One of my buddies told me a friend of his has one of these blocks (bare) and the crankshaft. He wants 100 bucks for each. I don't know much about these blocks ie: stronger than stock? weaker? Just curious and would like to get a bit more info on it before I go talk to him.

If he is talking about something like what World Products has "Billet" blocks then if its not worn out it is a fantastic deal. World Products makes one of the Best Bare Blocks on the market, it has vastly improved water jacket and what is called "Priority Oiling" and Blind tapped head bolts, 4 bolt mains, really nice.

If that is not it then I wouldn't know.

Supposed to be a factory chevy block, 4 bolt mains, the story I was told was that the manufacturer of the block added a higher amount of nickle to the casting material when the block was cast, thus giving the block a higher tensile strength. I remember seeing something about this a few years back, thought ( my error ) I wrote down the casting number somewhere and now I can't seem to remember where I put the info. I'm wondering also if this block is more difficult for the shops to machine and get it right, Or requires special tooling for them to do the job. Unobtainium tooling is expensive these days. :-D

I know that Chevrolet built special heavy duty versions of the passenger car big block engines for use in medium duty trucks. They had special steel cranks, sodium filled exhaust valves, taller blocks and higher nickle content blocks. But these were big blocks (366, 396, 427) not small blocks. I'm wondering if you're talking about GMPP Bowtie blocks?

Yeah, Chevy cast certain blocks mainly in the 60's and 70's with higher percentages of nickel and tin. These blocks are denoted by 010 and/or 020 under the timing chain cover. They are more desirable because they are generally regarded as being stronger blocks. We took an 010, 020 (high nickel and high tin) 327 block and turned it into a wicked alky injected 331cu motor.

Scrubby; Here's what I found at Mortec under "Other Block Markings":

"Some of the small block motors used blocks with an additional 1% tin and an additional 2% nickel added to the cast iron alloy. These very desirable blocks can be identified by looking at the block face under the timing chain cover for "010" and "020". These designators can also sometimes be found on the rear face of the block inside the perimeter of the bellhousing mating surface".

So you are correct. Sounds like a good deal! Should be simple to see if your friend really has one of these blocks! :)

He's supposed to let me know this weekend as to what's going on with this. I have been thru a ton of papers I have saved but can't find that casting number. I'll keep you posted. :D

Maybe they used more than one casting number! You probably just have to look for "010" and "020"! :-)

My loss, got ahold of him Sunday late, he works out of town Mon. thru Sat. everyweek. The guy sold the block to someone else. Seems as tho he couldn't wait, had to pay on his DUI fine and needed cash fast or spend a bit of time in the round bar hotel. Oh well, back to the resto and maybe a bit of junkyard searching this week, weather and time permitting.

you can find that block in many of the old K5 Blazers (4bolt main and all)

I worked in a machine shop from age 15-20...when we got one of those blocks in we always took a straight edge across the "deck" where the heads bolted to make sure the was less than .005 warpage...

I guess those blocks were great unless they were super overheated.

If the block did have a warp, we had to "surface-grind" them like an Aluminum Block or a "HEMI"(the hemi has an unbelievable composition and weight with some tough metal combo for block and heads"-
so basically you could not use a standard Milling Machine or the teeth on the mill would begin to chatter and it would dull the mill bits.....

The only other GM that was something like that was the 6.2 deisel...We used to have guys bolt 350-455 Oldsmobile rocket heads on those blocks and use them for many race applications...I had done so myself..

Does anybody know what it would take to dump a Chevy Big Block into a 5th???????????

Done deal, my boss hooked me up with a 350, 4 bolt mains, 4bbl carb., complete except the dist. for 50 bucks. Came out of a guys chevy pick-up. Running but, the guy says one of the cam lobes was wore out. May be one of the engines that chevy had years ago with the soft cams on the back cylinders. Were gonna pick it up later this week and bolt it to my engine stand. The guy put a 305 back in his truck which is what it originally came with so, I know the 350 came out of something else. I'm just gonna let it be until my paint and body lift are done, then build it up mildly. I'll keep the 283 just in case.