Crate engine vs rebuilding opinions?

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Curt

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At the moment I'm thinking going stock, reading into the cost of upgraded injectors, marine intakes, etc I don't really have the interest to do deal with that. If I were going to hot rod a truck I'd rather go with something older and carbed. Would I need to be worried about beefing up the rest of the drive train with a 383?
I know the 4L60e is the achilles heel of these trucks. Also, if you have the G80 rear end, it's a ticking time bomb. Both the rear end and my trans grenaded the second I dropped the brand new 350 crate motor in my truck. With a truck this old, murphy's law tends to take it's course haha. I replaced my G80 with an Eaton Detroit TrueTrac and my 4l60e with a 4L65e w/ a corvette servo. People have mixed opinions about that, but I love it. That being said, YMMV... I feel as though my circumstances was an isolated case. With the added torque of the 383, I don't think it'll cause much trouble if your truck was well maintained.

On the GM webpage and I think Jegs both show out of stock. I think I might have assumed that was the HD version if I did see it. After I talk to my local shop if I do go the crate route I'll go with that engine, thanks again!

Follow up question, what all should be replaced along with the rebuilt engine? I'm thinking new water pump, oil cooler, maybe radiator and hoses, plugs and wires of course, anything I'm overlooking? Flex plate and starter? Got a new battery already, anything easier to do while the engine is out for peace of mind down the road?
For that Summit link, you might want to consider the JEGS route: https://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/059/0282/10002/-1 . I bought mine there, much cheaper.

When dropping in a new engine there are a ton of things you can change, if you have the budget for it. Most of the time, you can just drop in the new engine and be good to go. I invested in a Fel-Pro upper end gasket set, for peace of mind. I also got a new starter since mine was going bad. If I had an unlimited budget, I definitely would've got more things replaced. Water pump, power steering pump, engine mounts, MPFI spider injectors, distributor gear; to name a few. But I didn't replace any of those and the truck still runs like a champ. Since you're not getting a new trans, a front transmission seal wouldn't be a bad idea to replace. The only thing that has happened recently is my front drivers side diff axle seal just went bad... but that's not something that needs to be done while you're in there haha.
 
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29tx

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Motor mounts, Distributor gear (it's cheap and I chewed one after a rebuild and not quite sure if I got all the pieces back out of the oil pan) Obviously it will have new freeze plugs. I would also replace the front seal on the transmission while the engine is out. Flexplate if you have abnormal wear on the current one.

Personally I do not like the oil cooler and have removed them on my 5.7 engines and replaced them with the stock oil filter adapter out of an 85 engine. You will then use a pf454 oil filter instead of the current size. It will still allow room for the front driveshaft under it.

Thanks Mark, I'll add those to the list and look into the oil cooler.

I think the new crate motor from GM makes sense if you plan on keeping the truck. On paper they even have a warranty. Sales tax on a new truck is probably more than the crate motor will cost.

I do plan on keeping it. I talked to my local machine shop, it'd be about the same price as a GM block so I'm not sure which way to go.

I know the 4L60e is the achilles heel of these trucks. Also, if you have the G80 rear end, it's a ticking time bomb. Both the rear end and my trans grenaded the second I dropped the brand new 350 crate motor in my truck. With a truck this old, murphy's law tends to take it's course haha. I replaced my G80 with an Eaton Detroit TrueTrac and my 4l60e with a 4L65e w/ a corvette servo. People have mixed opinions about that, but I love it. That being said, YMMV... I feel as though my circumstances was an isolated case. With the added torque of the 383, I don't think it'll cause much trouble if your truck was well maintained.


For that Summit link, you might want to consider the JEGS route: https://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/059/0282/10002/-1 . I bought mine there, much cheaper.

When dropping in a new engine there are a ton of things you can change, if you have the budget for it. Most of the time, you can just drop in the new engine and be good to go. I invested in a Fel-Pro upper end gasket set, for peace of mind. I also got a new starter since mine was going bad. If I had an unlimited budget, I definitely would've got more things replaced. Water pump, power steering pump, engine mounts, MPFI spider injectors, distributor gear; to name a few. But I didn't replace any of those and the truck still runs like a champ. Since you're not getting a new trans, a front transmission seal wouldn't be a bad idea to replace. The only thing that has happened recently is my front drivers side diff axle seal just went bad... but that's not something that needs to be done while you're in there haha.

I'll have to run the codes on my truck and figure out what rear end and gears I have. I'm gonna have to dig into what exactly was done to the transmission before I got it, can't recall if it was a total rebuild or not. At this point I'm leaning towards a stock rebuild/crate. 383 would be fun and who knows maybe I'll change my mind. The truck still runs and drives at this point so I'm going to create a list of all the suggestions to do with the swap and save up while driving it and fixing a few other things on the truck.

Thanks to all that have replied, given me a good starting point and many things I wouldn't have thought of myself. Trying to get back into the new year/working schedule, I'll update when I make some progress.
 

L31MaxExpress

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I know the 4L60e is the achilles heel of these trucks. Also, if you have the G80 rear end, it's a ticking time bomb. Both the rear end and my trans grenaded the second I dropped the brand new 350 crate motor in my truck. With a truck this old, murphy's law tends to take it's course haha. I replaced my G80 with an Eaton Detroit TrueTrac and my 4l60e with a 4L65e w/ a corvette servo. People have mixed opinions about that, but I love it. That being said, YMMV... I feel as though my circumstances was an isolated case. With the added torque of the 383, I don't think it'll cause much trouble if your truck was well maintained.


For that Summit link, you might want to consider the JEGS route: https://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/059/0282/10002/-1 . I bought mine there, much cheaper.

When dropping in a new engine there are a ton of things you can change, if you have the budget for it. Most of the time, you can just drop in the new engine and be good to go. I invested in a Fel-Pro upper end gasket set, for peace of mind. I also got a new starter since mine was going bad. If I had an unlimited budget, I definitely would've got more things replaced. Water pump, power steering pump, engine mounts, MPFI spider injectors, distributor gear; to name a few. But I didn't replace any of those and the truck still runs like a champ. Since you're not getting a new trans, a front transmission seal wouldn't be a bad idea to replace. The only thing that has happened recently is my front drivers side diff axle seal just went bad... but that's not something that needs to be done while you're in there haha.

As I have said before the 4L60E fails behind 4.3s. My stock 60E failed at 38K and the built up 65E that replaced it made it 40K. That was behind the stock 5.7 that later had shorties, a small cam and a tune. Never even pulled a trailer.
 

Awest623

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Thanks everyone for the replies!



Didn't think about the local business aspect, will keep that in mind.



At the moment I'm thinking going stock, reading into the cost of upgraded injectors, marine intakes, etc I don't really have the interest to do deal with that. If I were going to hot rod a truck I'd rather go with something older and carbed. Would I need to be worried about beefing up the rest of the drive train with a 383?



I was going on the rebuild path then started seeing that the fuel system has a limit on this and the added costs to get past that made me think about the 383. I love the truck but it's had a long life and I'm trying to decide just how much I want to put into it. I know the person I got this truck from and drove it years ago with the stock 5.7 at less that 100k miles when it still had some power and it stock was more than enough for me so I'm leaning back towards a crate engine.



You pretty much have summed up my thought process so far haha. I've read good and bad about the crate engines and that has me worried from some of what I've read. I guess I need to just go to the local shop I've used for older projects and talk to them about cost and warranty.



Thank you! I missed that! On the GM webpage and I think Jegs both show out of stock. I think I might have assumed that was the HD version if I did see it. After I talk to my local shop if I do go the crate route I'll go with that engine, thanks again!

Follow up question, what all should be replaced along with the rebuilt engine? I'm thinking new water pump, oil cooler, maybe radiator and hoses, plugs and wires of course, anything I'm overlooking? Flex plate and starter? Got a new battery already, anything easier to do while the engine is out for peace of mind down the road?

I guess I was wrong... Link I gave you is showing not available now.
 

barry_g

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the real licensed crate gets a bore over..
3 options.

.020 is minimum, 60 max.
they do have warranty, and are nice.

to rebuild on your own, you can stay stock, ignoring ring land ridges at tdc and other machined measures.
the crate has a chance to go even further than the first round of oem build.

to me 350 is bored to the gills defying original engineering of the sbc.. but the 305, I'd love the bored over crates for that one.
 
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