Originally Posted By Triple Threat
Originally Posted By madscientist

I hear you, but how do you set your main bearing clearance? You can buy ten sets of bearings and spend a day and half screwing around, or you buy bearings that are close and finish the main line to clearance.

As for lifter location, I've never seen a block with any name on it that didn't need to be verified. And I've seen plenty that were barely ok, and plenty that were junk, brand new. Plus, you have no idea what size the lifters will be. Many brands are damn small and if the lifter bores are "pre-finished" you either end up going through several sets of lifters of you bush the block to fix it so you can order spares and not have to worry about the lifter being undersize.

Sad to say, the Chrysler guys don't seem to get it. The Chevy guys do. The ford guys do. Even the Pontiac guys get it. They might [censored] about it, but they do it. The Chrysler guys [censored] and whine and snivel about price constantly. It's epidemic. That's why Chrysler SB guys are getting a cylinder head from Trick Flow that takes a stock rocker and won't be much of an upgrade from anything else.

Seen this my entire life. And it still happens. Like I've said before, the Chrysler guys get exactly what they'll pay for. And that's what we get. When a guy does try and bring something to market, he gets his guts kicked out and stomped on constantly.

And I still ain't heard a thing about Dart falling all over itself to build a SBM platform. I knew it wouldn't happen. Dick Maskin isn't that self loathing. And the new owners want to make money and not listen to guys bitching about finish machining.


I think you're missing the point, I understand what goes into building engines, I have 2 of them being screwed together at the moment. I'm trying to understand what condition the blocks are in to start, the issues they had previously are fairly well known. I want to make sure I understand what I'm signing up for before I hand over $4K for one.

Off subject, but where in Washington are you, and what do you race?



I totally get what you are asking. The point I'm trying to make is stuff happens with every block that comes through. If you bought two Ritter blocks I'm happy. I want to see his stuff succeed. I've talked to Kent on and off over the years since about 1996ish...about the time he was running the Comp car with Weber. I don't bother him much but when I heard he was going to make blocks I called him.

I just don't want people to get the idea that you can buy a block and treat it like a bolt on piece. I've been fighting that for years. And it screws with lots of guys heads. I always tell them it's better if everything is undersized that's a hole and longer than it needs to be if it's a deck height or similar. It's easier to machine something to size then to make it bigger, to make it smaller, to make it correct.

I agree if Kent is putting the lifter bores in it they need to be correct but I'd rather see them come at .900-.901 rather than .903-904 as I can fix the first but the last is much more difficult.

I'm in central Washington. Don't go to the races much any more. Had my fill of it.

Just because you think it won't make it true. Horsepower is KING. To dispute this is stupid. C. Alston