They were expensive then too but made sense to some degree back in the 80's when Hemi blocks were drying up fast and were big bucks (even more than now in 80's dollars) but since new Hemi block castings are now (somewhat) available they don't make sense anymore unless you found a 100% complete set up second hand for a lot less than they cost new. You can buy a top shelf custom Hemi build for 20-25K now days, I'd wager you'd have nearly as much into a Stage V 440 conversion if you had one built with quality parts.