[Rob B]

After sitting here reading 3 pages of lengthy posts,(and getting paid for at that!) I have to chime in on this. I fully understand and commend Steve for posting about his issues with the block. That's like throwing yourself to the wolves sometimes on this board! We don't know how many times he discussed this and other issues he might have had with Frank or Bob at All-Pontiac and it's really none of our business, maybe it was his time to vent?? I went through this with a vendor from this board last spring on issues with my block and components purchased and believe me I wanted to vent on this board about it but decided against it, I just learned another on-going lesson in life and moved on. What is our concern is what is done by AP to remedy the problem(s) they are encountering now so future blocks can be corrected or at least disclose what extra work may need to be done to the block for certain applications.
Somebody using one as basically a replacement for the weaker, hard to find, stock block in a stronger Street/strip motor (550-700hp range) might buy one simply because they are tired of being worried about cracked mains or other issues with stock blocks and having to locate, machine them, spend a bunch of money only to hope the same thing doesn't bite them in the @%# again. That is where I am at and that jsut with a high 10 second car. Same thing apply to cylinder heads. To me it's kind of silly to go through all the expense of buying a set of castings, machining/port work, have at least a grand in a 30yr+ set of heads when all said and done when, for a couple hundred more you can buy brand new aluminums! Some one purchasing a block for this reason might not encounter the problem someone else who is using the same block for a higher HP application where every little detail within that motor is a custom application.
Did Steve post this because he was maybe fustrated about the experience with the block so far??? Maybe he felt that AP should post something on some of the issues they are/had have in the production of the block and they hadn't done that to his satifaction so therefore he did it based on his own personal experience?? To me, he's within his own right to do so for whatever reason he wishes and it was nothing more than an will written informative post in my eyes.
I've been reading all the pro's and con's that have been posted on the block and I think it's been well represented and an excellent piece. Ultimately AP is a business, and a business is there for one ultimate purpose, to hopefully be profitable at some point otherwise it won't exsist nor will the product produced. AP is taking a risk in a relatively small niche market (Pontiac) compared to SBC/BBC and Ford aftermarket components where scrutiny of the products produced is probably 10 times greater than the others only because of the size of the market they are dealing in. Are all the other manufactures producing perfect,flawless, ready to go blocks/heads where you just bolt everything on and go with no extra machine work needed???
Should AP post on this board and/or their website issues that are occuring with the IA2 and what has/had to be done to remedy the situations or keep it amongst a select few??? That's up to them. But give them the benefit of the doubt for at least showing they want to produce the best block they can possibly make and continue to make the chances needed to do that.