Again, that is like saying no one is interested in cars from the 20's, 30's and 40's since folks back then are mostly gone now. Simply not true. The tuner car craze has slowed down quite a bit the last few years. The number of C3's produced is not nearly as relevant as the number still around in 20 years. You are right, the more folks chop up and discard c3's, the more valuable original ones will eventually be. Lastly, a 2 bolt main is perfectly fine to 6,000 on the street. To make serious power, the only items that must be changed are heads-aluminum and cam-roller. Most everything else can be reconditioned.

Here is an example: 78/79's were abundantly produced. However, in 78 only 3300 had an l-82 and 4 speed. How many of those 3,300 do you think are left? Not many

 

???

 

Just a suggestion: next time you pull a motor, unbolt the converter from the flexplate and leave it installed on the transmission. Vise-versa, before installing your new motor, install the converter onto the transmission and bolt it to the converter after the engine is in place.

If you're not going to remove the transmission from the car you may want to replace the front seal. Pulling the motor with the converter still bolted to the flexplate will often damage the seal. I'd hate for you to have a bad transmission leak from a cut seal after firing up the new crate motor or rebuilt original.

 

Crate vs rebuild is entirely up to you-
Based on your mechanical abilities, time, money and desire to get dirty and do things yourself vs "buy it, drop it in and go" can only be answered by you.

Regardless of path, just do your homework so you don't run into any surprises (many of which have already been mentioned).

Personally, the debate over engine size is kinda silly unless you have a numbers matching car and desire to keep it as such. No one will ever know the true displacement of your engine unless YOU tell them.
Drop in a 427 SBC and tell folks it's a 307.. Who cares?

In my case, I went with a 400 + .040 (around 409-ish cubes) because I wanted big block like torque without having to drop in a big block.
I chose at the time to build my own motor- If I had to do it again, I probably would go Crate.
Everyone's goals are different.
Enjoy!

 

VortecPro by Mark Jones. Awesome power for the money, famous with the Chevelle crowd and testimonials here also.

 

I've just broken in a 540 and I hope there isn't a new engine in my future, but if so, it will be a Shafiroff or Mark Jones crate.

Planning, knowing what you want and doing the research are very important, but you never know what will happen.

I've had 2 engines professionally built, both had instant rear main seal leaks. Both builders had 20 to 30 years experience. The second engine was supposed to be a 625hp 468, it made 525 hp as verified on a chassis dyno. That was 15 hp more than the 427 it was replacing. Heads didn't make the power they should have, porting and chamber work by the builder. He had a flow bench too.

I have a lot of parts, including 3 sets of BB cylinder heads, 2 in aluminum. So after the 468 failure, I bought a 540 short block from Shafiroff and planned on using a set of heads I already had. I got several recommendations for a local engine shop that specialized in cylinder head work. They ported the heads, flowed one and refreshed both. The flow results were hardly better than the stock numbers and all the valves, which they had lapped, were thrown in a box with all the location markings buffed off. What good is lapping the valves and then putting them back in the wrong holes?

Like I say, you just never know what you're getting.

 

http://www.ultrastreet.net/engines/402_realstreet.php
http://www.ultrastreet.net/engines/427_realstreet.php
You get what you pay for.

 

I bought a new ZZ383 deluxe (450/450) this summer for under $5k US from a GM dealership not far from me. I put my original engine which has 1 rebuild left in the crate for storage. Driven just over 600 miles and am happy with its performance. I spent 8 months looking into the various crate offerings ranging from GM to others mentioned here from 350 - 427 sb and Ls combinations. I built my last engine 13 or 14 yrs ago, knew what I wanted out of the next engine and made a decision.

 

I'm still (barely) in my 20s. Nobody my age has any idea that they could pick up a C3 for less than the cost of a Kia. They think I have some kind of insanely expensive super-car

My biggest worry is that it will become illegal to drive it at some point. Between emissions, safety, and self-driving cars I see classics being outlawed entirely for road use in my lifetime.

 

If you do go crate I recommend cnc-motorsports.

oops!

 

If you're good with 383ci, I'd just rebuild your original engine with a stroker rotating assembly, with the hipo parts you want to add. You could even paint it all orange and make it look stock.

I'd only go crate if my original engine was trashed, or I wanted more than 400+ci., or greater than 450ish hp.

 

Yes, you saw that lake of ATF on my garage floor. It wasn't until I had the motor fully out and understood how easy it would have been to remove the 3 bolts holding it onto the flexplate to avert that disaster.

It was my very first time doing something like this. If that was the worst of it, I'm ok with that.

Live and learn.


As for the seal, not worried about that, the TH400 is being sold to make way for my LGT-700 5-speed that's going in.

 

Don't forget to put the short bolt back in after you take the long bolt that held the fuel pump push rod in place. Ask me how I know.

oops!

 

Nice transmission!

I've been thinking of getting the TKO600 5 speed and associated install kit for my car. Is anyone making an install kit for the C3 using the LGT-700?

 

Just my 2 cents:

I'm keeping my factory motor (going to rebuild it this Winter) because I feel when the time comes to sell, It will pay me back very well. In the meantime:



I built this 4-bolt Main block pretty much from scratch, I know what I have, and have no one to blame for later problems other than ME! It was a fun and educational experience that even at my age, was a good thing for me to accomplish.

Not done yet with the swap: Just waiting for the frickin temps around here to be more like Fall.

Steve

 

Mark Jones has them beat on price and horsepower, not dissing Shafiroff but I have a VortecPro by Mark Jones and had a good experience there.

 

That said price and horsepower is great. You can build a 500 horsepower 383 for $5000 or $9000. Look at the parts list in the Ultrastreet engines. Dart SHP block and heads, Fully forged, Mahle pistons, High quality parts throughout.
Fast, durable, cheap. Pick 2.
EVERY time I cut a corner to save money on a high RPM and/or high HP build it comes back to bite me. I haven't bough from Vortecpro but have heard good feedback. Get a parts list.

 

Aren't all the GM crate engines from Mexico?....that's something else to consider if your one of those all American die hards...

I built my own myself... it was to me one of the most satisfying aspects of owning the car.... cost me about 2 grand but I bought a lot of components used on craigslist including the machined block.

 

Interesting.

 

I agree 300%

oops!