Crate Motor Sources

My son installed on of those spacers between the throttle body & intake yesterday. Once around the block and one of the 3 studs broke and the motor swallowed one of the washers. We tracked it down to one cylinder (Spark plug was damaged). With a magnet I pulled some good sized chunks of metal from that cylinder through the spark plug hole that does not appear to be the washer. We're in the process of pulling the head today to see the extent of the damage. In the event the metal removed is pieces of the valve and nothing else is damage I have no problem replacing it. But if the worst has occured and the piston & cylinder wall is trashed I'll be in the market for a crate motor. Any recommendations of crate motor suppliers would be appreciated. The truck is a 95, S-10, 2WD, Auto, 4.3, Z code motor. Since we will have it tore down I guess this would be the time for cam & intake upgrades too so those recommendations would also be appreciated.

Thanks,
Gene

Well Gene, I'm sorry to hear about that problem.
I hope that it's just the head.

There are some big choices to make if you have to replace the motor.

With todays gas prices you probably don't want to put in a performance cam. But a better quality cam is a good idea.

Napa is probably as good of a place as any for a stock crate motor. They have them available in Canada, so they should in the U.S.

If you want performance look into Summit Racing
http://store.summitracing.com/default.asp?target=sitemap2.asp&N=400240

If you want the best prices look into E-bay.

If you want a v8 in the near future it's the time to install it.

A SBC v8 will bolt right to the transmission.

Good Luck

Just an update:
Got the intake & head off & I think a miracle has just ocurred. The top of the pistion was only dingged up slightly & the cylinder wall appear to be untouched. None of the valves are bent and still seat & no push rods are bent. I pured gas down each port of the head and no leak by the seats was seen. I think we can just clean everything up & put it back together.

Thanks,
Gene

Good, I'm happy.

But before you fire it back together I would fill that damaged cylinder up with ATF oil and let it sit overnight.
If the rings somehow got damaged the clylinder will be empty in the morning.

If it's still full your still happening

Good Luck