Local parts counter guy thinks he can order one, just have to pay up front...I'm not crazy about paying this particular dealer if it's not likely to show up.

Pay in advance for a service part at the dealership?? That doesn't make any sense. I've never heard of a parts department that wants money in advance for over the counter parts. What would be the point of that? The service department can always return parts if they don't sell.

Zero chance I'd pay a car dealer upfront money for a block that might not even exist.

Do it only if you want a valid reason to write in monthly and gripe because MP is holding your money. If I was going to do that I'd at least want to be griping about not receiving a Keith Black block.

R.

Summit's listing GIII blocks for 3845, free shipping. Estimated ship date 1/31/2018. Price boggles my mind.

The dealer may be able to "order" it......... It actually ever showing up?........ Less likely.

MP doesn't seem to be interested in supporting the earlier platforms.

What part number?

P5153944AB and P5153860AB

944AB.... shows 12 of them on back order. Supplier in shipment 0. good thing it isn't "NS1" which would mean it's never coming back.

860AB.... shows 7 on back order, same status.

Don't put money down. Tell them to order one and call you asap as soon as any are shown in the pipeline. Fat chance you'll ever get that call, but it would be interesting to see if the backorder status number got up there pretty high. I actually find it interesting that they haven't killed it yet.

I'm not in parts, but have access to dealer connect and can figure a few things out

FCA cares so much about Chrysler’s heritage that they turned the Walter P Chrysler museum into Maserati’s new headquarters. That along with the demise of the Viper should be a good indicator as to how much FCA cares about sourcing a B, RB, Hemi or LA engine blocks for what may be less than 2% of the automotive performance aftermarket.

I've been trying to find the caliper bolts for a Viper and it seems that Chrysler has killed the part number and there are zero in stock. So that means that Viper guys can't repair their cars if they lose a caliper bolt or one gets damaged. So if Chrysler doesn't care about supporting the Viper then I doubt they are going to bother with a block for an engine that they killed 40 years ago.

What is the part number?

The head guy over Mopar Service and Parts is clueless (and some of his recent predecessors were too ) about the performance parts program. He has a good script writer when you see him talk about performance - that's it.

This started in the late 90's when we had a female Sr. VP over MSP that openly stated that no young people wanted to see the old cars - that they were in to rice rockets, sliding around corners and polishing their oscars.

By and large what we have left is a bunch of youngsters that have never spent time working on a car or truck, no interest in anything that burns gas or diesel fuel.

(I always worried about our engineering group that had to repeat "right to tight and left to loosen".)

Many of these new people are higjly educated but can't think through a problem. Get them in a meeting with problems to solve and they seize up like a top fueler with no oil.

Even if they get a sharp guy to run the program the surrounding individuals will slow or halt any progress.

The other thing is we always fought for budget - so if you have a program to manage do you want to give up coin for something you don't believe in - someone's program you see no value in?

Edit - top of the house mismanagement started in the late 90's - before that the program managers were again - clueless. It went to hell in a hand basket when Brian Schram retired, Maxwell died, Hoover left - on and on. The program was great when real racers were involved - not the posers we have now.

I haven't considered Mopar as a source for Mopar parts for years.

They dropped the ball on performance stuff ages ago.

Tony don't care. They can't relate to the American muscle car/drag racing thing. If they did give a damn, someone else would be running Indy right now.

And there doesn't appear to be anyone in the aftermarket able to pick up the opportunity (headache) and run with it.

Do look through the 2018 Mopar Performance catalog. What's not there speaks volumes.

And Rocket Racing and Performance has new cast iron 455 blocks in stock, thick cylinder walls, beefy bearing bulkheads and all. Not cheap at $5,000.

R.

It's pretty bad when the Olds guys have better parts availability than a BB Mopar.

Ain't that the truth. I'd suspect the mopar guys outnumber the Olds guys 40:1 or better and yet they get a block.

How many guys on here would pay 5k for a good iron block, even if it could be in their driveway next week? Real question, not being a wiseguy.

Probably not many. 5G's is still a lot of money for anyone. But once you get to that power level that a $5000 block is required those kind of guys can afford one anyway. I have pieced my Mega block 528" Hemi together with the best parts I can afford over the last several years. From carbs to pan & dyno'd I have less than 17G's into my whole engine. Would I pay 5G's for another block to build another one. Not any time soon. LOL.

Evidently the Olds guys will pay it. Unless the people making them are fixing to lose their ass and didn't research the market.


I'm also under no delusion that Chrysler guys are the cheapest screws out there (for the most part as I well aware of what I spent, and I know personally others who have went beyond the call of duty to R&D some of this stuff out of their own pocket) as is evidenced by the fact guys still build 400 plus CID small blocks and put heads on them that have the base architecture for an engine developed over 50 years ago.

God forbid you have to run a an offset rocker and lifter, even though the Chevy guys have been doing it since the early 1980's that I know of.

Guys won't pay 5000.00 for a GOOD block but they will spend 1500.00 on a 35 year old piece of JUNK that is going to break sooner or later if you beat on it.