High-Nickel SBC Chevy blocks?

[Greg Reimer 7376]

I always heard, knew, was told that the 010 casting 4 inch bore 350 block was the starting place. When tearing it down and the timing cover and the cam gear were removed, the numbers 010 were visible to the right of the cam bearing boss, about a half inch high. If the number under that was 020, that was the block. They came in 4 and 2 bolt mains, in fact, the last one I had came out of my 71 El Camino. In fact, it was the original engine from that car, as the VIN matched the car. Now, having found a block, that doesn't mean you can just go hog wild. It has to be sonic tested. Core shift was all over the place back then, just because it had the optimal material doesn't mean the casting cores were in the right place. My block was filled, then line honed, bored, then power honed, dummy assembled, the deck height was determined, then disassembled and decked. I will say that it was 13 years from the time I built it in 1998 and blew it up in 2011. Rod failure to blame. I think that by the time you buy and open up several engine cores until you find one, then mag it, sonic test it, and finally have a good casting, you could have gotten the legal replacement Dart block, machined it as necessary, and had a better motor. The Dart block won't need to be filled, it is noticibly more heavy than a factory casting, but you would be time and money ahead doing that. Actually, the best OEM block I ever found was a 660 casting-four inch bore two bolt main large journal 327 casting from a 68 Chevy.It came up with no core shift, the cam and the lifters were in the right place, the mains were correctly centered, and it's in my wagon right now. It's the best 327 I've turned out yet. You don't always have to have the 010-020 casting to have a good motor.