Guys
Making castings is the easy part. Getting them machined through another vendor is the hard part. Nobody wants to beat the hell out of their machines for little or no profit. They have had numerous people try and it is nothing but problems. Koleno tried and the Bradshaw group is trying. Indy tried years ago. The problem is not making them it is MAKING MONEY doing it. At the time they did make them the blocks were a break even prospect at best. It was all the other parts that you could sell with them that made money. Now that other companies have started making parts (Stage V, Indy, Edelbrock and others those sales are no longer generating the profits to carry the blocks. Buy the money losing blocks from Mopar and then all the rest from Company A,B,C. Does not work. Chrysler HAD a crate motor program but it never really went very well despite trying numerous builders. IF you could order 20 or 30 thousand of them you might get someones attention. Otherwise........

I hear ya....... but......


Even if you put the numerous Chevy block suppliers aside.........there’s the fact that you can get Pontiac blocks from two different sources.
Butler sells iron blocks for $3495 and aluminum blocks for $4495.
Kauffman sells their iron block for $3195, aluminum for $4795.

The Pontiac market is strong enough to support two suppliers of iron blocks, but the Mopar market isn’t strong enough to support any?
Well, I suppose if the iron block price is $5000 they probably won’t sell too many.

I don’t ever remember there being a “surplus” of mega blocks or world blocks available, even when they were in production.

They sold every one they made available.

If they weren’t making money on them...... add a few hundred bucks to the price.

I feel that if “affordable & available” blocks aren’t offered to the people interested in building mid to upper-mid level motors(700-1000hp) you’re going to see the support pieces for that performance level of the BB Mopar platform dry up in the not too distant future.
I’d say that Callie’s not offering the forged cranks for them anymore was the first indicator of that trend.

It’s like when TF came out their BB heads and a bunch of people were crying because it wasn’t a racy enough piece.
Not too many head manufacturers are going to build heads for a platform that has no blocks to use them on.

If I were looking to build a 800-1000hp motor, I wouldn’t be too keen on spending $7495 for a block, and having to wait 6-12 months to get it.
I’d just build something else and go racing.

IMO, this is in the classic Mopar performance tradition of not “getting it”.........
Let’s announce a new high end crate motor at the SEMA show........ but no price.
And two months later........ still no price.

All that big build up prior to the announcement....... and then not being able to take advantage of the excitement of the moment by actually selling them right then and there(or within days afterward).
They should have had a price, and had some special SEMA offer where you got some sort of perk for being one of the first 50 sold.

Mopar Performance....... the new slogan should be, “The Performance Group that doesn’t get it”.

I've made that pntiac analogy many times. Now the FE ford is getting new blocks. I say [ Moparts Family Site - Keep it Friendly ]? The FE was NEVER that popular that I know of. Never. Yet they they are. And someone down under I think is making 351C blocks and selling them like mad or has paid orders waiting from what I've been told.


Yet the Mopar guys get the [censored]. I still say it's not that we don't have the numbers of cars being built and raced that is killing the market. I say it's available BUYERS. That is BUYERS who are willing to pay for a block rather than buying a 50 year old OR block and filling the turd with cement, using aftermarket caps with a girdle and all that [censored].

At this point, the latter is more prevalent than the former.

My argument for that is....... numerous times I had customers who wanted an iron block to build a motor with....... and there were none to be had.
The MP iron block availability always seemed to be sporadic at best.

The conversation usually started out something like, “we’ll have to see if any blocks are available”.
More often than not....... they weren’t.

You can’t buy what isn’t available.

You don’t think if there was someone offering a reincarnated Mega-block for $3495, available “today”, that they’d sell?

The block availability is almost comical really.......

Two iron hemi blocks show up at Best Machine, and that’s newsworthy.

Sure hopes someone does something somewhat affordable some day or else my next build will have to be BBC in a Fox Body mustang just like everyone else builds. Oh wait, did I just say that out loud? That was supposed to be my inner voice.....

Frankly, after seeing how poor the iron block availability has been for 20 years or so, I’d say it’s “highly unlikely” that competitively priced iron blocks for the BB Mopar will ever be brought to market.

You could be right but then again, if someone like Bear Block Motors can step up and build new FE blocks then some other guy could come along and start cranking out Mopar blocks. For some reason everyone associated so far with making Mopar blocks has slipped on the proverbial banana peel. Not sure why, but nobody seems to be able to run with the ball for very long.

The Hemi block might be tough to do in cast iron but the wedge block should be fairly simple. Ma Mopar made millions of them back in the day.

I'll be patient and wait about 6 months to see if they kick off Dalton and make some castings again. If that doesn't happen, we can probably forget about it for the forseeable future. Sure wish I knew an insider at DF.

I've had several guys who would easily spend 4K for a block and not blink. Hell, I'm one of them. I'm talking as a group. When I would tell a guy with even a lowly 600 HP build he wanted and it's a Chevy or a Ford, 9 times out of 10 it was a sale. You always have one guy who is going to argue that a block was needed for that power level.

But most of the Chrysler guys would squeal like a pig being cut with a butter knife. They just couldn't believe a block was required for what they wanted.

I'm with you now that if someone did come to the market with a reliable, readily available BBM if they would be supported just because of the length of time they've been without. As a small block guy I've been through it myself with blocks.

As Andy pointed out that Bear Blocks came out with the FE (I could not think of the name of the block) why not both the SB and BBM's? Did Bear just go off the rails and build it on a marketing guess or did they do the research and bet they had a market?

Like I said, I stumped and the kickback against the Ritter block. Mostly by guys who've never even seen one, let alone know what it takes to start with a new block and build an engine. Yes, he had issues. But he doesn't have Maskin money, resources or even his experience but it damn sure looks to me like he is now getting blocks out there capable of competing with blocks from other manufacturers making other branded blocks. Who knows, maybe Ritter had plans for a BBM but after the thrashing he took over the SBM why bother.


I think back just recently when the new crew bought out KB and the hate against the new company was thick and hot and nasty. Nobody liked what was happening and everyone thought there was going to be a screwing.

From what I see now, things are going relatively smooth, it seems most if not all of the back orders are filled or close to it, blocks are coming and from what I've seen in pictures, the blocks are leaps and bounds over the old KB stuff.

My point is we are quick to kick anyone about anything we see as an injustice, rather than let the situation bloom and become fully seen.

It's a real simple formula for Mopar - they don't care about the Gen II stuff its yesterdays news! Pushing the gen III aftermarket is their current focus - I run in NSS at NMCA - the Genn III cars have there own class and get a free entry (first 75 cars)- courtesy of Ma-Mopar. Lets face it until somebody else steps up and makes a good iron block - it ain't gonna happen!

Well frick. I just posted in another thread about not many switching to the GIII stuff but now I read this and I guess I'm wrong.

Not sure i agree about not prepared to pay money for blocks .
I am just a 10 second bracket racer , l broke 1 stock block .
I lucked out on finding a new World block , it cost 3 x a sbc block . Yes i paid A$7000.00 about US4500.00
I couldnt cop the A$11-12000.00 for an unneeded aluminium block , but i thought aboyt it
There are enough racers who will pay if available , crikey how many stock/superstock guys need or would buy ? There is demand
Its a hell of a shame .

Tex

Hemi or even a 440 is a much harder block to cast than a Chevy or Ford and if it is cast iron it makes it tougher. The Newest KB block that is out now has had a lot of revamping is the casting and modern upgrades to various parts of the block, such as oiling and other stuff. I heard the new team put 150K to make this block much better. The new KB is a sweet piece and a lot of racers in the over 1000HP motor will have no trouble buying it. It sure would be nice to have a new Iron Hemi Block but this story is the same every 3 or 4 years and this is one reason people like FHO had to step up and have blocks made because there just were not any around iron or aluminum.

Its really not about putting a gen III in an old car - its all the new challenger, chargers and Jeeps and getting them to the track - its realy interesting to see the crowd that comes out to the HEMI-fest stuff. in short its what sells the new cars.....

Why is a BB Mopar any harder to cast than a Pontiac or FE Ford? This is my take. There are very few BB Ford 427 (even 428) or Pontiac blocks left. Will a FE or Pontiac stock block take 650HP? Plenty of stock 440 blocks left. At 650hp or less, most live. Still the market for 650+hp BB Mopars exists. I have to believe that market easily exceeds the demand for Pontiac or FE Ford. Even in N/SS and Pontiac and FE Fords are few. Go to the local track. What is the next most popular big block motor you see behind BB Chevy? It's not Ford, Pontiac, Buick is it? So again WHY? Can't a BB Mopar block be produced and sold at the same cost as FE Ford and Pontiac? Obviously Pontiac and Ford are not promoting these blocks. So the fact that Mopar is Promoting Gen3 shouldn't be an issue. It makes no sense to me.
Doug

Nowadays I consider myself lucky that I was able to get a MOPAR siamesed bore when they were $2500
Started at 4.310 and gave grown a few times now at 4.380, all with a 4.5 stroke.

I'm just one guy and I bought three MP Hemi blocks. I say BS to there not being a market.
As for people Pooh Poohing my KB comment as just being slightly higher priced I say look at the machining on the KB. Any MP block I bought was not even close to being ready to run without spending more $$$. Forget MP and just order a KB.

Yes, Bear Blocks specialize in the FE Ford block & heads but they are expanding their line of products. The recently have released a 392 Hemi block for the Nostagia/Gasser guys. If they demand is their they are considering the 2ND Gen Hemi/Wedge blocks. I guess we all need to prove to them that the demand is their & hopefully the price is right.

We have built dozens & dozens of FE's using Bear Blocks & their quality is top notch on everything we have ever used of theirs.

I see the FE blocks are listed on Bear Block website for $4000.

I was just talking with someone and had mentioned I felt that if you could get a quality BBM iron block for $3995 that they would sell.

I like building engines, I am not sure I can justify 4K for a block though even if it is a Hemi!