New engine advise

[oldchevfan]

looking for advise, my 94 yukon 350 has 230k miles, I bought this yukon new and the drive train is 100% original and never rebuilt. The 350 is tired , is it better to replace or rebuild? I think 94t has a two bolt main block and hydraulic flat tappet cam. I would really like to install a 4 bolt roller cam engine. my total budget is 7k for everything. thanks for any ideas.

 

[NardDog]

I like the idea of an all original “numbers matching “ Classic. Im not sure whenthese trucks will be considered classic per se. If it were my 7 grand i would rebuild myself.

 

[drakon543]

if you rebuild you can start with a solid block and upgrade a few things as you go. if you buy a new engine your either going to pay a mint to have anything extra you want done. that or you would end up with extra parts you paid for you dont need now because you swapped in a better part. also unless your trying to push big numbers you should be fine with a 2 bolt.

 

[Tonyrodz]

if you rebuild you can start with a solid block and upgrade a few things as you go. if you buy a new engine your either going to pay a mint to have anything extra you want done. that or you would end up with extra parts you paid for you dont need now because you swapped in a better part. also unless your trying to push big numbers you should be fine with a 2 bolt.

I agree. Rebuild it, at least you'll know what you have.

 

[Cmoe]

posted twice!

 

[Cmoe]

First things first! Are you farming the rebuild out except for the Mill work? If your having someone else rebuild it I would buy a turn key crate... If you feel you can rebuild it and trust yourself to rebuild it then I would say go for the rebuild.

I had a family friend that was rebuilding engines for a living build one for my K5 Blazer, because of I was working 12 hour shifts 6 days a week, so since my folks knew them for like 20 years I trusted him to do a good job. Within 4 years I had to put a Turn key GM crate engine in because the block wasn't even worth rebuilding. I've learned my lesson! the only time I have someone else work on my shit is when it's out of my pay grade.

Good Luck!

 

[swathdiver]

looking for advise, my 94 yukon 350 has 230k miles, I bought this yukon new and the drive train is 100% original and never rebuilt. The 350 is tired , is it better to replace or rebuild? I think 94t has a two bolt main block and hydraulic flat tappet cam. I would really like to install a 4 bolt roller cam engine. my total budget is 7k for everything. thanks for any ideas.

View attachment 210625

If keeping it all original is important to you, I would rebuild the existing engine and maybe even stroke it to 383 cubes for more torque.

If not, a junkyard 5.3 LS would give you the roller motor you're after with 6-bolt mains. An L33 makes 310 horsepower and 335 ft lbs of torque stock.

 

[willxfs]

Lots of options for you. I was in your place about 3 years ago with my 98 2 door. I ended up having my 350 rebuilt and upgraded to a 383. In hindsight, I should have done more research upfront and selected a different engine builder. Maybe even done just a jegs special, goodwrench vortec 350 for about 2K. I'm still trying to iron out the kinks, mostly due to pmc tunes and one pain in the ass torque converter coming out of unlock problem. The route I chose was essentially a plug and play drop in replacement and a pcm tune. Fairly straight forward stuff but still having some difficulties.... The 5.3 ls swap is a great option but not at all a plug and play swap. A fair amount of mods to do including the pcm and tcm. Its done all the time and there's tons of write ups on it. I would start by checking out the tbichips.com site. This guy has a ton of experience upgrading the TBI rigs. Good luck and keep us posted on what you decide.

 

[iamdub]

For less than your $7,000 budget, you could PAY someone to do a turn-key LS swap and be ahead of the game with a platform much better in all aspects.