Crate Engines and Builder Kits
Pontiac V8 Crate Engines and Builder Kits
Start With a Real Block — Crate Engines and Builder Kits for Pontiac V8s
Crate Engines and Builder Kits is where a Pontiac V8 project stops being a pile of boxes. Butler starts with a real Pontiac block, puts it through the shop, and builds around it in whatever form suits you: a rotating assembly on a prepped block, a complete kit shipped ready to assemble, or a finished engine that has already been run in on the dyno.
Butler offers SBK short block kits, LBK long block kits, full engine KITs with cam, heads, intake and gaskets, assembled short blocks, turn-key crate engines, and the Build Yours Like Butler pages that let you order the same parts list used in Butler's own carbureted, EFI, supercharged and aftermarket-block combinations.
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More About Crate Engines and Builder Kits
1. The Butler Process: what happens to the block first
Every Butler engine and kit starts with the same foundation work. Butler likes to start with a good customer core and will arrange shipping to get your block in.
| Clean and inspect | A three-step cleaning process, baked, blasted and cleaned, then visual inspection. |
| Prove it is worth building | Magnafluxed and sonic tested before any machine work goes into it. This is the step that keeps you from paying to machine a cracked or thin-walled block. |
| Machine work | Dowel pins replaced, align bored if required and align honed, bored and honed with a torque plate, square decked. |
| Final prep | Completely deburred, all bolt holes tapped, all oil galleys cleaned, then a final jet wash and wipe down. Butler notes this final prepping takes over a full day of work per block. Cam bearings and brass freeze plugs go in, and the block leaves ready for assembly. |
| On cores | Butler does not sell core blocks alone, only in kits or engines, and is buying 1965-1978 Pontiac 389, 400, 421, 428 and 455 blocks, so a block you cannot use may be worth a call. |
2. SBK: Short Block Kits
An SBK at Butler is a Short Block Kit: the prepped block plus the rotating assembly. No cam, no heads. It is the right starting point when you already know what top end you want, or when you want to build in stages.
| What is in it | A cast or forged crank in your chosen stroke, forged flat top pistons, Total Seal file fit rings, I-beam or H-beam rods, performance rod and main bearings, and the block itself line honed with ARP main studs, bored and honed with a torque plate, square decked, with cam bearings and brass freeze plugs installed. The assembly is internally balanced in house. |
| By block and stroke | Kits are organized by the block you start from and the stroke you want. The 400 block alone runs from 3.750 in. at 406-412 ci through 4.000 in. at 433-440, 4.210 in. at 455-462, 4.250 in. at 460-467, 4.375 in. at 471-478 and 4.500 in. at 487-495 ci. A 389 block covers 395-400, 421-427 and 447-454 ci, and a 455 block covers 462-469, 467-474 and 494-501 ci. There are 350 and 428 kits and an IAII kit from 505 to 541 ci. |
| Budget option | Butler also builds 557 casting short block kits on the later 400 block in stock stroke, with cast or forged crank, forged flat tops and file fit rings. Note Butler's own rating: up to 500 hp only. |
| Your block or ours | Short block builder kits are offered with a Butler-supplied Pontiac block or with your block sent in for machining. Either way they ship ready to assemble. |
| Already together | If you would rather not assemble it, Butler sells assembled short blocks on 389, 400, 428, 455 and aftermarket blocks, built by a Butler engine specialist and supplied with a complete blueprint sheet. |
3. LBK: Long Block Kits
An LBK is a Long Block Kit: the SBK plus cylinder heads. You still supply the induction and the front of the engine, but the decisions about bore, stroke, piston and head are already made together.
| Why it matters on a Pontiac | Compression comes from bore, stroke, piston dish or dome and chamber volume together. Butler publishes compression tables so a 4.250 in. stroke on a 4.181 in. bore lands where you expect with a 72cc or 87cc chamber, instead of becoming a race-gas-only engine by accident. |
| Assembled or unassembled | Butler lists long blocks both as unassembled kits and as assembled long blocks, depending on how much of the work you want to do. |
| Head choice | Edelbrock Performer RPM heads in D-port or round port, Butler CNC ported heads, or your own cast iron heads reconditioned, matched to the piston and the cam that follows. |
4. KIT: the full Crate Engine Builder Kit
A Butler KIT is the complete engine kit from the block up: rotating assembly, heads, camshaft, lifters, timing set, gaskets, oil and intake. It is a Butler crate engine in kit form, fully machined and ready to assemble.
| What is included | A 400, 428 or 455 Pontiac block with optional four-bolt main and main studs and the dipstick tube installed, a Butler balanced rotating assembly with crank, H-beam rods, forged pistons and bearings, Butler-built heads, an Edelbrock intake, a Comp cam and roller lifters, and your choice of carburetor or EFI. Kits come in 460-474 ci and 487-501 ci versions rated 450 to 550 hp on pump gas. |
| The gasket and fastener side | Butler's top end packages include an ARP head bolt kit, intake manifold bolt kit, 5/16 in. valve cover gaskets, reinforced D-port exhaust gaskets, a Fel-Pro standard intake gasket with heat crossover block-offs, and Butler's exclusive head gaskets, the same ones used in Butler Performance engines. |
| Pushrods are measured, not guessed | Every kit includes a pushrod length checking tool, because different brands of lifters and rockers require different pushrod lengths. Butler recommends 1.5 ratio rockers so that pushrod slotting is not necessary. |
| Kits are shipped unassembled | They must be assembled by you or your shop, but Butler does not just ship a box and walk away. Every kit ordered online, by deposit or paid in full, is reviewed by an engine tech, and a formal itemized build sheet comes back before machining starts so changes get made up front. |
| Using your own machinist | If your block is staying local, Butler offers Top End Packages with a rotating assembly designed for a block your own shop machines, and will provide recommended clearances and answer questions for you or your machinist. |
5. Turn-key engines and Build Yours Like Butler
At the top of the page are finished engines and the parts lists behind them.
| Turn-key engines | Butler crate engines are built to a customer's spec, run and broken in on the dyno, and delivered with a complete blueprint sheet. They come carbureted, EFI or supercharged, and ship on the Butler engine cradle, the same laser cut and powder coated cradle sold separately. |
| Build Yours Like Butler | If you would rather buy the parts and swing the wrenches, these pages list the components behind Butler's own combinations: a 500hp-plus carbureted pump gas muscle car engine, a 500hp-plus EFI pump gas engine, a 600hp-plus TorqStorm supercharged engine, and 700hp-plus 535 ci pump gas engines on the IAII cast block and the IAII aluminum block. |
| Aftermarket blocks | When a factory Pontiac block runs out of room, Butler builds short block kits and builder kits around the IAII block, including the 505 to 541 ci range. |
6. What to have ready before you call
These are custom builds, and the conversation goes faster with a few facts in hand.
| The car and the job | Body, transmission, rear gear, tire, and whether it is a cruiser, a street/strip car or a bracket car. Cam and converter both come from this. |
| Hood clearance | The Performer RPM intake is about 1 in. taller than stock. A Shaker car needs a drop base such as the EP-401, and a Ram Air car can have Butler swap to a stock-height Performer or Hurricane intake if you note it on the order. |
| Fuel | Pump gas at 91-93 octane is what most of these combinations are built around, and Butler sets compression accordingly. |
| What you already own | A usable block or a good set of heads changes which kit makes sense. |
Whichever form you buy, SBK, LBK, KIT or a finished engine, the block prep and the parts matching are the same. Call with your combination and an engine tech will put the build sheet together before anything is machined.
Engine Blocks Crate Engine Builder Kits Engine Cradles/Stands Short Blocks (Assembled and Unassembled Kits) Crate Engines- Butler Built
Not sure what your Pontiac needs?
Email our tech team at tech@butlerperformance.com. Tell us your engine, heads, car, and power goal, and we will put the parts together as one combination that works.