Looking around at motors (going with a 350) for my project A and wondering why nobody uses Vortec motors (other than them being newer & o/t), is there any reason it is HIGHLY advised against? Aren't there bolt-on adapters for valve covers, etc that you can get to run older stuff? Just looking for a good reason to pass on a running Vortec motor for only a few hundred $$. Thanks!!
I run one, and have put them in several customer vehicles. With a little labor, they can be dressed up to look like an older engine. Roller cams, and hardened valve seats are nice things to have with today's fuels and oils.
Nutin wrong with them from a mechanical standpoint. They just aren't desirable to the trad crowd and GM has built a better motor since then for the high zot gotta have the newest and best crowd. They are kind of like Fords V-8 60, a transition motor, if Ford hadn't built a 100 horse flatty everyone would still want a V-8 60.
I figure, some people are gonna look at it and be disgusted, but there's gonna be more than one thing on my car that is going to make people turn their head (for one reason or another). The intake has been swapped and it is running a carb, so I am just wanting to make sure there is nothing technical that would cause me headaches in the future either!
Since you are going to have to change the water pump (original is reverse rotation), you can swap it for a short one. This will help with clearance in the A, and the look. If you are ambitious, you can get rid of almost everything that would be a dead giveaway, with a die grinder and some time. If you run the adapters for older valve covers, then the only "tell" would be the middle 4 intake bolts. There are no technical issues, save for one that I can think of. The roller cam requires a hardened (melonized) distributor gear. It will eat a regular one. Such as: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ACF-10456413/
I was just telling one of the guys, just bought a brand new one , test run, 3 year 100,000 warranty, delivered to my front door for $2399, for my 98 GMC daily. Runs better then the original motor ever did.
Just don't spend too much time in the lawn chair and you'll never even know that someone didn't like your engine. Like as has been mentioned you may need a hard distributer gear. Not all vortecs were roller motors you can find that out by running the numbers. Not all had center mount valve covers either. Some of the early truck motors had perimeter mounts like the older motors.
They're known for the intake gaskets leaking in the 100K range, dumping coolant into the oil and if not caught fast enough grenading the motor. Other than that I guess they're okay, particularly if you plan on running a hood on your car.
Sweet, I'll be running discs too. It is a '97 motor if that helps with the distributor gear issue. But I will get the numbers to find out.
figured you were talking 96 up motor....change of roller cam and intake and it would probably run faster than your comfortable heads alone picked up my 93 truck motor a second, roll on with it and worry about the old school police later
No big problems with these motors. You can change out the plastic timing cover for a tin one and there are adapters for the valve covers to run the perimeter bolt style.The Distributor gear GM calls for a roller motor is "Melonized". You will be changing out your dizzy if you are running a carb anyway cause the one for the EFI won't work for your app. You could use dizzy with the small cap and a bronze gear-put some old style pulleys on it and away ya go.Don't pass up a good cheap motor. Plan"B"-Buy the Votec-clean it up-sell it for a profit and buy and old style motor.
You should be able to determine whether it is roller or not just by removing a valve cover and peering into the lifter valley (assuming you know what to look for ... dog bone, dog bone spider). I've used this method in the wrecking yard, you will need a flashlight.
They are good motors. Some of them have wierd intake bolt patterns though. My dad has an L31 motor that he hasn't figured out what to do with yet. It requires a unique intake. There are a few aftermarket intakes available (edelbrock even offers a 3x2 intake for them) but no selection like the previous generation sbc's.
All ya gotta do is wobble out the center two holes on the intake to put the early intake on one. Scotty I like your solution to rocker covers. I know I said I didn't but that was a different arguement all together. I think in my junk I have a pair of oddball rocker covers for a vortech. They are stamped steel that appear to be finned at a glance. I'll have to look someday. Not that I'll ever own one but someone will want them someday I'm sure.
There are no center bolts on the vortec 96-2001 Eight bolts hold the intake on, not 12 like the 55-95 heads have. I personally would have the heads drilled/tapped for the standard intakes.
I don't think you can even adapt a "standard" intake, regardless of the mounting holes, IIRC the intake runners are much taller than standard SBC heads, and without welding/etc, I'm almost positive they would never seal.
Can't run a standard intake on a vortec, even if you drill and tap the holes an old intake will not cover the intake ports in the heads. GM's fastburn heads (aluminum vortec) are drilled for both intake patterns and when we tried to use an old style intake you could see the intake ports till. That's how I know. Vortec motors are badass, stab a cam in it and go fast.
I believe the mod you're referring to was to accommodate the change in angle on the inner pair of intake bolts in 1987, not a Vortec mod. Bob
Yep exactly what happen to my original motor, changed out at 100K shot craps at 207K, put the new motor together with the new and improved gasket.
There is some confusion going on in this thread over the Vortec name. GM started using the term in 1986, to describe the 90-degree V6. We somehow attached it to everything with center bolt heads. The actual Vortec heads showed up in 1996.
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