[Manowar]

Commander,

The primary reason the CHI's are not more prevalent is that Jon is a one man shop and gets out maybe 15 heads a month.
Bishoff and Kaase want them because they make very big power and are cheaper than Yates-style equivilants.
We wish Ford well with their new 8.2-they need some small positives at this time. I will go so far as to say their new block is an improvement to their customary blocks, but I would not characterize it as having "all out performance and strength".
Our block has been available for two years now and Ford would have done well to emulate it's features entirely if they hoped to capture anything above the street rod market. "Diesel" iron is no improvement over 30,000 tensile gray if the thicknesses are thinner. We have .250 minimum everywhere. Their stock is .187-.200 max. Our max. advisable bore size is 4.200 which still leaves .200 stock. The Ford design on the same 4.380 bore center, at 4.125 bore size leaves .130 in areas between cylinders when you consider their "cross-drilled" steam hole feature at .125.
Screw in frost plugs do not a strong block make. Nor do .125 cross-drilled steam holes around the bores or two-bolt mains on front and rear positions. If you have to advertise as a selling point where your blocks logo is located (beneath the starter)-you don't have much to talk about. No provision for 6 bolt head attachment does not invite the big boost and spray racers to try to hurt your parts. Ours has seen 2800HP.
It remains to be seen what impact this block will have on the market. We've gotten a very good reputation with ours and we're thankful for that.