My dad's '79 GMC K15 towing woes (long)

[HotRodPC]

Crate motor blue's , I hear alot of these stories , I have seen gm's 260 hp motor's with the piston's so far down in the hole that they would be lucky to be 8 to 1 with 76cc heads , ( more like 7.8), no quality control. Glad you got it worked out , now you know next time to build your own. It's all about cylinder pressure that comes from compression and cam choice , and then fuel and air flow and when you build your own you know exactly what you have and or want , (as long as you use a good machine shop) hard to find but worth it. Glad you got it worked out.

I've heard that about the 290hp one that they aren't even 8:1 motors and advertised as 8.5. I don't know which one I have in my K1500, but it's either 260 or the 290, and it does have an Eddy 600cfm, Eddy EPS intake and headers. I can't say I've been disappointed with it. Plenty of power compared to what I was expecting. For sure IMO, the biggest failure to these GMPP crate motors is the dish pistons. Using a 76cc head, no reason they shouldn't have used flat tops. Then again, what can expect from a Heche En Mexico engine? Coulda been worse and been made in China.