hi guys and girls...;)

I would like to get some opinions on this engine, good and bad....

you might be sitting a while waiting for someone to say its a piece of crap. Reasonable price, good power, excellent sound, warranty.

pretty sure that I read somewhere that the zz4 is the most popular crate engine from GM by a long shot.

I have one in my 68 though I only have about 360 miles on it and can't really comment much.

I am being asked the same question else where,,, If I had the options of ZZ4 or ZZ383, I would go with more cubes. No subsitute.

I have one in one of the 69's. Like it a lot. Smooth running, pulls hard, has about 5k miles on it now. Might eventually put the hot cam setup in it but thats down the road. But I've also heard excellent feedback about the crate 383 if you can afford it.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g136/Caman355/460.jpg

Yeah, the ZZ4 is very popular, and runs good.

I started out with one, and then 400 miles later did the Fastburn/HOT cam/1.6 GM roller rockers.

Big difference. I recommend that highly.

while the ZZ4 is good, most seem to swap on the fastburn heads and HOT cam kit eventually, so just get the fastburn 385 right off the bat and add the HOT cam and roller rockers later.

A friend of mine has one in a '86 Pontiac Grand Prix (very similar to that vintage Monte Carlo). It is a stock crate motor, with a 650 spreadbore holley on top, stock 305 exhaust manifolds, single hi-flow cat, and then split into duals after the cat with 2 1/2" pipes with Dynomax super turbo's. It is backed by a beefed 200R4 tranny with a stock GM torque convertor, and a 3.73 posi rear end. Its completely smog legal here in MO, has a nice authoritive exhaust note, and will burn the tires off very easily and hit 120mph very quickly. Plus it gets 20mpg in his car. It behaves like a stock engine but with a whole lot more balls.

i was happy with mine. i put a air gap intake, a holley 750 and a different cam on mine and it is a quick motor although it now has a rod knock :( . there is a company called sallee chevrolet ( i think it is a dealership) they list a bunch of mods you can do to it to bring it up to 440hp/440tq with heads/cam etc. if you like i can find a link.