428 service block value

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by Keithc8

When I could get good used ones I was charging 1500.00 for fully machined blocks ready to go. This is with about 700.00 in machine work. We bake, tumble, crack check, pressure test even before we do one machining operation. If it is bad you lose all of that time. So you may have to buy 5 to get 4 good ones. We then drill all press in oil galley plugs out and tap for screw in. Deburr the block and main webbing. Drill the oil galleys out for better oiling. Work in the main web oiling holes to align them with the bearing. Work the filter mount area for better oil flow transfer.
Then we bore and hone with torque plates, line hone the block, square deck the block, hone lifers bores, chamfer top of cylinders and head bolt holes. Then wash very well, install new cam bearings, oil galley plugs, freeze plugs and paint complete. This complete process takes about 12 hours on each block so no one is getting rich doing a FE block right but very few do half of these things to their FE blocks. You have to know what to do to them in the first place. Think I need to go up on price now that I list what all we do.
You would not believe the stuff we see done to these blocks and the stuff not done right to them. We also install an ARP main bolt kit on top of that. Now that I look at what all we do to them we may be to cheap.
I need to find some more service blocks and would pay 500.00 all day long for them. These are used blocks that need all work done to them. Remember I have to stand behind the ones that I sell and most of the time you are taking a chance. I know I have gotten taken several times and people would not give me my money back after they checked bad.

Good luck, Keith Craft

I was negligent when I posted earlier in mentioning that the $1500 Keith charged for my block was with full machining and prep work. I liked the idea of building off an original block both for nostalgia and cost and he fixed me up with a nice block.

[redmt]

Originally Posted by DanEC

I was negligent when I posted earlier in mentioning that the $1500 Keith charged for my block was with full machining and prep work. I liked the idea of building off an original block both for nostalgia and cost and he fixed me up with a nice block.

$1500 for the block AND all the machine work is a good price. I was curious as to the cost of a bare block. The block that I was looking at was a service block, in the box, unprepared but new and unused. The guy was asking $1200 for it and I had $400-500. in mind.

I have been building old school FE's for about 40 years. There are many tricks for those blocks and we used to do them without the aid of CNC. It would be interesting to compare an old school prepped block versus a production machine shop CNC block.