create or rebuild

Hello all, I have a 350 out of a 69 camero. My local shop charges about $1400 for a stock rebuild.

I have been reading on the GM goodwrench mexican crate 350 (10067353). It's priced from $1400-1500.

It's going in a 64 chevelle, daily driver. I know I would get more power with the rebuild but looking for an affordable price and dependability.

Thanks

by the time you do it your self you would have about the same $ in it .. especially if you got new crank and rods and pistons ,,,heads re-done , but thats JMO

I just got my 350 out of the machine shop.

Block machining...........$650

Crank polished.............$150

Heads redone..............$375
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Total..........................$ 1175

And I still had to buy a complete gasket set, rings, bearings, balanced ( $200), a cam and lifter set ( $125) an oil pump ($35) and I am not done yet.

I would have bought the crate engine in a heartbeat but I had the sbc with lots of good racing parts on it so I used it. Years ago I installed one of those Mexican crate motors in a guys Vette and it was the easiest install I ever did. Ran great right out of the box and it was nice working with new parts.

You can't beat the price they get for them. I know a lot of guys who only put in a hotter cam and are using them every day.

Don

Do you have the site for the Mexican crate engines? I would like to learn more.

Depending on how anal you are it wouldn't hurt to take the crate engine apart and check for dirt, grit, etc. There has been reports of that problem in some GM crate engines. Jeg's and Summit have GM factory crate engines. Dealerships have them. Lots of companies, like Edelbrock sell their own crate engines. Many choices.
I still like building them myself, having a local engine machine shop doing the work. It's fun for me to spec the parts and do the assembly.

hecho in mexico motors were called targetmaster's. i have heard good and bad on them. most of the bad because they were assembled in mexico, but the parts came from the u.s. the blazers, el camino's and their gmc counter parts were assembled there too. i looked for a link but i didn't find one, maybe they changed the name to goodwrench on all of them. the targetmaster name was for the built in mexico motors. the only reason i would buy a creat motor over the rebuild is to have it now, and have a roller cam. but you can put a roller cam in older blocks too.

kkadams123 said:

Do you have the site for the Mexican crate engines? I would like to learn more.

Click to expand...

Yep, the old name was Targetmaster and they changed it to Goodwrench. You get something like a 3 year warranty (with some requirements) and they are complete pan to valve covers. You just add your accessories.

If you look around the net there are some big Chevy dealers who blow out the basic engine really cheap. It is rated at 260 hp as I recall.

Don

Jegs has a good price and free shipping , which is normally $150 to $200 itself.

http://www.jegs.com/p/GM-Performance/GM-Goodwrench-350-Engine-Packages-1973-1985/752506/10002/-1

There is/was a place in Houston that sold "rebuilt" SBC engines for around $700 bucks. It was a good deal twenty years ago. Until I got one that they forgot to grind the valves, one head was cracked, and had bent push rods. The first hint of trouble came when water was running out of the tail pipe while I was putting it in the radiator. I called and they said to pull the heads and see if I can determine what's wrong. I did. They wound up giving me another engine but, I had to eat the labor and the gas for the trip to Houston. After that one, I started using the Goodwrench engines and they have stood behind the warranty very good. I even got some labor money for a rocker arm stud that pulled out after 100 miles. A good warranty is a nice thing.
But, I'd rather just get the block work done and assemble it myself. That way, I know who to blame when something falls apart or breaks.

Be a patron to the local shops. Who knows, you or a friend may be one some day.
Buy the cam you want and they will install it while they are building the engine.
Any reputable shop is more than happy to show you the progress being made as they go along.