling some mud like no other. What other options do I have for motors that you guys can think of. I'm trying to keep the budget down as far as possible, but want a motor that will keep up with the future plans I have for the truck.

 

[Calclips]

Oh yeah, the truck will NOT be rock crawling at all... it will be running mud and MAYBE some light trails. Think Flint, MI area and thats where I am... all we have here is farm fields.

 

[little79k5]

if its just for play....a 427 would be very cool! but for $4000 you can build a stout 350 that would be more reliable and have a good bit of money left over for other stuff

 

[Calclips]

Why would a 350 be more reliable than a 427? I don't know a whole lot about motors, so any info on subjects like that would be GREATLY appreciated. I do not want to have to keep on dumping money into a motor if I don't have to, but I am looking for a good ammount of Horsepower and torque

 

[AJMBLAZER]

I dunno about engine reliability, a well built engine is a well built engine, but that race ready 427 is gonna pulverise the 1/2 ton drivetrain that the 79 K10 has. Unless he's beefed it up with stouter stuff. For $4000 you could have a pretty built 350 with a good amount of power, a 14 FF in the rear, a TH400 or a built TH350 to stand up to the power, and still probably get better gas mileage than with the 427./forums/images/icons/tongue.gif

 

[Calclips]

Yeah, thats what I was leaning towards. A 350 is probably going to be my best bet for all arround power and performance. My next step is to decide exactly what I want. I don't know if I want to go with a crate motor, or if I want to have some buddys of mine and I build one.

 

[Thunder]

4000 aint bad for a complete built 427 engine. Espically if it includes everything like manifold, carb, dist, water pump, flywheel/or flexplate and the other bolt on stuff. If it doesn't have that stuff add at least 6 or 700 more to the price if you buy the parts new. But you can get a lot of it at a junk yard for less if you dont mind used parts
If you do not have an old engine to take stuff off you will need everything.
GM performance parts has a nice 330 HP deluxe 350 crate engine that pretty much comes ready to run All it needs is a starter and wireing, pullys and alternator to be pretty much complete. I think they cost around 3500 including shipping.
With the right Cam and carb you can easly get this motor into the 380 hp /400 ft lbs of torque range. And sitll have a very dependable motor.

 

[little79k5]

i was just saying a "race ready" 427 most likely has high compression pistons and a huge cam and such. usually a race motor is built for power not longevity. it could be very reliable for all i know. but i think a well built 400hp 350 could be built for much less than $4000 but it still would be very cool to have a 427!!!!
keith

 

[70~K5]

Now if it's a ZL1 then that's a different horse.

 

[Quack_Addict]

Hey.... Flint, MI sounds familiar... maybe because that's where I'm from!

350's are a dime a dozen -> 427's and other BBC's aren't as common. Call any of the bone yards off Dort Hwy. You can prolly get a decent running 4 bolt main with good heads for under $500. Imagine the possibilities.

I just built a 300+ HP 350 for right around $2500 last year - everything included - and keep in mind... pretty much the only original engine parts I kept were the block, crank and connecting rods.