[screamingchief]

Hands down I'd use the XX block for this.

I dont touch the 557 blocks at all.

Never have,never will.

I have 4 400 cid engines/blocks around here,not a single 557 among them,1- 9799914 (70 YS),2- 481988 (73 XN/74 YH),1-481988 (74 YF).

Have 1 455 cid engine that's in my '72 bird (that's a 485428 casting,'71 or '72 YC code).

Me personally,I'd build a 3" main 4" stroker 350 cid block combo before I'd build a 557 block/stroker combo.

Matter of fact I have a '72 350 cid shortblock that's just sitting around here doing nothing,that one came outta the '72 bird (IIRC this one is 481990 casting,with YR code).

This just so happens to be one of the earliest things I learned about building "fast" pontiacs,that info was not so much about the webbing issue itself,just that the mid '70 up blocks were weaker in many ways than the earlier blocks were,and since then I have always avoided the later blocks as SOP.

Yeah,there's been some heated debate on this here,I really dont care what anyone else has to say on that deal,I build my stuff as I see fit,not how someone else tells me to build 'em,so I also try not to tell other folks how to build their own stuff,rather I just tell them what I would do,and leave the rest to the other fella to decide for themselves.

Me,I just cant afford to throw good money after bad,it's that simple.

That and I've never had even the slightest bit of trouble finding plenty of the earlier 400 cid blocks/cores to build.

More than once I've had them given to me just to get them outta someone else's way.



Bret P.