Some of you are aware of my busted block dilemma, but I may have found a solution. Autozone sells a complete 390 for $1419.99 AND it comes with a 3 year warranty.
Now, does anyone have any experience with these engines? Thoughts, gripes?
i heard that they use all of the not damaged items off the old 390's to make a fresher new one.
used rockers, valves,springs, pistons, cam, timing chain...etc.
i know of 2 people that bought one and both had problems... from kragen. they have a warrenty on the engine but do not pay for labor, gaskets, shipping and misc for the next engine.
i'm just pretty interested as well, the price isn't bad either. I know I'll end up sinking more money into it to make it a "performance" engine, but at least I'll have a sound "stock" foundation to build from.
like any other rebuilder doing things to a price, they will cut corners in many places. if you do buy an engine from autozone, or any other parts place, i would at least check that all the bolts are torqued to proper specs, and even perhaps check bearing clearances as well. cheap insurance to make sure the motor you buy is actually going to stay together.
I worked at auto zone for a few years during college. We sold quite a few engines, I don't remember ever having any issues. The reman. quadrajet carbs we sold....now thats a different story.
If you are willing to avoid adding performance mods to it these engines are a good deal. Drop it in with a 2V intake and enjoy many miles of happy motoring.
Back in the late 90s we bought one of those engines from discount autoparts. i am sure they get them all from the same place. We bought a 350 chevy long block. 250 HP. It was $700.
Raced it at the track and didnt have one problem with it.
For what it is worth I have several friends that have the Chevy engines from places like AutoZone, Napa and Advance and to my knowledge none of them have had problems. I know of no one with a Ford engine. And as stated above they are not performance engines they are built to the stock spec. But if you up grade from a stock 302 V2 to a stock 351 V4 for something like 1,200 I think that would be a performance boost.
I bet that's a short block and not a "complete" 390. Complete to me means it would have heads and a intake. I built my 390 short block for about the same price.
By "complete", he means a longblock which does include heads. I've never heard of a longblock coming with an intake. There is nothing wrong with using a better intake, carb, and headers on one of these engines. They are not suitable for a cam but nether is any stock block without modding the heads for screw in studs,etc...
mustangdave, All true. That's why I said "Complete to me means it would have heads and a intake". I do think summit sells some SBC with intakes but I'm not sure.
$1400 for a long block 390 is not a bad but I would have to know what parts are being used before I would buy it. I used good parts in my shortblock and had $1400 to $1500 in it when done. Jasper sells a longblock 390 for $2800.
I'm guessing you have to look those 390's up under a truck because I just tried to find one on the web site and none came up for a 69 Mustang.
I wonder what heads are being used? To get my stock heads reworked local was going to cost me $800 so I went with Ebrock's.
Timmy, they have a pamphlet with all of the parts they replace but of course it is all remanufactured or stock replacement parts. You can request the same year engine but there is no guarantee that you will get the same year heads or block. The bad rep some of these engines have got is when people find things like two different year heads on the same engine or when some piston bores are overbored and the others not. That can be avoided by paying a couple hundred extra for their "better" version that does a standard common sense rebuild.
I currently work at autozone--- most of our reman engines come from recon. Same company that summit deals in. I forgot what all was new and what was used, but the store should have a catalog in the back from the vendor about that stuff. And believe it or not- you can actually order a 347 ford or 383 chevy too... couple of different stroker options... anyways- ask to see the catalog and find out what all is in it.
I don't know what you are planning on doing for the exhaust (manifolds or headers) but it is EXTREMELY unlikely that the heads on the Auto Zone engine will have the correct "14-bolt" pattern necessary to use stock 390GT exhaust manifolds. More than likely they will have the 8-hole "vertical" pattern used on full-size cars and trucks.
So you will have to buy a special set of headers or have additional holes drilled and tapped into the heads (assuming that they will have the bosses - not all do).