Lou stopped buy a few days ago. We are friendly, but not like we are bros. or anything. Possibly the best type of friendship, we don’t know enough about each other to get on our nerves, so it’s easy and friendly. Anyway he was looking for engine advise. His question had to do with purchasing a replacement engine for his work truck, but he was interested in a crate engine for sale.

What his concern was that he wanted to put a larger more powerful engine in his truck. It is a 1994 Chevy 1 ton with dual wheels and a 4L80 automatic overdrive trans. Basically it was the heaviest duty model with the most powerful engine, at the time, which was the 5.7L or 350 cubic inch engine, unless you special factory ordered a big block.

He said he wanted a bigger hunk of steel under the hood when he bought it, but could not locate a truck with a bigger engine fast enough, so he bought the best he could find at the time. With no regrets at all, he said the truck is still a gem, he wants to keep it by all means and update it with a new motor. A bigger motor, not a built up small motor. I told him the extra torque a big engine delivers from the start is a great benefit for you, good idea.

After consulting and talking and educating my friend, he was in agreement with me that buying a crate engine, in his case a rebuilt Chevrolet 572-cubic-inch (9.4 L) “crate motor” offered new in 2003 which produced 720 hp and a whopping 685 lb·ft of torque, which is enough torque to move a train, is the most effective choice.

The price was a selling point, meaning the cost of this ‘turn key, mail order crate engine’  was quite affordable. No particular reason was obvious for a lower cost, but it worked great for my pal. He understood that you can’t buy an engine by price alone and quality trumped price, then having the engine shipped and delivered soon was the next wild card. I agree totally.

The 572 crate Chevy engine is a mild mannered superman. It’s sheer size guarantees plenty of oomph, but it’s excellent street manners was what really sold me too. See this was never a racing engine, it was built for heavy duty commercial work, where slow and powerful was more important than going fast. Unlike a performance motor, it idles excellent and offers smooth seamless power over the whole power-range.

You can probably figure out the rest. He called CrateEnginesForSale.com back, and ordered the engine we agreed on. It is a direct bolt in with virtually no modifications, and the few small items that need changing, are factory stock and cheap, so we went to the dealer. His chunk of iron arrived a day and a half later. We opened the box and the merchandise was exactly what he was told he would get.

Once this mighty motor is installed and running you will get a report. I had a good feeling about the whole matter, he has not even started the engine, yet is so full of customer satisfaction and gratefulness he can’t wait to call and thank CrateEnginesForSale.com. I know how excitable he is, so no telling how he will show his appreciation after he actually uses his rebuilt crate engine, but it will taste good, I’m sure of that. I’ll let you know after the barbecue next weekend.