I believe the $1500.00 in extra machining costs for an aftermarket block is a real number and can be justified. At $75.00 an hour, which is probably about the average shop labor rate, nationally, that's 20 hours. Using manual machining tools and equipment, it could easily take that long to do a super detail, every issue addressed, full race prep on any aftermarket block. 3 hours to do a perfect line hone job. 2 hours to bore to size. 4 hours to torque plate hone. 3 hours to square deck and surface. 1 hour to hone lifter bores. 2 hours to layout and drill the deck. 1 hour to dress and install cam bearings. 1 hour to de-bur and blend all the oil passages. 2 hours to completely de-burr, remove all casting flash. 1 hour to final clean. That's 20 hours and I am sure I left some detail items out such as verifying dimensions. Most people buying aftermarket blocks can and will do over half this stuff themselves which cuts the cost in half. Also, some don't care if everything is absolutely perfect. Some don't de-flash and de-burr. The IA II blocks come machined to within factory tolerances. To build a stock block into a real race engine, you would perform all the same operations and still have a finished product that may not be strong enough for your racing needs, especially if that included an aggressive roller cam.
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