Hemi blocks

I'm looking for a running street Hemi motor for my car. I would like to know if there are certain Hemi blocks that are more desirable than others and/or which (if any) I should stay away from. Thanks in advance.

Iron mopar blocks with this shield that says MC in it are usually pretty good.

What year and model is your car and what specifically are you looking for in a "running street Hemi"?

- EM

I'm not looking for a particular year Hemi. Any year factory motor will do as well as aftermarket. When I say "running street Hemi" I mean just that. I want a complete engine that is in running condition that I can drop in my car without having to rebuild or find parts for and I don't want a race motor. I have heard that some aftermarket Hemi blocks weren't as good as others so I would like to know what blocks are good and which ones to avoid.

All the aftermarket hemi blocks have some issues. For your application, it's really gonna come down to who built it and not necessarily what it was built with.
With block availability being what it is right now, you take what you can get and work out the issues w/ it.

Be very careful of who you buy from and what your getting, there are a lot of scum bags out there selling used junk as gold
I would only deal with very reputable dealers or engine builders, maybe call Bob George racing at 724-941-4251 to see if they have any ready to use complete pump gas Hemi motors or if they know any one that does that they trust and would recommend
Have you thought of contacting Tim Banning at For Hemi only in Canada at 905-797-2459, if not maybe you should. I'm not sure if he will have any used parts or used complete ready to run motors or not
Most of the original used stock hemi motors have had so much damages to them and then patched up to run and sell that you may or may not get something that will run well and live a good long life for you
Good luck, let us know what you do and end up with

I got a quote from Ray Barton's for a 4.5" bore cast iron block this morning. It is "The Block" that Muscle Motors was selling before they closed up shop. It is now the "Bulldog" blocks. Lead time is 6-8 weeks.

You may want to check with them. I am debating on cast iron or aluminum. Really trying my best to not buy an INDY block. The Keith Black is just so much money that I am really having a hard time justifying it.....

-Dave

Supposedly some Mopar blocks are coming.....................

And so is Christmas. I have had a Gen 2 crate motor and 2 bare hemi blocks on order for the last 2 years. The orders keeps being delayed due to "core shift" issues from the supplier. As my parts guy told me, "no one messes with this stuff, they all go to Gen 3" so Mopar has no real urgency to support Gen 2 motors. Just what I have been told....

Any block will have issues. Get it from a source that can help you fix the issues! Someone familiar with that block. Anything you get otherwise WILL have issues......No getting around it.

We have bought a number of blocks after market. Bought them all different suppliers...All of them had issues. Some we had recourse on, some we didn't.....All of them we fixed.

Personally, the Indy block is a good buy for the money, and you would be hard pressed to go a different route.

So pony up the $$$ or go back to stock...There is not enough of a Mopar market to drive the prices down...Hell, Callies couldn't sell 200 Mopar stroker cranks per year, you think anyone is going to make G2 blocks to sell 200 or less a year?

So good luck getting a crank from them next year for your Mopar..

I saw an Indy Aluminum block next to a KB,when you see the difference it's KB all the way.This was at the Marsh Performance tent at Carlisle.
Todd is a dealer for both,give him a shout

http://www.mopartsracing.com/

Problem is if you order a KB when will you get it???? I still keep hearing of issues.

I hear ya Al.Todd said the blocks are trickling out,some to the ones waiting forever.

I am not here to bash KB but I do know I have been owed a block for a very long time. The problem with KB is they should have just came out a year ago and said "Hey we have a huge mess to clean up, in a year or so we will be back on track" but they did not handle it that way. They had high hopes that got their asses stomped on. There has been no blocks trickling out or we would see pictures and hear info about it. The block Todd has is a blem. The KB block will be the best block out there for sure. I did get some info yesterday from a shop owner close to KB. They are working very hard on blocks and shipping them to a different machine shop that can handle the final machining in a production time frame. SO HOPEFULLY there will be blocks ready in 2018. The info I got helped me have faith in the deal. Trust me when there is blocks there will be pictures and much info. Hopefully the new owners learned by all this and will plan better in the future. Sorry for the post here but there needs to be some positive info shared to help clean up the tarnished trail...

Well, I talked with Mopar marketing at the Dallas race and he assured me they had 150 new castings at a machine shop in October and they would be ready for SEMA. Well, they weren’t. Big surprise! One of the guys here on the board knows this guy personally and gave him a call. He works at a machine shop in Detroit that has machined blocks for Mopar before. He pm’d me and told me that another shop had the blocks and was machining them. My guess, if they are even at a shop to get machined, is it is the cheapest shop and they will probably manage to screw them up. Don’t hold your breath. Why is everyone building hemi blocks haveing problems machining these? I doubt the are and more difficult than a Chevy block and you don’t here of those guys haveing trouble.

I know Koffels had big problems getting useable Koleno blocks due to poor castings that weren't useable at that time, I was told by Ken Black that he was having the same problems on his cast aluminum bare blocks from the foundry and problems with the casting cores to be used by that foundry
It seems like quality control and good work results in our country are not as good as they use to be

Get a billet block.

Now if there was some volume, I would love to see those in the $7k price range...

I know I saw at least one made as a water block...

There 7500 all day long

Price I saw was $12k

Anyone offer a billet water block......even as an option???

Only one I have seen....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpDSvdLRODo&t=13s

http://bradanderson.com/product/15-bae-billet-block/

CN BLOCKS
Web site looks old,

The billets are very nice....and compared to the prices on the top of the line cast version, the price of the BAE seems more than reasonable.

I wonder if anyone has ever been able to use one successfully in an application that requires water???

BAE can make it a water block but no one ever wants one. They said they have made two. They have the program to cut it but no demand. If you lift a head it pressurize the water jacket and the water gets out and under the car. Not what you want in a pro mod

In a race only application, I'd definitely run it sans water, but it's good to know they can do it for an extreme street deal.

I got a text with these in them Saturday. All I can say at this time is that there are 4 finish machined and at 3 very reputable Mopar engine shops for inspection. If they get a thumbs up there will be more castings sent to the machine shop to be finished.

Lifter gally looks a lot like the lifter area on the Ritter block I heard he was involved with making a BB Mopar block

I hope it works out. Would love to own a Hemi sometime before I die.

Is that the bulldog block so to say?

Yep BAE makes some nice stuff but no wedge...

I honestly don't know, but the guy is cleaning up someone else' mess. He knows how many false alarms there have been with new blocks and doesn't want to get hopes built up in case the castings are junk.

Certainly looks like my "The Block" - I have not heard them being renamed.

No secret the first run had issues including;
- lifter bores tapered and bad surface finish
- cam bearing bores might be just a tad tight
- the bushing location for oil pump drive may be machined too deep
- dipstick hole is approx 0.025 inches too tight

I am willing to fix these issues and be happy. Just glad to have a aftermarket block.

Talked to Bill @ Chicago Connection - he funded this project. He is aware of the issues and has changed machining vendors and hopefully the issues have been corrected.

Yeah, Joel... Motor Castings always seemed to be a pretty good foundry...their symbol is a positive sign for sure.

How about Rod & Custom Machine in Tennessee ? are the making the Hemi block that Muscle Motor started ?

You don't need to wait that long

Blocks turn up reasonably frequently, considering what they are. I don't watch all that often and I've seen 3 or 4 hemi blocks come up this year in the for sale section. Most of them have been mopar water blocks, I don't recall seeing a siamese.

They are out there and do pop up. If you want one it's just finding the places they are listed, watching daily, and being ready to move quickly once you find one.

This was 6 years ago or so, but I found mine (siamese) in the swap meet section at Spring Fling. It was toward the end of the day, and there is was sitting on the back of a guys truck. I wen't through one of those "Is that what I think it is?" from a distance, getting closer and closer. Couldn't believe it when I got up next to it. Guy had the sonic numbers, new block. I made one lower offer, he said no, and I bought it on the spot.

Just like cars in barns, there are new blocks out there sitting in peoples garages, then one day they finally decide to sell.

Good luck!

Herb Faatz (scatpk) wheeling my block from the swap meet up to where we were camped out that day on his electric scooter!

There was one new world siamese hemi block that was listed by Dave Dudeck and I snafued it.