Quote:
Originally Posted by mgarblik
I have no doubt you have handled many more aftermarket blocks than I have and I have never built a Dart SBC. But I have built several Merlins. Nice block but needed all the same stuff as an IA II. Line hone, square deck, de-burr, oil passage clean up, and plate hone. Same with Ford Motorsports blocks, big and small block. The aftermarket Ford FE blocks, the most comparable to a Pontiac in my opinion. Of the two FE brands I have used, no comparison VS the quality of an IA II. One of the Fe's had a breech through the oil passage to water that had to have a long thinwall tube installed to patch. These are 3K+ blocks like a Pontiac. Highly mass produced aftermarket blocks will likely be slightly better than the niche blocks because machining is done on newer, more accurate, faster CNC machining centers. Niche blocks are often run during non-peak times on older. slower machines. Fewer choices in machining options, while we don't like it, keeps the price where it is now. Having tons of little sub-programs and no 2 blocks alike type of production, will increase prices.
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... yes, the lowest price version would be the standard Base Pontiac version, so the extra/different machining options would increase price certainly, but these would be options that simply are not availabe yet, so they certainly would carry a price increase ...