lol not trying to talk anyone out of anything just sharing what I have found.

The 99 hemi block was lightened quite a bit from as cast. One complete side of the block is milled away in the skirt area leaving only material around the main cap area. Also keep in mind this is a VERY short deck height block. Most are 9.200-9.400" which is short Also they have rather large bores and cam tunnels, we were 4.700 and a 70MM cam tunnel. SO there are some very large holes in a very short block and it still is HEAVY.

Cab they are apples and oranges frankly power wise. One is a Pro Stock motor, one is a wedge headed stock block configuration. Having said that last time we dynode the 525 it made 1088 the 99 was 496" and made 1314 torque on each was similar around 850. Bear in mind one head flows 460ish cfm while the other is 100cfm more. One carb cast intake compared to sheetmetal twin dominator deal. Blah blah blah....AS for building an intentionally heavy engine in anticipation of using it as ballast up front is not exactly what is preferred. I have had heavy cars and am done with that. Give me a car as light as possible and putting the weight where it can best be used is far preferred to ending up with a crap ton on the nose to start with and hope you come in underweight and can move it around accordingly. My new car with an aluminum block and head comes in REALLY light and has allowed us to put the weight where it will best benefit the car, rather than dealing with an additional 180lbs right in the nose with a cast block...

My only point was in response to thinking compacted graphite blocks were the cats meow. They are very heavy and not as easy to machine. Sure they are quite stable bores but at a cost.

FWIW on the NA10.5 Vette the block choices are basically unlimited. Any type is available, grey compacted aluminum etc. It will be getting a new block likely next year as it goes to a much shorter deck height and it will be aluminum again. Oh yeah it makes pretty good power to at 417"