About 10 am this morning the freight company called me and told me they had an engine setting on the dock in San Antonio. I wanted to leave from work right then to pick it up, but they told me they were open until 8 PM. So I hung in until 3:45, then drove home and left a note for my wife and left town at 4:15. I was at the freight dock by 6:00 pm and back home by 7:55. Not bad for 225 miles round trip, including 20 minutes at the freight company talking to the guy that loaded for me. He had never seen a crate engine before and had no idea you buy something like that.
After I got home I called a buddy to come help me unload it. I had built a wheeled dolly that I'm going to put my old engine on after I pull it, so I pulled my pickup to the end of the driveway and we slid the crate off onto the dolly.
Man that sucker is heavy! The only real problem with my dolly is that the wheels I used were too small and kept getting stuck in the expansion joints of my driveway. Even with that problem it only took us about 5 minutes to unload it and roll it up into my garage.
The motor sure is purty!
I plan on pulling my engine one evening this week, it is completely ready to come out, and just setting on the motor mounts. So pulling it out should be a pretty quick to pull. All that's in there is just the block, crank, pistons and pan. Everything else had been stripped off. I was going to do a top end rebuild on it, until I found out how bad the main and rod bearings were.
I still have all the new parts I was going to put on my old block for sale,
a new Comp XE262 and lifters, one set of unmodified Vortec heads complete with springs and rockers. A new Edelbrock Performer Vortec, ARP head bolts, Cloyes double roller timing set (with an extra chain.) Vortec intake gaskets (GM resuable ones) Old beatup centerbolt valve covers and rubber gaskets and a bunch of other stuff.
If anyone is interested in any of the stuff let me know, I need to recoup some of the money I spent on my ZZ4!

 

I recently did this swap. (actually had to pay a mechanic to finish it but that is because I have the corvette from hell... but that's another story.) Anyway, just wanted to say you won't regret the swap. :D

 

You are going to love that motor. Check out the website you can see what I did to mine. I painted it orange to look more original. Note: Keep your original temp sender and place it in the intake by the thermostat housing. That way your gauge will read correctly. I do not know if you have a manual or not, but you may need a flywheel instead of the flex plate. If you have any questions feel free to email or message me.


Mark B.

 

Email me with what parts you have and the prices you are looking for please ;)

JoeZ@zorsus.com

 

You are definitely gonna be glad you bought it! :yesnod: :yesnod:
Cruz

 

What happened to the last motor?

 

Buddy,
I started feeling funny about bolting a bunch of new parts on my old, once rebuilt block. After I'd pulled the heads I found evidence of a less than perfect previous rebuild. I investigated further and dropped the pan and checked the main and rod bearings. They weren't in bad shape, but they weren't in good shaper either. The crank had already been turned two times and oversized bearings were evident.
The killer came when I took a borescope and started looking at the cam bearings and found them badly worn and smeared.
I started pricing getting another rebuild done on the short block, or buying another short block and putting my stuff on it. The cost to performance and reliability versus the ease of just dropping in a new ZZ-4 pushed me over the top.
Besides I really wanted one! :D

 

Always the best reason :yesnod:

Scott