Sal,
I believe the ribs in the valley are moon glow--so do all of the engine builders I have spoken to. The Merlin didn't have them in WWII. F1 blocks don't have them either--if anyone needs strength it is the F1 guys. Do you know of ANY modern production V8s that have them? I just checked our Copper 40 GT we made and it doesn't have them. As you know, people are now putting over 700 hp to the rear wheels in their Ford GT's with the new blowers.
If you look carefully, you can see the upper water jackets are there. This site doesn't let me post pictures of very large size, so I will probably post them on our website so you can see the block at all angles. The water jackets will have bolt on covers--like many engines of today and yesterday.
The oiling set up is like a modern block. The
oil galley runs down the center of the block but oils the mains first--then the cam.
The outside of the block will look like an FE in that all of the FE stuff will bolt on to it. The block will be split at the main girdle, however; so, if you look closely you will see that. You have to be pretty far into an engine compartment to see that however.
David
