Crate motor?

[Vin Man]

As you saw in my last post, I got the engine out of the Mustang 2 Saturdays ago. This past weekend, my goal was to break down the motor to the short block, and send it off to a buddy that was going to do the complete disassembly, work with the machine shop and then reassemble the new motor using the Aussie head I have (ready to go).

However, when I got the stock head off the motor, I found that the pistons in the block are already 40 over. This changed my plan.

I am now considering a couple of new options. One is to just tear down the block, hone the cylinder walls, re-ring, change the cam and reassemble using Aussie head.

The other option I'm now considering is just getting a crate motor - at least thats what some friends have been recommending.

I'm wondering where to look for a crate motor. I only need the shortblock as I'm still planning on using the Aussie head that I have. I'd appreciate some recommendations. I'm in the Phoenix area if that makes a difference. Thanks.

 

[Eric Rose]

You can order Recon or Spartan reman engines from any parts store, and some places carry Jasper engines. I know someone on this forum is running a Jasper reman engine. Theres probably a local shop who could give you a better deal than the big remanufacturers though, and can do things for you like ARP fasteners/torque plate hone/installing performance cam that you won't get on an off-the-shelf reman engine.

As far as re-assembling what you have, you might want to take the block and have them inspect it to see how true the bores are. On my engine all the standard bores were good except #5 and it needed a .040 overbore to clean it up. As I understand it #5 and #6 sometimes wear a little more than the others.

 

[Asa]

why not look into finding a block that hasn't been bored then proceeding with the original plan?

 

[AzCoupe]

Take the block over to B&B Machine (in Mesa) and have them check it out. They may be able to clean it up if it doesn't have to many miles on it. I the mean time start looking around for a different block. Try calling some of the local slavage yards, and places like the Mustang Shop. The Mustang Shop does V8 swaps every so often and usually sells off the six cylinder parts fairly cheap. Personally, I wouldn't buy a crate motor unless it was a last resort. Just my two cents.

 

[aahsac]

I would go with the reference from Azcoupe versus a "crate motor". Realistically you can get a quality crate motor for a performance small or big block Ford or Chevy but for the little sixes you can only expect a rebuilder motor.

Due to time constraints I had a large rebuilder (>100k sq. ft.) rebuild my long block. I thought I would be safe, they have a pretty good reputation for building the SBC motors for the circle track guys. They apparently didn't notice that my previous owner had filled the engine with some stop-leak concoction preventing water flow between the head and block.

 

[CobraSix]

in my opinion, crate motors aren't worth the money. I bought one for my truck and it was junk. I'll probably never buy another reman'd engine ever.

I6 blocks are pretty easy to find cheap if you look around ebay or VMF (vintage-mustang.com) as people are still doing V-8 swaps. I found my current block, rebuilt with 5k miles on it for $100, just had to drive 4 hours to pick it up (back when gas was still under $1, so no big expense).

Even if you don't find a good one, you can find another one and rebuild it pretty cheap.

If not, I say you go with your back up plan. Break the glaze on the walls, rering it, check your bearings (heck, might as well replace the mains while you are there), basically do an old fashioned "dealer rebuild" and it'll get you down the road a long ways. Save the $1000 and buy more parts from Mike!

 

[Vin Man]

Thanks for the feedback. Since I don't know much about crate motors, I've been leaning towards redoing mine as well. In fact, I also have a second motor. It is an original block out of a 65 Mustang (C5xx) on the block.
Unfortunately, it is also has only the 4 bolts that connect to the tranny bell housing as opposed to the 6 bolts connection I wanted. The good news is that it has never been machined. The bad news is that it has been sitting exposed to the elements for years.

I'm thinking I can use most of the internals out of my existing motor, get this core cleaned and machined, and build a decent short block using a machine shop. Only sacrifice will be 4 bolt bell housing.

The least expensive route would be to just take the motor I pulled out of the car, disassemble, clean, hone, and replace the cam with the one I want.

In this economy, I'll have to look at the cost implications of each option. The budget for this project keeps getting slashed.

 

[1965fastback]

I have a Jasper 200 and love it.