RBrid

FYI, Chevrolet Performance is going to introduce a 405hp 405lbs/ft ZZ6 crate engine at the SEMA show in November:
New Chevy Small Block crate engine has 405 hp, endless possibilities
Might be a good fit for your C3.

jb78L-82

Certainly looks like a nice motor and as a turn key for some that engine looks like the ticket BUT I suspect that it will be VERY expensive relative to building a Gen 1 block and will not put out equivalent power for the $ dollars spent. The advertised 405 HP is GROSS HP which is about 345 NET HP in today's real terms as installed in the car which is not a ton. I built my L-82 block into a 355 with AFR heads and Roller cam (425+Gross HP, more with LTH-450 Gross HP) for about $6K. Crate engines are rated as Gross not NET as engines installed in production vehicles...a little misleading when looking at most crate engine's advertised HP

cagotzmann

Do you have any real world numbers of your setup. Dyno , track times. Acceleration G's. It would be nice to know how a rebuild vs crate compares.

Shark Racer

You'd have to compare equivalent setups... and there are a ton of permutations whether you're going "rebuild" or "crate".

I don't know of any head on a GM SBC crate motor that compares well to an AFR 195, let alone their more exotic stuff.

I think it ultimately boils down to warranty vs performance.

BTW, didn't the ZZ5 JUST come out? The ZZ4 was the only player for a long time...

jb78L-82

I don't yet since I really don't have the time now to get my car on the dyno and the 355 still needs the carb to be dialed in and the American racing lth put on. As shark racer said, its really hard to beat Afr heads for flow, coupled with 10.2 compression, and a roller cam with more kuft than most crate engines. Plus comparingcmy 10 Z06 to the 78 that is lighter with 505 net hp, the L-82 being head heavier can hold its own against the Z, slower but not be a ton.

gdh

I wonder why they discontinued the zz5 name, the new version is only 5 hp/tq more peak. Have they announced the price yet?
Very happy with the zz383 (450/450) that bought last year.

Sigforty

Probably because they were forced to discontinue the zz5 when it was discovered it did not make the advertised power. I'm guessing the zz6 is like the zz5, but with the proper rocker arms to make the power.

Silvertone

A friend of mine was putting a zz383 in his '56 Nomad. I put my finger in the exhaust ports and found a lot of flashing that should be smoothed out. I hope yours was cleaned up better!

gdh

Checked the ports as soon as took the plastic wrapping off. I was pleasantly surprised to find very little but cleaned them up anyway. The thing I scratched my head over was why they didn't include an oil cap for the deluxe valve covers that came with the engine.

bluedawg

Horsepower and torque are just that and any more you can get a good crate cheaper than you can build one. With this being said, you can both buy and or build all power you want, so it comes done to time, ability and satisfaction. For me it was win loose or draw, I built it. For some the time or ability becomes the tough point and it's easier to buy a crate and be done with it. For some the satisfaction is just having a power full car regardless of who built it.

Sigforty

A lot of people go the gm crate route for the warranty.

bluedawg

That is the beauty about gm's crate engines, that and the price is good. The zz383 is a decent engine with with a warranty. Iirc you have to have an ase certified mechanic install the engine for the warranty to be good, i might be wrong about that. Dollar for dollar, vortecperformance.com is the most reasonably priced and the engines are Taylor built to meet the needs of the customer. The come dyno'd, but for 500$ more mark will install the engine in his car and make enough passes on the strip to back up the Dyno and his claim of the power that it makes. Another good company is cnc-motorsports.Com.

bluedawg

This will probably open a can of worms, but I thought that gm's crate engine ratings were net power, don't remember why I think that.

Shark Racer

"Net HP" is "as-installed". Easy for engines in cars, they can replicate the headers, exhaust system and commonly installed accessories. Not so trivial on a crate motor. They could state what they tested it with but that's about it.

A shop that tests w/ 1 5/8" headers and mufflers will probably be closer to a "net" figure, but it all depends on what they tested with vs what you'll be running in your configuration.

bluedawg

Like I said I can't remember were I heard it, but a psychological pump, alternator, water pump and full exhausts. I'll research it a little more and obviously different brands use different amounts of power, but when your gm I'd figure the brand is ac Delco and I don't figure doing that would be that difficult being as they don't Dyno every engine.

gbvette62

The fact that GM warranty's those engines is just crazy.

We put a ZZ383 in one of the Corvette vintage racers we play with. With less than two hours on the engine (a test day at the track, to sort the car out), we found metal shavings in the oil filter. This was a race car, with open exhaust, race tires, flares, a racing bucket seat and a full roll cage! Chevrolet agreed to warranty the engine, no questions asked, though they did required that a local dealer pull the bad engine and install the new one. We just asked that the dealer let use do all of the connections, like hooking up the oiling, cooling and fuel systems. The ZZ383 has been in the car for two years now, and 8 or 10 race weekends, and we haven't had a bit of trouble with it since.

Still, who the heck ever heard of someone warrantying a race car engine!? Kudos to Chevrolet!

Here's a link to a little more info on the new ZZ6 engine.

http://www.chevrolet.com/performance...gines/zz6.html

BillbUrruss

I bought a Chevy ZZ430 crate engine back in the mid 90's and installed in in my 66 Vett. After about a year I took it to the local speed shop and put it on their dyno. Results were approx. 340hp at the rear wheels which I believe is about normal.
From what I can see the only difference between the ZZ430 and the ZZ6 is the cam. I can't imagine why they don't reproduce the 430 engine.

cv67

People argue it more than XX brand on ebay but think about it

MOST of their crates use brand new evertyhing from the block up
If you tried to build a motor from scratch with nothing I guarantee it will add up to even more.

I dont want anyones used 40 yr old parts in my engine, not to say new could be bad but thats just me being OCD....