Thank you 8sec and the rest on here.

I'll pass this info along to my friend and if he indeed gets some kind of refund, he can then give the business to HP or who ever else is in the market with some good honest products.
I also will suggest Bob George as a supplier to him or any others.

In hindsight, the one good thing I've found with some block families is that some are/have been exempt from hard core abuse depending on the chassis that they served in.
These engines such as the 318's-360's 383-400's-and some 440's served in station wagons, some trucks and most full size C-bodies.
To the contrary, the A-B and E bodies with 340's -360's- 383's, 440's and Hemis tend to be a crap shoot since they have probably ingested some level of abuse with the 340 and Hemi being the kings of pain themselves.

In this particular case, what I hate most is that with an honest 5+K down on a NEW block, it should not be useless junk and eclipse anything the old blocks endured. I totally understand the usual machining, clearances, decking, deburring, cleaning,etc. but none of that should come to a halt as a result of poor castings and or QC.

Rejects have been around since the beginning of mass manufacturing, but they should make the junk pile and not the in-stock pile to the public.

Heck, a sick Elephant from birth is truly an Elephant in the sick room.