350 with no main caps

General engine tech -- Drag Racing to Circle Track

Moderator: Team

Zmechanic
Pro
Pro
Posts: 435
Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2012 9:33 am
Location: Austin, TX

Re: 350 with no main caps

Post by Zmechanic »

In my experience, the cost of installing aftermarket splayed mains is not in the same realm as line honing. Splayed mains requires machining registers, drilling, tapping, line boring, then probably still line honing. In many cases, having splayed mains installed cost enough that it makes sense to just step up to an aftermarket block. Unless of course you have some class restriction or something.

Or Racesaver, where a DART 305 splayed block will cost you both a bunch of money and about 40lbs of extra weight.
ProPower engines
Guru
Guru
Posts: 8706
Joined: Sun Jan 21, 2007 1:16 pm
Location: Victoria BC Canada

Re: 350 with no main caps

Post by ProPower engines »

Think of it this way,
The block has no caps so now the cost of a set of 3 4 bolt caps either straight or splayed is about $100 for the cheap caps now get a front cap of the same quality and they run about $75 then a rear cap that has the thrust faces that need to be corrected to match up to the block is about $150 and a new set of bolts or studs $75-$150 plus machine time.

Even sorting through a pile of OEM caps and doing basically the same thing is still going to cost a few hrs in shop time plus a line hone and it won't be perfect in most cases. It will be useable but not perfect unless you have 1000's of caps to choose from.
For the cost of a block at the auto wreckers it seems hardly wort all the time to fix.
What do the wreckers want for a plain jane block anyway? Not the dumb ass's that think they have a golden block :D
Real Race Cars Don't Have Doors
User avatar
psychomotors
Pro
Pro
Posts: 298
Joined: Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:20 pm
Location: East Bonne Terre
Contact:

Re: 350 with no main caps

Post by psychomotors »

machinedave wrote: Tue Oct 17, 2017 10:46 pm Not worth it when good 350 blocks with caps are only $50.
:shock: They are like hens teeth around my area. Too many circle track guys around here ,lol.
Everyone appreciates your honesty , until you're honest with them , then you're an @$$hole.
machinedave
Guru
Guru
Posts: 1129
Joined: Mon Mar 24, 2014 1:08 am
Location:

Re: 350 with no main caps

Post by machinedave »

psychomotors wrote: Thu Oct 19, 2017 9:56 am
machinedave wrote: Tue Oct 17, 2017 10:46 pm Not worth it when good 350 blocks with caps are only $50.
:shock: They are like hens teeth around my area. Too many circle track guys around here ,lol.
In my area the vehicles rust out so fast that we have more cores than we no what to do with.
Post Reply