I'd really like to have my 3 440 blocks sonic tested, but no local shops (NoVa) are equipped to do so. Dropping $1K for a "brand name" tester is really hard to justify for myself, but there are some "budget" (that's being kind, probably...) testers often listed on eBarf for much less. Are these things even usable?

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=Racer&Number=7129642

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=Racer&Number=5816698

tough call. I paid $1000 for a sonic tester about 15 years ago. I used it to test my own blocks plus I've tested dozens of blocks for local guys over the years. I charge $50 per block and I'm sure I've earned my $1000 back a couple of times.

From all the researching I've managed to do, the big issue w/ the cheap(er) testers seems to be that the transducers they come with aren't adequate for reading the curved surface of a cylinder accurately. Anything that seems to get a decent review for those types of measurements is still about $1K, even though the $150 units can be functional for measurements of flat surfaces.

I think if I could find something in the $500 range that could do a bore, I'd pop for it. But 2x that is a lot harder to commit to...