Bear Block Motors price and machining

[Dimis]

Originally Posted by FUNFER2

What's the price for the aluminum block ?

If they were $3600, same as the cast iron, would you be joining the line to purchase?

It's rhetoric. No need to answer...

[FUNFER2]

With the original side oilers being high priced and the many advantages of the new one's, I'd prefer the BBM.

[tboneheller]

Originally Posted by FUNFER2

What's the price for the aluminum block ?

Send them an e-mail and find out.

[PaulProe]

In my recent email from Doug, he said $3600 for Cast Iron and $4800 for aluminum.

Paul

[FUNFER2]

Originally Posted by PaulProe

In my recent email from Doug, he said $3600 for Cast Iron and $4800 for aluminum.

Paul

Hum, might have my blonde wife work the street corner for the alum. (just kidding babe)

[tboneheller]

Anybody used one of these BBM iron or aluminum blocks, yet?

[blykins]

I’ve used all kinds of their cast iron blocks. Aluminums are not available yet.

[eschaider]

If you are considering a BBM piece you will be pleasantly surprised by the quality of both the casting and the machining. These parts are very high quality. I am informed that the foundry is a specialized foundry used for high quality and difficult castings. They have done work for firms like Hyundai so the experience and skills inventories tend to fall on the impressive side of the scale.

I have recently seen their new Coyote block in the flesh and to say it is stunning is an understatement. These guys take the extra effort and time to do a first class job.


Ed

[Hoodabest]

Originally Posted by blykins

I’ve used all kinds of their cast iron blocks. Aluminums are not available yet.

So, are they really in need of JUST a finish hone? Or is there more to it?

[blykins]

I know guys that will pull an engine block out of a salvage yard, run a dingle berry hone through it, assemble, and run it. It will run but it won’t be right.

There are ZERO aftermarket blocks out there that don't need the full machine work treatment: bore and hone cylinders (hone only if they come rough within .005" or so of finished bore size), align hone mains, square the decks.

The BBM blocks come with a 4.245" rough bore size, so they just need the cylinders honed to finished size, but they need everything else.

Don't let anyone tell you that they are usable out of the box.

In addition, you need to grind on the china wall to make the distributor fit, and if you use Durabond FP-01 cam bearings, each bearing has to be installed carefully to make sure it doesn't block the adjoining lifter bore. If you use the front bearing out of the FP-01 set, then you have to clearance it to make the distributor fit.

The blocks also need pressure tested and all of the oil passages need to be eyeballed for drill throughs as well.

Not dogging BBM, but this is par for the course for any FE aftermarket block.

[eschaider]

Originally Posted by blykins

I know guys that will pull an engine block out of a salvage yard, run a dingle berry hone through it, assemble, and run it. It will run but it won’t be right.

There are ZERO aftermarket blocks out there that don't need the full machine work treatment: bore and hone cylinders (hone only if they come rough within .005" or so of finished bore size), align hone mains, square the decks.

The BBM blocks come with a 4.245" rough bore size, so they just need the cylinders honed to finished size, but they need everything else.

Don't let anyone tell you that they are usable out of the box.

In addition, you need to grind on the china wall to make the distributor fit, and if you use Durabond FP-01 cam bearings, each bearing has to be installed carefully to make sure it doesn't block the adjoining lifter bore. If you use the front bearing out of the FP-01 set, then you have to clearance it to make the distributor fit.

The blocks also need pressure tested and all of the oil passages need to be eyeballed for drill throughs as well.

Not dogging BBM, but this is par for the course for any FE aftermarket block.

Brent is absolutely right and while I didn't mean to imply the BBM pieces were ready for assembly right out of the box, I did mean to say that the quality of the casting and the machine work done on the casting you receive will be very good. To my knowledge and experience BBM will not provide you with poorly machined surfaces, for example, decks that were not flat and parallel to the crank bore.

While I don't know with certainty, I believe this level of finish machining is attributable to the type of shop used to machine the castings as received from the foundry. The BBM guys tend to fall into the Korean OEM production automotive machining facilities rather than aftermarket and the parts reflect a job that was CNC managed with a complete block program from the first cut.

That said, all builds whether new pieces like a BBM piece or refurbished OEM components need to have every component checked verified and massaged where necessary before final assembly.


Ed

[blykins]

The decks are not perfectly flat or parallel to the crank.

That type of accuracy can not be held by large volume rough machining processes. We do it with a BHJ fixture and it takes a considerable amount of time to set it up.