Hot Rods Definition of the word( CRATE) motors

Hope this doesn't get deleted,kind of a recent issue.

I was always under the impression that the word crate when in reference to engines meant that the motor was new.Now I read in the small print when they are advertized by many that they have been bored ,honed or whatever.Well then they are rebuilt not new.... What gives? Gene

 

i always thought that "crate" meant it came in a crate....GM crate motors do

 

Or a broken down old car. HRP

 

It means whatever the seller wants it to mean. And the meaning changes over time.

 

Ya Jim Sad but probably true Sign of the times I guess I want the old days back !!

 

What days, Model T ? Misleading ads are nothing new. .. I do believe the term crate engine becoming popular to describe the inexpensive SBC 350 when they became talked about years ago. Many consider a crate engine to be a derogatory term like belly button engine...But all belly buttons are a bit different....

 

Original crate motor.

 

Basically a crate motor is a mass produced or assembly line motor. Nearly all new cars come with crate motors.

Some companies that are building "crate" motors are using seasoned blocks or used blocks. Some builders actually prefer a seasoned block even when building a one off hand fitted motor.

 

Even a new motor has been bored and honed......

 

I think it started as all new replacement engines or long blocks that are ready to bolt in and run. Kinda like going to the Chevrolet dealership and buying a new 350 horse 327 to take the place of the tired 283 in your 57 Chevy in 1965. Then things kind of went down hill with the generic made in Mexico crate engines, but it was still all new parts - just cheaper ones. Now you have large companies (eg Jasper 0r Blueprint) using the term for their rebuilt engines. Crate engine has a better ring to it than remanufactured engine.

See my tag line.

 

Probably started when GM started releasing performance models of their 350's to the public instead of having to go through a new car dealer. The engines came in a crate, so the name stuck. Now everybody that sells a complete engine, rebuilt or not, calls it a crate motor.

 

I have always considered a crate engine as a new factory assembled engine also. I guess its just one more thing we have to watch out for with the misrepresentations that plague our hobby.

 

a new or remaned mass produced motor that comes from a engine manufacturer that is built to a spec they create.
, not a custom motor that you have built to your specs and using parts you want . and you have to do the research on how to make the combo work .
and the nice thing is order on monday , if its in stock it should be at your door in a couple of days , not like my local machine shop where you have to wait in line till your turn comes up and some times that can be a few months due to race season .

some crate motors got a bad rap because of the old GM target motors which were basically a motor built with used parts that were salvaged from others and stuff like knurling pistons to make them fit and a rehone and bearing job and knurl the guides and use new valve seals ( but do not clean the carbon off the valves themselves ) and not really rebuilt and then slapped together ( more like a get me by bearing and ring job ) . and often purchased by people who didn't know how to rebuild one , and they were cheap and had a 3 year guarantee , vs a junkyard which was 30 days ( and often the motor was in better shape ) . we used to call them rustoleum rebuilds or black bombs as the black paint was the most expensive and new part that was used . and often it was a bad paint job too .


I know several people who use the performance crate engines ( GM , Blueprint and 1 jasper) , a couple of them were plug and plays ( complete with carb ) , others were used as a base for a better build ( they swapped the upper end and cam out mostly the GM 's ) and only know of 1 failure and it was owner induced , 250Hp of nitrous to a HE piston motor and cracked many pistons , he sold the damaged lower end kept the heads and bought another motor from the manufacturer on monday the motor was at his house on wednesday and had his car running the next friday night . it would have been that night but the old motor was still in the chassis .

 

Also a CRATE motor that is sealed and used in circle track racing.

 

We call anything that comes out of a box ready to plug and play a "crate motor". No assembly necessary, add batteries.

 

I just bought a 350 Chevy crate motor, and it came in a ..........CRATE !

Don

 

A crate motor just means that somebody else put it together With lots of new parts.
No assembly required. Hopefully they knew what they're doing.
Usually to some spec that the builder has.

Now, Do you want a GM performance crate engine? A ford racing crate engine? A TRD crate engine? These will probably be 100% new and you aren't specing anything off the menu.

Or do you want something's different and flexible?
A blueprint crate engine?
A target crate engine?
A jasper crate engine?
A summit crate engine?
A Box performance crate engine?

 

Seems like it was originally used to describe the new motors that GM sold as replacements and performance options. The good reputation they got lead to others selling new engines and rebuilt complete engines instead of short or long blocks. Some sellers contract with many engine builders and some of those builders contract with others. Some of these builders weren't high quality or even medium quality. It makes sense to me to buy from GM, Ford or Toyota so any warranty is at dealerships which are widely available.

 

When I worked for a Chevy dealer a "crate" motor was one built in Mexico.

 

Very funny If you want an all American car, built in the USA, better buy a Toyota.


http://www.autoblog.com/2010/10/06/is-your-car-really-american/

 

Replacement small blocks and straight sixes were made in Mexico. The performance engines used to be made in the US. most dealers never handled the performance engines.

 

I worked in a shop and this is the first time I had heard of crate motors, rural folks had worn out their 70's chevy pickups by the late 80s and we installed a bunch of them . I remember they were $1050 across the counter. All of them had Mexico cast on them. That being said we installed probably 18 to 25 of them over the years and never had an issue with any of them.

 

I also installed a lot of the "Mexico" crate motors and never had any problems with them. But the fact that the rebuilders wouldn't take them as cores says a lot about the quality.

 

at the pontiac side , we had SRs which came from Pontiac new , no rebuilds , after the350's and 400's was depleted it was sent to a local machine shop to have rebuilt ( the last sr we had in stock was used in a really well taken care of externally 78 parisiane in 1985 the sr was from 1977 we had to swap all the emissions stuff over to it . the 305/350 firebirds most of them got a SR USa motor because of the emissions and performance ( ha ) factor , the luxo boats ussually got the mexican cheapie new engine or a target if the owner was cheap . but all the GMC trucks got USA built motors NO ifs on that . specially the big truck line with the 366s and 427's GMc pickups were rare to see come in needing a new engine ,only 3 I seen and they were warantee jobs and got a SR from Gm in it . the big trucks a little more as often it was a govenor failure or a new driver and they would air the pan with the rods .

 

LOL so were the new car motors after '84.

Ford and GM had plants in Mexico by about the mid '70s. If you want a high nickel block from Ford you look for the Mexican block. Funny the higher nickel GM blocks come from Canada. Seems that if we want good parts cast we look to our neighbors.

OK off the rails here sorry for the rabbit trail.

@Don's Hot Rods that is actually the first time I have seen a crate motor in a crate other then at a dealer. We bought a stock replacement 350 horse motor for a Corvette in the late '70s that came to the dealership crated like yours. Most of the ones that I see come in a bug plastic container, like a giant tote, they should actually be called Tupperware motors.

I needed a replacement 350 for a guy I worked with on short notice a few years back. It was Friday afternoon and he needed to be at work on Sunday. Out of desperation I called the chevy dealer that I normally deal with (worked there for a month in the '70s for traveling money). The said, "Sure benno we keep a 350 and a 305 in stock all the time. Come on up and get it." 1200 no core, long block equivalent of a 2 bbl truck motor. I guess that falls into my definition of a crate motor. At first I thought that it was a dealer replacement motor but on the way home it occurred to me that anything that was not LS would not be under warranty.

 

beaner if you by a GM S/R crate and as long as it goes into a GM car /truck it has a 3 year warantee ( service replacement line only ) , ls or the old style motors . they are good on it now as they no longer rebuild them ( target )

 

I was actually thinking along the lines of the vehicle warranty as opposed to the motor warranty. I worked a few GM shops when I was younger as a diagnostician (good work if you can get it ) and we did warranty some motors. Cheaper to switch the motor than to replace a crank.

 

Here's 2 more for you beaner.

 

In 1985 I bought a brand new Mercury Cougar. From day one I had problems with it, so much so that I got on a first name basis with the tech at Ford in Detroit. One day he said, "let me pull up your car's build sheet." Then he came back and told me that my American car had a Mexican engine and a Canadian body ! When I said "I thought I bought an American car" he said, "Not sure where you have been, Don, but NOTHING is made in this country any more !"

And I bought the Cougar because my customers were getting on me about driving a Toyota !

Don

 

What a waste of space. You all have your own definition.
Read the fine print and jf that is what you want, buy it. Also, it is "1 of" not "1 off", meaning "1 of a kind".