Boy oh boy...I'm hashing this around right now. I've got 3 blocks...a C9, a E4 and an E9. The C9 is already .060 (actually .055 right now..we didn't take it all the way yet to see if it'd clean up at .060). And yes, I am making enough to kill a 351w block. Killed 2 so far; blew the mains out of both.

A friend of mine has all the necessary machining equipment to do up a splayed cap motor. We bored it on his equipment. I may just spring for it as I'll only be out the price of the caps and the line bore cost...the rest of the machining we can do at his shop in spare time.

Only problem I'm running into is that the early ones are 9.48 deck. Well my regular 415" combo is 6.250 Rods and 1.245 flat tops. That puts me at 9.495 stack height...puts the pistons out a MINIMUM of .015" before any resurfacing. Probably a little more than I want to go. I see that Diamond makes a set of high compression pistons for a low-deck 408 combo....so I may look into that, but I like the pistons I'm using as they are very light and very strong for their weight. Plus the ring package doesn't induce much drag. Engine turns over on the stand (no heads on the motor) at 8 lb-ft initially. But if I can get away with low-drag rings on the Diamonds, I may try it. Should be around 14:1 compression though...where I'm at 12.2 right now so there may be a slight boost in performance.

Who knows. I might just go for another E4 block, filled, with 2 bolt caps and the regular stuff. Need to get somethign going pretty soon though as the one in the car now has about 55 passes on it. They seem to go 250-300 before the mains let go, at least in my combination..and I am in no way easy on them! Full bore every pass, 7000 shift, 7100 at the stripe...burnouts are usually kept under 5000 but it doesnt' seem to make a difference. They don't last forever.

Aftermarket blocks? Well...they all cost $2K and above. I've built BOTH of the last 2 engines including repair to the heads, converter and transmission....for just a tick over that. And what happens when a crank breaks or a rod lets go in that high $$$ block? There is a feeling when stuff like that happens....your stomach ends up just below your heart and you think to yourself "I wish I had just used a cheap block"....

Believe me, I've been there & done that. NONE of them last forever in the type environment that I put them in.
[addsig]