I have a 89 Bronco with a 351w, everything stock at this time, would a crate motor be better than having the engine rebuilt??? or is there no difference........

 

I personaly would rebuild your 351 and add early 4v H.O. heads...what kind of power are you looking for out of this engine anyways... low-end torque or mid range and high rpm acceleration? will you be using the factory EFI or carburetion? what kind of wheeling and how much street driving do you do?

 

It depends on your budget, and what you want out of the motor. Do you just want a basic, relatively inexpensive motor that will be reliable and have a warranty? In that case you are best off buying an already remanufactured long block from somewhere like hiperformer.com or Jasper (Jasper is more expensive and I don't know that they are any better; they also have a shorter warranty). If you are capable of installing the new motor yourself then it is really inexpensive. Just remember that you have to pay for shipping of the motor, and then a core deposit of around $500 which you will get back but adds to the up-front cost. And then consider that you will have to pay to ship the old motor back as well. I am guessing $100 each way for shipping, so that is definitely a consideration. Also, if your old block is cracked or otherwise not rebuildable, then you have no core and therefore have to pay an additional $500 or so, whatever the core charge is. If your block is bad, you may as well get a boneyard motor and have it rebuilt. But I am assuming that your block and heads are rebuildable and not cracked.

One way to get around the shipping part is to get your remanufactured engine through somewhere local like Autozone or Schuck's/Kragen. An auto parts store that sells remanufactured engines. They offer the most inexpensive options, you will still have to pay the refundable core deposit up front but you won't have the shipping charges from and back. The Autozone way would definitely be the cheapest way. I've heard both good and bad things about their motors, but you will hear good and bad about just any engine remanufacturer. And the bottom line is that the Autozone motor IS a new remanufactured one and has a nationwide warranty. Most likely it will give you no trouble at all.

If you want something customized and with more power than stock, you'd probably do better to have a reputable local rebuilder do it for you. They can work with you to find out exactly what you need and be within your budget. However, some of the high-volume remanufacturers offer some performance upgrades as well. Of course they add to the price.

There are a couple of things to consider about having your engine rebuilt locally. First of all, you need to know for sure that the shop doing the work is honest, reputable, and competent. Second, you will have a much longer down time if you choose to have your motor rebuilt as opposed to being swapped out and third, a locally rebuilt motor will probably only be warranteed at the shop where the work was done so if you move and it dies, you are SOL or else you'd have to have it towed back and then pick it back up again which could be a hassle depending on how far away you move.

 

When I setup my 85 Bronco I picked a pro local rebuilder to balance and rebuild the 351H.O. I considered a Ford crate motor but they seemed to rev high with little low end and better suited to a Mustang than a Bronco.
A local rebuilder can do it the right way. In my case it was a few parts from SummitRacing and Jegs added to his pro rebuild. Started with a set of 1970 heads, TRW 9.1:1, cam specs 204/214 dur., 448/472 lift. Of course then you have to pick the Intake, Rockers, etc. to match. Oh it gets to be fun! Rebuilt the stock Holey 4180 carb, cause I like the 4 corner idle feature. MSD 6-A made a big improvement too.
In the end I was happier to have someone build and install it for me. Though I could have installed it myself, the extra cost wasn’t that much. Nice to have just one place to point to if something goes wrong too. 29k on the motor so far and it runs great. By the way my Bronco is for sale in FTE classified. One too many trucks here, took a new PSD to tear me away. If you can find a good place get the rebuild. Good Luck.

 

I just happened to see a Checker flyer that came in today's paper. It was advertising a line of remanufactured engines under the brand name Recon. I don't know anything about Recon, but the one that they showed to illustrate was a Ford 302. It was $799 plus you got a $100 rebate for a Checker gift card. So the motor only cost $699 because you know that you will need some supplies when you are changing your engine so the gift card would pretty much cover that. I figure that a 351 would be about the same price. Sounds like a good deal to me, as long as all you are looking for is a remanufactured stock motor with a nationwide warranty.

I did find a web page for Recon brand engines.
http://www.reconengines.com/

I have not looked at the web page in detail, but I did notice that they have several lines of engines starting with stock, then several levels of high performance engines, and custom built engines. Judging by the price of the stock reman, you might be able to get a pretty hot motor for a good price, and if you can do it through the auto parts store then you might not take a big hit on the shipping.

 

get it rebuilt local. the only national parts store i would ever buy an engine from is Napa. the rest offer crap motors, recon being one of them.

a local builder will taylor the motor to your needs and no the limits as well or should. either way the price is pretty close.
good luck

 

Yes you generally get what you pay for. On the other hand, many rebuilt engines are overpriced. The cost of standard parts to do a rebuild isn't that much, and if you are doing them in bulk then the labor isn't that much either.

I have no experience with Recon engines, and therefore I have no opinion of them. On the surface it seems like it is going to be a stock remanufactured engine with a warranty, and most likely it will not give you any trouble. And if it does, it is under warranty, which can be a pain, but nonetheless it will get fixed.

Another thing about having the motor rebuilt locally is that if it does fail, you will have a long waiting period while they rebuild it again or build another one. If you put in a reman long block and it fails, they just have to swap in another motor which would only take a couple of days.

But I am not pro or con for either method, they both have advantages and disadvantages and I'm only pointing them out.

 

So, what exactly wrong with the engines found in other stores, and why's Napa's better?

 

In 89 chances are you have the E7 heads (only better ones are GT40s). I'd rebuild that motor, put an E303 cam in it and call it done.

 

e303 cam is not a truck cam. leave that mustang stuff for another forum lol.

Napa has a great track record with there motors. and they truely stand behind them. Ive run motors from schucks and friends have used advanced autoparts motors . neither one would stand by the warrantys when we had a problem. I know napa is about 200-300 more per engine then these other stores but id spend that anyday for the better service and quality.

 

I have a Jasper 302...had I known and trusted an engine builder in the area, I'd have rebuilt it. The Jasper comes with the warranty, but unfortunately (depending on how you look at it) I've already had to play the warranty card after 60,000 miles (1 1/2 years). I always felt that a rebuild by someone I knew and wouldn't mind me stopping in if I ever had a problem would've served me better then kissing her goodbye for a few days while Joe Schmoe looked at it, and then waited days for a part to come in from warehouse USA somewhere.

But as for the Jasper...seeing as how this is the route I went, it treated me OK. I think it would've been a lot better if I knew more about all of my sensors and all of the idle surge problems and things like that after becoming a forum junky. It seemed like there were a lot of things that could've been better, but it wasn't the engines fault. I drove her all highway for 60,000 miles into a 75k warranty in 1.5 years and needed a new pair of heads. So far, I'd say maybe 2-3k into these new heads, no problems.

 

great info guys!!!

 

Hey! if you live in washington then i can steer you to an excellent engine builder that does everything from mild to wild for great prices to boot! He knows all the power tweaking tricks and lives in arlington