hey everyone. i am in the process of rebuilding my cruiser and am leaning heavily towards a new crate motor. am thinking injected 350. has anyone bought a crate motor? and any other info about these would be helpful like what comes with etc. thanx. joel

If your talking about a crate motor say GEN111 5.7L Holden V8 you can buy them new from HOLMART<br />http://web.aanet.com.au/holmart/<br />I think they are VY series but ask them how much warranty you get as these Gen 111 suffer from piston slap. My CV8 had it and the Engine was rebuilt at only 10,500K only and now is good.<br />I know a few with the Gen 111 with Piston slap and its no drama, its only if you have piston slap with oil consumption thats a BIG problem.

Come to think of it I would go MAD at Holmart, Plenty to buy there at good prices

A mate of mine has a 350 crate in his p'van. it has an advertised 325hp but on the dyno with a 750vac replacing the 650 it had only 230hp!!.Not too happy really. hopefully we can sort it but not good.id say to ask about before getting one.I think his was around $3200 Aust.

I think the gen 111 in the crate is around 5k and you get plenty of grunt out of them but it cost $$$. Thats the bad side of things.

beauty.thanx for the replies. the gen 3 is the LS1 motor isnt it? i,m a little hesitant to get one as i have heard numerous stories of unreliability and piston problems. as this engine is for a competition four wheel drive it needs to be reliable!!cyas sunday.

Hi Joel, let me know how you go because I am starting to look at crate motors for it, would be heaps easier than building the big block but I am worried about the same thing that Dave was just saying about it not having the horsepower that they say it does.

MMMMMmmmmmmmmm crate motors MmmMMMMMMmmmmm BB572

Its a lottery when you buy one of these GEN 111, 22% of them (VX to VY series)suffer from piston slap, mine did but since its had its pistons replaced its PERFECT!!!!<br />Now I wonder what warrenty they give you for this did you ring them and talk to them. <br />Don't worry about the HP department just go to www.ls1.com.au <br />and ask them,,, Look on the other side of their avator they have their RWHP (rear wheel HP) on for all to see and most have there dyno charts to prove it too.

after talking to people at suburban imports, eagle auto, redcliffe dyno, and holmart i have bailed out big on the ls1. i aint gonna risk that. plus by the time i get a computer and all the other stuff needed to get the thing driving it was quite a lot more than the roughly 5k start price. so there are two options at the moment. option 1 is an lt2 ( could have that wrong ) corvette engine. from memory about 6.2 litre @ $6700 then you gotta get some other stuff to complete like alternator and stuff. i am leaning more to option 2 which is a ramjet 350 chevy. for $9170 it has computer and all the bits the other ones require you to buy included. and for that sort of cabbage so it should. so now i have to decide and chat to some local engine builders and see what they will build for a comparison. the appealing thing about the ramjet engine is aside from the nice 350 horsepower figure the torque is also quite impressive and as this is a competition intended four wheel drive that is very important. also there are off the shelf kits ( marks adaptors ) who supply engine mounts and adaptor kits for my gearbox. so. if anyone has any suggestions of engine builders i am all ears. also, maybe for 9k you wont get so much?? i dont know...only requirement is must be fuel injected.

Try Powertorque in Brendale, but the problem is $$$$<br />I like the 6.2L bit <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/default/grin.gif" />

are u putting this into a 4wd and if so what kind of car see ya