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aluminum block wow that be nice....might be little over kill for a 550hp motor lol.. So the old age question.. how thin can you be on the thrush and non-thrush side of the cy's ?



well there are a number of variables first being how hard you're going to run it. off the top of my head i'd prefer >.150 on the thrust but don't know how hard that is to find. for a given thickness a low deck is going to be stiffer because the cylinder is shorter. i'm sure running an engine into detonation doesn't help matters any as well. side loading do to stroke/piston/rod combination there are a number of factors.

there are plenty of people with more experience that have measured and built more engines so with regards to wall thickness i can't speak from a wealth of experience as to what will live and what won't. the only one i personally dealt with that split was a lo deck 500" unfilled stroker that was being run pretty hard with alcohol injection and i have to wonder if it would have split had it been filled. the owner ended up going with a megablock.

there is also the idea of filling the block either a short or tall fill. i filled both the stock blocks i raced one short and one tall. i know people have mixed feelings about filling the block but i think if it's done correctly it can't do anything but help.

i have a UT mic but haven't shot a lot of blocks. i have a couple blocks sitting around so if i get the motivation maybe i'll shoot them for the heck of it plus i need to become better acquainted with the mic i haven't used it that often.

here's a write up that Andy did with a lot of info

http://arengineering.com/tech/sonic-checking-the-mopar-big-block/