it is one (of many) of my dreams to run an aluminum big block on the street. is this a bad idea? any things i should watch out for? seems like it wouldn't be a big deal if set up propah (there are so many o.e. aluminum engines out there). you can be mean to me if you want, i don't care. i've been married for over 30 years.

I've got a lot of customers doing it. It's not a big deal.

I'm doing it. It should be just like anything else you run it hard cold or overheat it then you have problems. It may not be as forgiving or maybe more forgiving. I am not taking the chance. I see an issue I am cutting it off.

Leon

I did it, no problem. Just have a good cooling system.

Not an issue for our KB....

Look at how many production engine blocks are alum
that at on the road.... you wont have a problem if
the cooling system is correct

And expansion for a sour ring seal on the street?
Me out of all people should have tried this, but I flaked and stood iron..... for now.LOL

My other car came with one....

I don't know. It just seems that aluminum blocks for racing and aftermarket versions behave differently then these OEM aluminum calibrated blocks. Why is that?
Am I buggin' or is it just the cost of the blocks that keeps most peeps away?

just stay away from wet sleeves

How are you supposed to cool with out a wet water sleeved block?
What's up Fred.

After several attempts to seal our old al KB's sleeves with the o-rings, we finally used 'The Right Stuff". And that seems to have done the trick. I have ran it several months now with no water in the oil.

Wet water sleeved means that the coolant runs directly around and in contact with the sleeve. In a dry sleeved application the sleeve is in the casting that water flows around. So in a wet sleeve design the sealing of the sleeve to the casting at the ends is really important and with the expansion contraction issues between the two metals, well let's just say its a pain.

Damon

I know plenty of people that have run them on the street without issue.

The newest GT500 is a sleeveless aluminum block, if you wanted to get really fancy with technology I'm sure somebody could apply that same spray plasma lining to an aftermarket Mopar block.

Been running my KB block hemi on the street since 2006. No issues here...other than traction.

Do you know what the newest KB blocks are? Wet or dry? I've been trying to justify doing this myself for the weight savings. It's a pretty expensive 60 lb or so savings!

This is not at all trying to be condescending, but I'm just seriously curious about a few things.
You have not had the gasket leaks, cylinder wall shift from expansion, poor ring seal and rear main seal issues at all?
Are these a thing of the past? and (putting current factory OE blocks aside) why have so few builders achieved a good natured Aluminum block on the street?

When you say, street, is that saying that you drive it in traffic to and from cruises, track etc. or is it very limited to a surrounding neighborhood?
Some people here think that street may mean an"every day car, drive it anywhere" type of thing and I know that even my car is not that. I drive mine to the nearest track (about 50 miles or so) and in and around the five Boroughs to the night haunts/cruises in real NYC traffic, Though traffic can be light some times at 4:am LOL.

I haven't had any of the issues you've mentioned. From what I've been told, the older blocks w/ wet sleeves had all sorts of issues on the street...nothing like the new ones.

It's definitely not a daily driver by any means, but I drive it 25 miles one way to work every now and then. Use it as my "run around" car on weekends when the weather's nice. Spends most of the time on the highway cruising at 65-70 mph (I live out in the country). Used to go to Myrtle Beach pretty regular during the summer. Almost an hour drive, lots of traffic and heat. I've driven it to the track a couple times (about an hour one way), but I normally trailer it.

Dan at Performance Only has done a bunch of aluminum block street engines. I bought the rotating assembly for mine from him.