I am beginning the "budgeting" part of my restore and I think I am going to swap out the 200hp engine for something beefier and want to put some nice headers and side pipes on it.

So since the engine will be the largest (most likely) purcase for the restore, I am looking at it 1st.

I looked at the fast burn 385, but the people at summit said that the 385 would not be the best choice for my vette because of space requirements and it apparently does not play nice with the hooker headers I was looking at. he said the heads protruded and would not allow the pipes to fit. He said the ZZ4 was a better choice for my application.

I also have looked at just rebuilding the factory to bring it up to the HP I want. I actually would rather not do this, so I can keep the factory engine in tact, but it is a less costly option, but I think it would have a lot more work once together to make sure all is right.

So I am wondering about other peoples experiences and why they took the direction they did on this topic. Are there other engines I should be looking at. to be honest I would like to be more than 350hp not much over 400 if even that much. Any other gotchas etc.

thanks in advance

 

I'm very happy with this... And the original motor / trans are sitting in the hangar ..

 

Hi ef,
Although I can't make any suggestions on your new engine build, I will encourage you to keep the original engine and ALL it's parts intact.
I'll bet that with a 72, you'll get a considerably higher price someday, if you sell, if you have the original parts to the car to include.
You MIGHT even make enough extra to have paid for the build you're going to do now.
Good Luck!
Regards,
Alan

 

I chose the zz4 because of the torque numbers they come in low in the rpm range this will make it fun on the street.
I also wanted something that would drop right back in place of my original engine without any major modifications.

 

If you are keeping the stock hood the clearance is going to be an issue with most aftermarket intakes. There is just not a lot of room under the hood.

 

Yeah I thought the stock hood may give me issue, I am not opposed to changing it.

I find it hard to find specs on the engines as far as physical size. Last thing I want to do is buy one that wont fit. my goodness that would suck.