there was something about different cooling holes/special gasket. some where down the line I would use it with likely some alum stealth heads. problem or no problem? thank you for your time.

The 440-3 motor home blocks had the extra cooling holes them, the non 440 motorhome and pickup truck motors did not have them
Those extra holes are on the motor mount side of the block between the bottom head bolt holes, I built a motor home block with them and used a set of 906 heads with head gaskets with no holes in them for the extra cooling and it ran fine in my old bracket Duster, not the street and strip Duster
The extra cooling was for the exhaust valves in those motors due to pulling long grades at a steady RPM making a lot of heat in the cooling systems

I had a different experience than Cab with my MH block. It was a tow truck and it would get hot enough to vapor lock on a hot day in Texas. My bud had problems with a street car. You may be ok with aluminum heads

Alright when the time comes I will compare those extra block holes to the holes in the stealth heads & see if there is a gasket to match or a custom cometic. thanks guys

I don’t think the steaths have holes to match the MH block. I remember my machine shop fixing a few of those situations where a rebuilt MH engine was getting hot because they did not use the correct head gaskets with the holes to match. I think all new gaskets have those extra holes now.

are you thinking I should be OK with the new(er) gasket?

No. I don’t think they even make the old gasket anymore. The problem I was referring to was when you had a MH block AND MH heads these were designed to work together and required a head gasket with the holes in them so the water could pass between the block and head. I don’t think any modern head even had these extra holes in them anymore. Using aluminum heads may cure the overheating problem anyway. Like Cab used them may be fine on a drag car even with 906 heads. It would not work for me or my bud in Texas.

thanks bro I'll give it some more thought but it sounds like I had better use a regular block & take no chances as time/moneywise it could be disasterous

If your worry about the cooling holes leaking around the head gasket how about drilling and tapping them for 1/16 NPT pipe plugs

Hemi heads have one of those holes and they don’t have a problem

good info. I think I can deal with it now

double R, let us know what you decide. TIA.

I certainly will tho it will be awhile

If the extra cooling holes are the 8 per side between the lower head bolts, they are to cool the spark plugs on heads with the small peanut spark plugs. I have used the blocks with no issue. The felpro 1009,17059, and 8519pt that I have here, have the holes. If your block has a big bore chamfer 1009 will not work. Hemis may have those cooling holes but they also have larger slots in the upper row of cooling slots, early bigblocks also had wider slots. I make the slots a little wider, but am not going to say you should. Call 440 souce and see if you can drill the heads, I can say for sure you can drill an early block to use the motorhome heads but have never went the other way, I would not try, as the hole is angled, so I made the slot a little bigger, good luck.

One other thing, sonic check the block, that way you know it is not thin causing overheating, we know stealth heads do not run hot on normal engines, so that gets you down to the head gasket, or a water pump or housing issue. I can't remember if that was the block where 1/2 of the front water pump housing outlets were blocked, cast shut, I know I ground that out but has been 30 years, and I grind everything, for better or worse.