By James McCarter
LA VIEW Publisher
It’s Christmas time, and I know what every car guy wants: a crate engine. He can use it in an existing project or design a whole new car around that sturdy engine Santa leaves under the tree this year.
Years ago, you either built your engine yourself, or turned to a local high-performance machine shop. Now the big car makers are capitalizing on the old car craze buy offering high-performance packages of their own. Just pick the motor that suits your needs, and it gets delivered to your door ready to drop in.
Here are a few of my favorites from each of the Big Three:

LS Family
The LS family of engines was designed in the 1990s by an elite team of GM engineers. This was the first true redesign of the small-block Chevrolet engine since the 265-inch V-8 was introduced in 1955. Everything since then has been a modification: the LS motor was truly a revolutionary power plant design.
The series comes in a variety of packages, ranging from the 350-horsepower LS1 ($5,399.90) to the ultimate LS7 ($12,494.99), which is used in the Z06 Corvette.
All of the LS engines are based on the same platform that begins with an aluminum block and heads. The hand-built LS7 features a 7.0-liter aluminum dry-sump block, CNC-ported cylinder heads, and titanium rods and valves. It produces 505 horsepower and propels the 2006 Corvette down a quarter mile in 11.5 seconds at 127 miles per hours.

Old School Small Blocks
The LS engines are nice, but they may be too much for a lot of 1960 gearheads. They would probably prefer a ZZ4 ($3,900), GM’s most popular crate engine. It is based on the original small-block Chevy design, though it certainly has some upgrades: like aluminum heads, a street roller camshaft and a 4-bolt main block. The angle plug cylinder heads have screw-in rocker studs, 1.94” intake and 1.50” exhaust valves and 58cc combustion chambers that yield a 10 to 1 compression ratio. Rated at 355 horsepower, this is a great engine for a street rod.

RamJet 350
The RamJet 350 ($5,044.10) is a good engine for someone who likes the old engineering on the bottom end, but wants some modern reliability on the top side. It’s basically a 350 crate engine with Vortec cylinder heads and a modern fuel-injection system placed on top. Recall that in 1957 Chevrolet offered a fuel-injected 283 that became their first engine to reach one horsepower per cubic inch. This set up is easy to install in an older car, too. Just connect it to 12 volts and a fuel line, and it’s ready to go!

ZZ502 Deluxe
GM’s most popular big block crate engine, the ZZ502 Deluxe ($7,775.66) is a turnkey motor, complete from carb to starter. This 502-cubic-inch, 502 horsepower monster features aluminum heads, hydraulic roller cam and 4-bolt mains. Partially assembled variations allow for oval or rectangular port heads. While it is a newer-generation motor and most parts won’t interchange with older big blocks, it will bolt into any older car that can house a big Chevy engine.

ZZ572/720R
Overkill is always nice, and that’s why GM is offering the 720 horsepower ZZ572/720R. This 572-cubic-inch tall-deck monster has 12:1 compression ratio (race fuel only), shot-peened forged 4340 H-Beam rods, a solid roller cam with .714” lift and 1095cfm King Demon carburetor. 685 ft.-lbs. of torque at @ 4500 RPM should launch any ‘60s muscle car down the track in the 10-second range.

Chrysler
426 Hemi
There’s nothing with a reputation like a 426 Hemi. Now Chrysler is offering an almost complete classic 426 HEMI crate engine ($14,399.99) that will outperform the original. Plus it has a one-year warranty! This is the real thing — a Mopar Performance 426 Hemi that produces. 465 horsepower and 486 ft.-lbs. of torque. It comes with a heavy-duty cast iron block with cross-bolted mains, cast iron cylinder heads, stainless steel valves, and lots of other sturdy internal parts. It does not include a water pump or carburetor.

500 Wedge Crate Engine
Remember the 440 wedge? It actually came with higher horsepower production than the Hemi. The newest version comes with 500 cubic inches and produces a whopping 505 horsepower on premium pump gas ($9,549). It has a forged crank, a cross-bolted heavy-duty cast iron block, cast iron Stage V cylinder heads and a single plane M1(r) aluminum 4-barrel intake manifold. For some reason they do not include a water pump, damper, or distributor, but the dealers will often give a package price for those items.

Ford 5.0/302
The 5.0/302 never died at Ford. The company offers the legendary small block in myriad variations, from stock to stroked. The engine pictured is a 340-horsepower long-block ($4,300) that comes with Ford Racing aluminum GT-40 cylinder heads, a hydraulic roller camshaft with .480” of lift on both intake and exhaust, and a very street-able 9:1 compression ratio.
Ford sells most of their 302s without an intake system, though there is a 450-horsepower carbureted version ($8,600). They also offer a bunch of fuel injection systems.

Ford Big Blocks
All the Ford Racing big blocks are carbureted models with aftermarket intake manifolds. There is a 460-cubic-inch version and two 520-cubic-inch versions. The 460 engine ($6,700) has 10.5:1 compression and produces 550 horsepower. The 520-cubic-inch versions ($8,100) can produce over 625 horsepower, depending on the choice of carburetor.

You can see the complete line of factory crate engines at the following websites:
www.fordracingparts.com
www.mopar.com
www.highperformanceparts.net
And if you can’t afford to buy your car guy an engine, the sites also offer T-shirts and hats.

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