Crate Motors

First off, sorry about the lack of posts, I have been under the weather.  I am not 100% yet, but at least starting to feel like normal again.  Anyway, I was reading an article about crate motors and it got me thinking about if I would use one or not.

I know there are advantages to crate motors.  After all, if you are replacing an engine of the same family in your car, like swapping a small block Chevy for a SBC crate motor, it is usually a pretty quick think to do.  If things go smoothly, you could be done in an afternoon.  Of course, things don’t always go smoothly.  I was pulling an engine on a K20 pickup, and spent way too much time trying to get one of the bolts that holds the engine to the transmission loose.  There was a small bracket that held a part of the wiring harness in place on the bolt, and it blocked getting to the bolt from any angle but from directly above.  Unfortunately, it was the top bolt.  So after much muttering, I was able to get the bracket bent out of the way, then the bolt came out with no problem.  Of course the bracket was not put back on.  After all, there was no where for the wiring to go that would cause any problem. So, while it may be possible to swap an engine in an afternoon, it may not work out that way.  Oh well, it usually isn’t too much of a problem.  Swapping in a crate motor is usually a pretty fast and easy way to up the horsepower level of your car.  And they come with a warranty.

Another option is to pay someone to build an engine for you.  The plus to that is that you can specify more of what you want versus buying an off the shelf crate motor.  The engine builder can get information about your car, and what you want to do and build an engine to fit that.  Some of them come with a warranty as well.  Depending on who you have build your engine, you can buy a completely different engine, or have the one in your car rebuilt.

There is a third option as well.  You can rebuild the engine in your car yourself.  With the vast amount of information on the internet, unless you are looking to modify a really oddball engine, you should be able to find information that will help you put together the engine combo you want.  Just  be careful about following a magazine build, since one of the things they often do is port the heads.  If you build the engine the same way, but without the ported heads, it could make a big difference in the power of the engine, since the rest of the components are matched to the ported heads.

I am assuming on rebuilding an engine at home, you are going to have to have someone bore the engine if needed etc, as most people don’t have the  machining tools and experience in their garage to do it at home.

But the rest is definitely something that can be done at home.  And some people, like me, like to research all the bits to make the power curve they want out of an engine.  I find it fun to dig through technical info to figure out how to make something work the way I want.  Some may think that is odd, but I enjoy it. so you need to do what works for you.  If you just want to buy an engine, go for it.  If you want someone to build one for you, same thing.  But if you are thinking about building one yourself, try it.  You just make enjoy it, and learn something along the way.


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