i bought this engine from a member on here. it came from his engine builder when the deal was done. i'm starting to think i got shafted on this deal as it's been a pig right from the start. problem with being on the other side of the globe i can't get any recourse from this. looks like it's a suck it up n pay to get it fixed deal.

Been there done that. IMHO just move on especially because of where you are. The energy you spend trying to figure out whose fault it is can be better spent getting it back together. I think it was mentioned early an inspection is cheap piece of mind then you know exactly what you have not I wonder if this was a problem from the get go.

It only takes a couple of minutes to pressure check a big block so my advice is to always check a new engine before firing it. I pressure check my dyno mule before and after every trip to the dyno.

That is a really nasty looking crack but a sleeve should save the block and then you'll be back to racing. You'll probably want to replace the bearings while you're in there, the rings might be okay to reuse.

yes Mr P i did. when i received the engine, it was obvious the heads were brand new & had been ported, i pulled the oil pan & checked things from underneath. the bearings were new, pistons looked new. the lower section of the bores looked brand new as well. with the engine being wrapped up like it was, i assumed the seller was correct in saying it was ready to go. all it needed was an intake manifold & a distributor & water pump & it was complete. we could even tell it had run in grease on the Purple shaft cam.
i pulled the springs & fitted some weak outters to run the cam in, refitted the springs supplied & took the car for a drive around our country roads. it never liked coming back to an idle after it had been cruising.
i was plagued with a few problems with other components in the early part. the Dominator was constantly misbehaving so i sold it & bought a new 950 Quickfuel which did run better but not by a great deal. the starter motor had a failure, but it was new so it got replaced. the battery was having issues but that turned out to be the alternator which i replaced with a new one along with the battery.
the car, my '71 'cuda had been in hibernation for a decade so i was chasing other issues before i concluded it was the engine itself. i made 3 passes down the track in this time before pulling the engine,