[misfit41]

I can see that newer technology and metalurgy methods have enabled us to make better blocks.
As far as the argument between new and old blocks it is a hard one to settle.Many of the old blocks today are worn out,sleeved or otherwise damaged/culled race parts. Most of those are the c8az-G service replacements from the 70's/80/s which arent close to the quality of the original 427 blocks in nickle content or bore alighment. Whats hard to see here is the superiority the 427 fe's held on the other big blocks of their era ,ie:BBC in which the 427's fe's usually prevailed.Although there were many 427's spun at and over 7k rpm of which some failed. Most of the failures were due to rod bolts and rods.I remember hearing Holman Moody xrayed even the good ford bolts out of the box and culled maybe 25% of brand new bolts due to flaws.The good old boy racers were buying over the counter parts and slapping them together not realizing with the head work and high octane fuel availiable they were making more power than the componets could stand.
There is no doubt in my mind that the new componets and new gen builders are making much better and stronger stuff,it is a shame ford dropped the program in the 70's and we couldnt have seen continual factory development of the fe.
The FE may not be the best engine of today ,but it is without doubt detroits best factory racer of it's day,IMHO