Ok, so I *was* in the process of rebuilding the 350 in my 88 Iroc. Sadly, that has stopped for the moment. The machine shop called to inform me of a rather nasty crack that became visible after they cleaned up the block... Then, of course, they tried to sell me another bare block (pre 86).

So, it looks like I need to find a new block that take the roller cam I already have.. *sigh*

Any recommendations for online sources? I'm so..upset.

 

If you are looking for a bare block, it might be cheaper to get it at a local junkyard.

 

Local bone yards around here tend to treat them like gold.. I checked today.. The cheapest newish 350 block I could find was $400..

 

Yea, you're kinda stuck. Getting one cheaper from someone else then shipping it would cost more. A new one bare from GM is $700 or so. They can charge whatever they feel people are willing to pay. I think $400 is pretty normal. Unless you go to a pick a part and pull it yourself and chance it being cracked anyway.

Tell your machine shop to weld up or braze the crack. Or look into those threaded plugs to repair cracked cast iron. Where is the crack and how bad is it? It's kinda rare for a block to be cracked, especially when you WERE driving the car... right?

 

sorry to hear about the block, but if you don't have parts already just go with a GM ZZ4 shortblock? save some time.

 

Meh, it happens. The longblock I bought for 50 bucks from a friend was cracked but I sold the heads for 50 bucks so I wasn't out any on it. The machine shop had a 90 block so I bought that for 100 bucks.