ZL-1 engine

[Rex T.]

Has anyone seen or purchased one of the new ZL-1 Ram Jet engines? I understand they have been built and shipped to some dealers. Where is the best deal available and at what price? I am considering putting one in a midyear Corvette and would like to use the original factory aluminum intake, but it has rectangular ports and the new ZL-1 heads are oval port. Will the intake bolt up, will it perform properly on the engine? Any problems with this setup for the street? As always, your help is appreciated. Thanks, Rex #8089

[Craig S.]

Re: ZL-1 engine

Rex - for prices, you should check both:
http://www.gmpartsdirect.com and

http://www.sdpc2000.com

Craig

[Rex T.]

Re: ZL-1 engine

Evidently, this is so new, no dealers have it listed on their website. I was hoping someone had already purchased one and could provide some "cold hard facts". I may have to test the waters myself. Thanks, Rex

[Joe L.]

Re: ZL-1 engine

Rex------

Unless you're going to use the engine as-is (i.e. with the Ram Jet FI), I don't think this is going to be a good way to go. They are only going to make about 500 of these engine assemblies. I fully expect that the price is going to be well over $10,000 for the unit. Taking one partially apart and reconfiguring it is just not what this assembly is all about.

[John M.]

Re: ZL-1 engine

I saw one in a Pace catalog last week, and I belive that the complete ZL1 with the ramjet intke was about $22,000! That's a whole lot of money for an engine that can be left in the dust by the new 572 inch crate motor! If I remember corectly, GM will not be selling ZL1 blocks, only complete engines.

Regards, John McGraw

[Joe L.]

Addendum

Well, I sure missed the mark on this one when I said that the price for the engine would be "well over $10,000". The GM list price for this engine assembly is $21,454.00. So, a guy or gal has got to be REAL SERIOUS about wanting one od these.

To be honest, though, to build up a "ZL-1" from the current-production GM ZL-1 bare block, + all new GM and aftermarket high performance pieces, even purchased at deep discounts, the total price isn't too much less than this amount.