262 VS 350: An obvious, difficult choice.

[98 Nitro]

Those are vortec heads with a carburetor intake and a Holley 4bbl carb. Could be a later 305 vortec (those do NOT have the desirable true “vortec” heads) check your casting numbers on the block and heads to be sure.

On the flip side, if it’s free carb to pan complete - that intake and carb can be cleaned up and either reused by you or flipped and make a few bucks even if the block and heads are junk.

Actually 305 vortec heads are pretty good, kind of like a TBI gen2 head.

 

[DerekTheGreat]

"I'll run it by my wife as well"


It's always concerning to me to hear other board members mention stuff like this. If you have to get permission to keep a free engine in your garage you may as well sell every single thing you own and save your money in a hidden coffee can because you're going to need it eventually.

Ya know, an old saying comes to mind here; "It's better to pray/ask for forgiveness rather than ask for permission."

My wife is a gearhead though. I ain't never met another gal who happily drives a rusty stick shift Ford truck or any other old vehicle over modern offerings.

 

[DerekTheGreat]

That's the listing picture. It will need to be rebuilt, I already knew that. So does my 262. Am i looking at a 305 in actuality? Is that TPI? It looks kind of like tbi to me but then it is a little different.

Would a TPI block not work with tbi? I'll be changing over to Vortec heads and intake so I'm only concerned about the block.

Those are vortec heads with a carburetor intake and a Holley 4bbl carb. Could be a later 305 vortec (those do NOT have the desirable true “vortec” heads) check your casting numbers on the block and heads to be sure.

On the flip side, if it’s free carb to pan complete - that intake and carb can be cleaned up and either reused by you or flipped and make a few bucks even if the block and heads are junk.

Are you sure? Pic was shot with a potato so it's hard to make it out but TBI heads also sport centerbolt rocker covers. It's got that s-hitty 70's accessory drive belt system so something tells me it could go both ways- that someone put TBI heads on a smog era turd 350/305 or did get themselves a Vortec, carb slap it and swap over that accessory drive belt stuff. That brings another question though too; Can you run those older style accessories with newer (87+) heads? What about older heads with a serpentine setup?

 

[letitsnow]

I wish that it was cheaper, but once you add exhaust mods etc, you get to $2000 in a couple heartbeats. It adds up so fast.

 

[upper_tanker]

If I were you, I'd look at changing gear ratios before you spend too much on mods that will give minimal gains. I just briefly read over the thread here, but going to a numerically higher gear will get the truck some more pep in it's step, and is relatively cheap. Of course, this is assuming that you're willing to raise your cruising/freeway RPM. If you have a 700r4 or a 4l60e, this is a good calculator to play around with tire size and gear ratios at different speeds: http://chevellestuff.net/tools/rpm_calculator.htm

If you're not willing to change your gear ratios and are leaning towards keeping the 4.3, I'd go with a new cam, long tubes, e-fans, and a tune. If you're willing to give up A/C (assuming you already have it), you cold get the A/C delete bracket/pulley. I don't remember how many miles you said your current 4.3 has, but if you don't have many, there's a good chance you don't need cam bearings (or have any other internal engine issues).

If it were ME, I'd just go with a 350. You could get a cam, a decent set of heads, and a carb and be over your 300 hp mark. Dollar-for-dollar, the 350 will always benefit more to mods than a 4.3 will.

No matter what you do, ALWAYS plan on at least a few unexpected expenses. There are ALWAYS things that you either didn't plan on buying or that may break when uninstalling/installing. I found this out the hard way.

Again, I just skimmed over all of the replies, so forgive me if I missed something or got some info wrong.

 

[RichLo]

One more opinion here building on a previous comment. Get the free engine no matter what then once you have it in your garage tear it apart and see what you have. A complete re-ring/bearing/gasket kit is cheap ($150 IIRC) on Summit or Jegs IF you only need to hone it and reassemble.

But if the block is junk you still have 'decent' heads/intake and carb to either reuse on a different block or sell for more funds. Or the best case is you get lucky and you can have a DIY rebuilt running engine either 305 or 350 to put into your truck with the current carb for now. The carb is cheap and easy to adapt for future mods as fund come available.

Also, remember that the re-ring kit is only the start you will still need general tune-up parts so allow at least $500 for those to make it a true running engine.

 

[Aelfred-cyning]

I have done a little more soul-searching and a lot more Google searching, and I guess I'm not gonna get to have my cake and eat it too...

So, engine modding is expensive. Sounds like everybody here already knew that. And I'd prefer to keep my 3.42 gears and all my little creature comforts - I don't want to throw all originality out the window.

If this mystery engine is still available, I'll go pick it up on Sunday and see what we've got. As far as the actual engine that I will be using is concerned, the Ebay machine tells me that I can pick up a fully built and refurbished 350, tuned to about 325-ish HP (ostensibly), for about twice the cost of trying to mod the 262 the way I had planned.

It's not the cheap job I was hoping for but it sure would save me a lot of time and energy trying to rebuild at home. Has anybody got experience with mail-order engines? I can use the free one (if I get it) as a core to offset some of the cost, as somebody suggested earlier in the thread. Just want to do my best to ensure I don't get a brick.

 

[RichLo]

Dont start over thinking it too much, get the freebee and see what you have. You might get lucky and have a complete running 350 that just needed a $15 carb rebuild or something simple. Start there and take it one step at a time after that.

But to answer your question mail order engines generally dont have a core refund since shipping is so expensive and the rebuilders dont know what will be in the box so its not worth it to them to offer that. Local machine shops generally do though but only after they fully inspect the block to make sure its worth their time.

 

[letitsnow]

I bought an engine on ebay from speedway motors ($2070 shipped). Mine was a new gm goodwrench stock vortec 350 replacement. If you buy a hopped up rebuilt engine, you might be facing more risk than I did.

There was no core charge for me, so I sold my stock rod knocking 350 locally for $100. Speedway was somehow able to change the arrival date after the auction ended, which caused me to take a day off of work to receive it, otherwise no problems. The motor arrived on a Cross Country freight semi. He stopped out on the street in front of my house, used a pallet jack to move it onto his lift gate, lowered the lift gate to the height of my trailer, I then used a come-a-long to pull the pallet onto my trailer. The motor was heavy, maybe 500 lbs.

Might be more info than you wanted, but that is how it went. It is pretty easy to overlook some of the things that end up being a pain, like taking a day off of work - that has a $$$ value. Sometimes good deals aren't very good after you do all of the math.

 

[Schurkey]

Or get really weird and find an old 262 V-8.