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what would you do...if you needed a new engine?

"Originally Posted by muddybuddy
15mpg with a small block and 38s or something..."

79k20350 said:
Umm yeah...thats just not gonna happen...
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I've clocked 15 mpg a bunch of times and I have 4.56's and no overdrive (3000 RPM @ 70mph)!
 
neverendingproject said:
Here are options i would consider from easiest to hardest. If your worried about mileage get a diesel or drive something else.

1. New 350tbi w/vortec heads
2. 383tbi w/vortec heads -my personal favorite
3. 454tbi -not something I would do
4. 6.2 with or without a turbo kit (circle "with")
5. 6.5? I really dont know mucha bout this swap.
6. A newer, non genIII/IV multiport motor (vortec 350/ lt1)
7. genIII/IV swap
8. cummins swap
9. jet engine - have fun trying to find t-case adapters. :D

There are two main points that you need to think about
1. You have tbi. switching to something else, will be time/money consuming
2. get what you like the most, you will regret it in the future.
I know of both of these and have suffered twice, and Im just now getting what I want.

Edit: You drive a blazer, paying for gas sucks, deal with it. Trying to save gas everywhere will only cause headaches.
Edit #2: None of the above options reflect how "badass" a motor might be.
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You list the Cummins 8th ,they just bolt in as long as you have a Nv4500.
 
well after wheelin yesterday, i realized that i need more power. so i guess a diesel is out of the question now, unless i could get a good amount of power out of it.

you think it would be possible to get 12-14mpg out of a zz4 or similar crate motor? the setup is 700r4/241 60/14 5.13s

hopefully i can eventually get a new dd so that mpg wont be so much of an issue
 
quicker said:
Consider many people driving what you consider a annoying economy wedge are paying over 400.00 a month on just the car, and it will take a life time for them to earn back what they spend on payments vs saving on gas.
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Not to mention the full-coverage insurance premiums that the lender (understandably) requires as long as you have that car loan. You can avoid the comprehensive & collision requirement by having stellar enough credit to get a low-rate unsecured loan, having avoided collateralization, just use that capital to pay for the car.

However, you've still got the loan payments, and if you splurged on the inflated price of a hybrid, a really huge battery bank replacement cost down the road, as well as worrying your green conscience over just how much of your pile of old battery pile is actually recyclable...perhaps not as much as one hopes.

The upside to a hybrid is that you can have it delivered to a staging location near the Academy Awards ceremony, arrive at the Oscars (when the TV cameras are watching) in the hybrid to fool your fans (good PR move), but then go home to your mansion (when the cameras aren't watching) in the same Escalade that carted you to the staging location to pick up the cool hybrid for your carefully PR-tuned arrival at the red carpet. The fans tend to have short attention spans.
 
Yeah all this is true about the new eco cars, but truthfully you dont need all that fancy high dollar bull**** to get decent mileage out of a car. I have a 96 toyota tacome 2wd extended cab, v6 manual that gets 30 mpg at 65mph and even better if I slow it down to 60(that 30 mpg was with 600 lbs in the bed for over half the trip!!!). My parents also have a 93 toyota carolla that they just bought 6 months ago for $2500, it has a brand new engine, tranny, and has 55k miles on it. I always try to take it from them because it gets atleast 40 mpg when you cruise at 60 on the freeway which is pretty badass IMO. I will definitely drive 60 mph like a grandmaw everywhere if that means I only pay $100 bucks or so in gas a month. And yeah I am setting up my m1008 to run on biodiesel so hopefully I wont be paying much for gas or diesel at all pretty soon. An econocar doesnt neccesarily have to mean a brand new toyota prius or some other little bull**** hybrid. Just a car that gets good gas mileage. Oh yeah and full coverage for my tacoma is only 80 bucks a month, and Im not even 21 yet. The carolla is like $55/month.

Remington
 
muddybuddy said:
well after wheelin yesterday, i realized that i need more power. so i guess a diesel is out of the question now, unless i could get a good amount of power out of it.

you think it would be possible to get 12-14mpg out of a zz4 or similar crate motor? the setup is 700r4/241 60/14 5.13s

hopefully i can eventually get a new dd so that mpg wont be so much of an issue
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But with the diesel you will have plenty of torque, dont forget that ;)
 
CrewCab59 said:
You list the Cummins 8th ,they just bolt in as long as you have a Nv4500.
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But he doesnt have a 4500 and he wont be able to use any or his accesory brackets of exhaust system. Thats why its at number 8.
 
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Dude we're all up the same poop-creek. My 72 has a nice 350/carb in it and I get about 11mpg no matter what the hell I'm doing. I used to drive it every day, now I cuss and swear and scheme as I jump in my little 4cyl Sonoma to get to work and such, and I bought the wife a new Kia Sportage. i don't have $100.00 a week for going to work. I keep both my trucks insured, drive the piss-pot daily and the K5 on the weekends and especially hunting season. Doing a conversion to diesel would rock but you can buy alot of gas for $4-6k it's gonna cost ya once the dust settles. The cost of keeping both vehicles insured is about $150 a month less for me than driving the K5 everyday, add some weekends and I break even, but no matter what I can park my K5 after some bashing and do my thing all week without worrying about fixing stuff. Drive your truck daily and don't worry about it, find a place to park your truck and drive a little car all week- then you'll wonder why you keep the truck, or buy a mid-size or mini 4x4, pump abunch of money into it to get it where you want, and when you're done you'll still wish you had better mileage.
 
Yes it was me I get 15-16 Mpg in my K-20 406cid th400 3.73 gears and 35' BFG-MT's with a sagged 8" lift
 
My 89 blazer gets between 12-14 with 38's - TBI

But, my suburban before that made me get a DD -- I was getting about 2 highway, 1 city. It was terrible. I was spending about $100 per week in gas.

I bought a ranger that gets about 25mpg on the highway, and can haul truck parts, dirtbikes, four wheelers, etc

I spend much less even with gas, payment and insurance on the dd. When you beat on your vehicle, you constantly have a "repair" bill, whether you're upgrading parts, just leaking fluids, or its just randomly nickel and diming you.

And one of the best things is if you break your truck over the weekend, you're not forced to fix it for the next day of work or where ever it is that you need to go.

I think having a small DD, that can do most of the basic tasks as mentioned above, and having a beater/project truck is the way to go.

Entirely up to you, and your budget.:doah:
 
I'd just pick me up a 1200 dollor beater yota, s-10, ranger, something along those lines cheap to insure cheap parts drive it for a couple years sell it for what ya paid for it and get another one My brown truck is My "beater" I don't wheel it ..... Much ,mostly just back and forth to work and to the parts store on weekends I have 4 late model vehicles (newer than 90) but I just like driving the old iron better . But in your case your wheeler is also your main transportation so I think a beater would work out for you
 
DEFINATELY THE VORTEC! if u want a diesel, look for a duramax. you will get better gas milage and power from a diesel but gas is also more expensive. if i drive my 1990 350 TBI easy ill get around 12-14 in town. now with a newer vortec youll do even better. also if something ever went wrong with the vortec, it would be cheaper for parts and easier to fix than a diesel. although a turbo duromax would be awesome! thats what i wnated to do but it would just cost too much. you could get a used engine from a used truck yard for about a $1000
 
well around here, diesel costs the same as gas, give or take a cent. im under the impression that i probably wont be satisfied with a 6.2. the truck is currently mostly trails/mud. i think i will eventually buy an older toy taco as a dd or something, so that will open u my options, but i still wanna drive the k5 a bunch
 
chevyryan said:
DEFINATELY THE VORTEC! if u want a diesel, look for a duramax. you will get better gas milage and power from a diesel but gas is also more expensive. if i drive my 1990 350 TBI easy ill get around 12-14 in town. now with a newer vortec youll do even better. also if something ever went wrong with the vortec, it would be cheaper for parts and easier to fix than a diesel. although a turbo duromax would be awesome! thats what i wnated to do but it would just cost too much. you could get a used engine from a used truck yard for about a $1000
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A used complete duramax for $1000, keep dreaming!:haha:
 
Yeah, I dont think the 6.2 makes gobs of power. I dont know about torque, but I know they make almost no horsepower unmodified. If the price for the gas is the same, then get something torquey like a hipo 350 or 383, but like chevyryan said, you need to use vortec parts. More power and better economy.
 
so should i find a newer tbi motor and put vortec heads on it, or should i find a complete vortec motor?
 
Well, thats why I put a full vortec lower on the list, because you will have to work on fuel system, which you probably will anyways, and you have to swap out wiring harnesses. Or you rebuild it and go 383. :)

But do not put a gas motor in there that doesnt have vortec heads.
 
is there any place you can get vortec heads "cheap"? haha we sell them at the parts store i work at, and i think they were like 400 per side. i love the idea of a diesel, but when i think diesel i think of a 5.9 cummins or duramax easily tuned for 400hp and 1000tq while gettin like 16mpg, and i cant afford to do that :(

but for ****z and giggles, how much do you think it would run to put a newer diesel/tranny in?

im curious to see the price difference. the way i see it is that my 700r4 is probably going to need to be built up for the new motor anyways. i found a 350 crate motor 280hp/340tq direct bolt into mine for $2800. putting new cam, intake mantifold, vortec heads and new exhaust as well. that would probably cost about the same as the diesel swap...i duno
 
ramjet 350, 350 hp and 400 lbs of torque. just add fuel and power, totally easy swap. then you don't have to worry about building the engine any stronger. jegs has them for $4,899.99.
 
i like the idea of direct bolt in, but thats $4900. is that motor dd road worthy? for a little more money, i think i could get a used newer cummins maybe? i think reguardless my tranny is going to need to be rebuilt at the least (current 700r4 has 125k on it, its prolly bout dead haha). i love the idea of a 350/383 crate motor, but im just not sure how dd worthy it is. well i guess most of my driving is around town, i usually do about 150-200 miles a week (basically a tank of gas). is there a way to tune a built 350 for economy? in the city will a diesel really get that much better mpg? im just tryin to explore options :)
 
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