ZZ4 vs. Yearone Powercrate 350 vs...?

My engine has been going for a while and it looks like its time is up. So right now im looking for something thats going to be reasonably fast, reliable, and not too too expensive. My dad said he'll help me pay for the engine(highschool senior, work everydamn day and still dont make squat), but he wants me to go with a crate engine since a lot of them come with a warranty and we'll know its all new and hopefully done correctly. Ive been looking at the ZZ4 , but today in my CHP magazine i noticed that Year One is selling their PowerCrate 350: http://yearone.com/serverfiles/fbsho...50pc1&SM=1&SC= for $2,990.00, which is cheaper than any ZZ4 ive seen. Then again the ZZ4 comes with more of the needed additional parts than the PowerCrate does. But the PowerCrate is being shown with a 100hp and 40lbft advantage over the ZZ4. I want to leave the engine stock for now but later be able to do some mods, so thats a factor too. I wish I could go the LSX route, but thats way more money than I can swing at this point in time. So which is "better" or would you choose. Any input or suggestions as to other engines would be much appreciated too. Thanks guys.

One other thing, I know that gearing and a lot of other things factor in, but could somebody give me a guesstimate as to what kind of performance I could expect with either engine?

If you don't have the time or tools to build an engine yourself, that powercrate looks pretty good. Much better than the zz4. The brief description of the heads on the zz4 sound like the old Corvette L98 heads. If so, the flow on those is crap, about the same as 76cc 350 smog heads. Not good for good power production, would have to be upgraded.

The powercrate has Vortecs. Those heads are light years ahead of the L98s, porting is icing on the cake. If the rest of your combination supports it (4.11s, 4 speed or higher stall, etc), 12s. With a more streetable combination (3.23 gears, 4 speed or mild stall, etc) you should still do mid 13s and get decent mileage.

yea, currently 400hp if you build yourself, is attainable in about the $2000 area depending on what deals you get and such, just a thought.

I've never been a fan of zz4's or yearone, too much money wasted on ads and such, I'd go to a local performance shop, after you get references from friends and people who've run the motors before, and see what warranties they offer and how many pictures they have on the wall, of guys standing the front end up on the dragstrip running their motors