JohnZ

Old wives' tale and "internet legend". Production blocks were cast, machined, and assembled at Flint, Tonawanda, and McKinnon (Canada), now St. Catherine's, and all of those plants also supplied Service engines. "Targetmaster" universal replacement engines were cast, machined, and assembled in Mexico (Toluca Engine Plant), and they still are today. Since Flint V-8 was bulldozed in 1992, Toluca is the ONLY source for Gen I small-block V-8 engines.

Stan's Customs

What's the quality control like down there John..

A couple of guys I know bought ZZ4s and the like, from General Motors Performance parts that had issues...bad compression, wrong push rods etc., to name a couple of things.

CBernhardt on this forum has had a few issues with GM crate motors too. Including some issues with a big block if I recall right?...are the big blocks mfgd. there too?

Thanks...Stan

vetrod62

That is why those who know buy Dart blocks.

Randy G.

This was back in the 1980's when I heard it and Al Gore hadn't invented the internet yet and none of us were married and I din't know any old wive's.

The 1970's-1980's were not good times for American auto manufacturers. I worked for Chrysler back then and I have a million stories about engines in new cars without rings, blocks that were never finish honed, etc., coming off the line.

As I said, mine has "Hencho de Mexico" cast into the heads, but I never saw it on the block.

Maybe Westlotorn can clear this up, but I was told by the machine shop friend of mine in Redding that Skat and other popular crank shafts are made in China and imported. He says most of the engine parts/rotating kits are manufactured overseas. Even my new Bendpak Lift is made in China in a factory built by Bendpak there. I'll save the political reasons for all this for the PR&C forum, but it's a shame.

Blueprint Engines are a supporting vendor here and even contacted me through PM today offering their full support should I have any questions. Always glade to support the CF sponsor vendors.

Rod Burbage, owner of Spec Rite converters in Redding, is building me a 2500 stall converter for this and recommends the larger diameter finer spline input shaft for the powerglide. He says it's only $80 and rated for 800 hp.


.

Stan's Customs

Where are they made?

Randy G.

Last I heard...USA.

Westlotorn

Quality in Mexico is actually far easier to control than quality in China. GM certainly knew how to properly cast a 350 block and GM owned the plants in Mexico so I trust the quality. I have seen issues with the Mexico block but I have also seen issues with Ford SVO blocks. Things happen if you manufacture. Not every Flint block turned out perfect either. There was a push to lighten the blocks in the 80's. I know Ford pulled over 30 pounds of iron out of the last generation 302's produced. I have not seen any numbers for GM. Maybe John Z can help us out?

JohnZ

GM pulled a lot of iron out of the SBC block and heads in the 70's, and I paid no attention to castings of that era, preferring to stick with earlier blocks with known durability. 2-barrel A.I.R. engines with 8:1 compression and tiny ports making 145 hp weren't candidates for modifications for performance applications.

GTOguy

Maybe Apples and Oranges, but in the Pontiac world, the early blocks are sought after and the later ones ('75-up) are avoided. Early blocks have super high nickel content, and much less core-shift, as well as thicker webbing. Just plain higher quality stuff. Compare pretty much any 1965 product with a 1975 product, and guess which one is inferior.....I would feel much better rebuilding a '60's 327 or 350 than a '70's or '80's targetmaster. Better raw material to start with. And we all know that the devil is in the details....and LABOR!

Randy G.

I know...I know.

While waiting for the trans and installation stuff from Bow Tie Overdrives I was given a set of 400 heads to try on the '62. They were just back from the machine shop and unused since being pressure tested and redone.

So, 1.5 days worth of fun and it was ready to go tonight. I fired it up, adjusted the hydraulic lifters, drove it around for a short period of time (88 degrees out this evening) and in no time it was up to 235*. I stopped in my driveway and it hit 240*.

That was fun.

Westlotorn

Any chance your exhaust has plugged up or has a restriction?
Your engine is making no sense unless the block sealer is still in there haunting you.
Makes you look forward to that new engine.

Randy G.

Anything is possible at this point. It was one of the first checks I did. Exhaust seems to be flowing fine out the tailpipes. It was a new system that was put on by the deceased prior owner. I used my infared temp gun on the exhaust manifolds when it was hot in the beginning and they read high 300's to high 400's depending on where you shot them.

I will say this. With the set of heads I just put on there is a noticeable increase in power.

jim lockwood

Randy, is there any chance the engine is just running extremely lean? If it is, that can result in some very high temperatures.

Jim

Randy G.

Plugs look fine. I would think the exhaust manifolds would be over 500 degrees if it was lean, too. I also did a carb swap off another car that was running fine and no difference.