Hey Mopar people,
Most of you know that I've been around Mopar big blocks for years. When I owned Mopar Engines West I specialized in HEMIs and wrote that book "How to Build Max-Performance HEMI Engines." About the same time I sold MEW to my partner - and I went off to focus on EFI - the bottom dropped out of the block vendor market. One of the most well-respected names in HEMI blocks - Keith Black was dying and would soon be dead! Then a few years back we all heard that KB was going to be resurrected, but that dragged on and on and on, as the new KB owners worked to take care of the people who have already paid for their blocks. Some just assumed they'd never see their money or a block.

I recently had a long discussion with Darren Beale the new KB CEO. I can't go through the gory details of the KB transaction but I'm here to say I was pleasantly surprised by what the "new" KB owners are doing. Darren is in Australia and the new dealer network is Tim Banning (FHO), Victor Bray (in Australia), Todd Marsh and Ray Barton with strong support from Stage-V Engineering. Bottom line: These block are actually being cast and from what I heard the quality issues of the past should be a memory. The new blocks are NEW BLOCKS designed and cast from fresh tooling with many of the problems of 30 years ago, designed out (such as cast-in lifter oiling, the way it should have always been.)

One thing you should be aware of; In the past KB would try and do whatever the customer wanted. That was never a good idea IMO. Now the blocks are being cast in bulk runs in only two versions. Street blocks and raised cam race blocks.

Okay, I'll shut up. But if you're thinking that you'd never build a Gen-2 HEMI again . . . give it a look!

Rich Nedbal
fastmanefi.com