This is probably old news to many of you, but I thought I would share it just in case. I went to the swap meet that ICH puts on annually in Indianapolis this past weekend. Kent Ritter was there and I had the opportunity to talk with him a while. The new version of his cast iron SBM block has the motor mount ears cast into the block now. The block is designed for pushrod oiling, but it can be modified (with an under the intake oil line) to accommodate oiling through the cylinder head. Stock cylinder heads can be used. One thing he did mention was that in some applications there may be some minor clearancing needed but said it would be minor. If anyone is interested in purchasing a block or has any additional questions his cell phone number is 585-610-9979. An alternate number is 585-593-5305. He knows that his contact info was going to shared.

Did he say if he got the other machining issues dealt with?

Not even sure what to say here..... In 2012 it was very good news, but that's all been tarnished now. I truly hope that someone can manage a relitively trouble free build utilizing one of these. We need a good foundation. Did he have or mention anything about the aluminum version?

Has he himself made one of his own blocks run? How on earth could he send a block out to market so halfed baked. You want people to spend the money then take the time to make them right.

The sad part is if he fixed the problems they have that the blocks would sell. The market for R3's is limited, and getting smaller each day.

Until they're proven by him or others, the buyers are going to be few and far between.

Sorry gentlemen, I can't address your questions. My post was simply to share my conversation and provide contact information. We did not talk about the aluminum block in detail. I wasn't aware of the issues with the cast iron block, just that there was a need for one.

An engine shop in Australia was appointed as a sole distributor late last year via a Facebook post. The issues were brought up in the comments, to which the vendor was advised by Kent they were all resolved. Didn't really carry any weight with me as the picture of the block they were using had an obvious machining flaw. The castings appear to be good, the machining is done by the cheapest people Kent could find, hence all the problems. It's a downright shame

There have been claims of possible builds using the cast iron block but we have not been aware of any complete and performing engines.There have been a few whom have struggled and got their engines up and running.We would like to here of the build process and results.There certainly is a market for a good strong small block foundation.We have been building a lot of SBs with supplied cores and restoration blocks.It would be great if Kent can get his production available with minimal corrective machining cost.We would certainly a prospective customer.

...and that's why it's nice to talk about. There have been people that spent thousands just to end up scrapping their projects. The ONLY iron Ritter block that I've EVER heard that is running (and running damn hard I might add) is our own member Whitedart..... but as he's noted here, it wasn't easy, and it wasn't cheap. Fought a lot of one off issues. Worked around things that were just plain wrong. Like I said before.... the best thing that could happen would be for Kent to get a block to a builder, and have them do a detailed build that would prove that this block is in a usable state. If that happened I believe he would start to move some blocks.

That request has been asked and ignored many times.We would love to do a detailed build and follow it's performance in one of our cars at the track.We promise to be "fair and balanced" and we appreciate Kent's effort to make casting available and would like to see his effort succeed.

I hope I'm wrong, but maybe the problems aren't fixed, that would be the only reason I could think of why Kent wouldn't want to send a block to a good well known shop for evaluation. Even if he gave them the block (assuming it's fixed) the return would many times over his costs of one block.

IMO if he keeps messing around and the aftermarket ever blows open for Genlll stuff he's sunk.

We have 2 of them going together at Allen Shermans shop in Texas 1 will be a 340 stocker and the other is a super class 440 inch w2 head,the only thing holding us up is 50 mm cam cores. There are things that have to be addressed but nothing major and shouldn't be expected with a aftermarket block that was designed to accept different head configurations. Kent had the blocks approved by NHRA for stock and super stock and fixed most of the machining issues on the last batch and if you want a block to build an engine that will hold up to what ever you can throw at it this is your only choice

Ray Buckner

Well with the R3 tall deck block pretty much gone I'm going to have to try a Ritter for a 468CID W9 deal we have all the parts for. It will be a while before the customer can afford the block but as soon as he pulls the trigger we will be putting the bullet together.

Whats the price on his block now days... does
he have a website

Just a side note but he is in the G3 market, he happens to be the guy doing the big drag pak looking intakes that Muscle Motors and Hughes sells.

The blocks were right around $3000 each not much more than the R3 stuff and btw we had to work on the last R3 that we did to get it right

Ray Buckner

Ok... I was running a R3 and yes it took the
normal stuff to get it to the assembly point
but it was just normal stuff.. line hone, bore
and hone the cam tunnel, bores and decking... I
cant remember if I did the lifter bushings or not
(I think I did).. mine was a dry sump block so I
went with the 4 stage pump

This is true, also true that one of the bolt holes on mine to mount the carburetor was threaded at a fairly severe angle. No way you could put a carb on it as came.

Minor issue in the grand scheme, but makes you think twice about buying a whole block from the same source.

Nice! That's what we're looking for lol