I will say this.....if the aftermarket FE block manufacturers don't get their QC under control, I'm gonna skip building FE's altogether, aluminum or cast iron.
Barry just had a brand new block lose
oil pressure while priming the
oil pump on the dyno and found out that a main
oil passage had been drilled through.....so it was just bleeding out internally.
I've had brand new blocks that needed sleeves.
I've had brand new blocks that needed lifter bore sleeves because of porosity.
There are some cast iron blocks floating around where the lifter bores are not finish-drilled all the way through, so there's a step at the bottom.
It's really beginning to not be worth it. When you have a back log of orders and you have to pull one off the dyno to fix something or you don't find something that should have been done until the block is finished and painted, it just pushes everything back.
Not to mention that I can make the same horsepower with a SBF with 50 less cubic inches....