http://www.gmhightechperformance.com...8gmhtp_motown/

I was reading that and it seems like a pretty industructable shortblock for $4500. Anybody here have experience with it?

 

For $4500 it had better be indestructable.

 

The article makes some good points about the value of this block. I don't know of a way to do it cheaper with this level of performance.

 

If you have the cash to spend I would say its worth it for piece of mind.

My friend just built a 383, used the best machinest in my area, bought his forged Eagle crank, forged eagle H beam rods and forged SRP pistons off ebay all new stuff, bought all the "right" tools to assemble the motor himself and didnt spend that :shrug:.

 

What block did he use?

 

4 bolt main 350 block. Granted its not a "new" block but I know people making in excess of 700 horsepower with production blocks. Spend your money on machine work and its not such an issue.

 

If you're just going to stroke a stock bore (ie 383) than this block really isn't worth the change, at least for most engines. The point of this block is to have a large bore w/o loosing the strength that becomes more important as the cubes start to rise.

Here is a quote from the article:

"The Motown's cylinder wall thickness is perhaps the most important aspect of this evolutionary small-block. Since most production GM blocks can only be bored .030- to .060-inches safely, not much material is left to work with. The cast-iron Motown plays by an entirely different set of rules, emerging from Mitchell's two CNC machines sporting an outstanding .460-inch cylinder wall thickness with a 3.990-inch bore (honed to 4.000 inches). Hollow out the Motown and there will be .250 inches of material left at the maximum bore of 4.200 inches. This enormous bore allows the Motown's 4-inch stroke to produce 427 cubic inches--without running into the problems that a factory casting would."