For the Stock Block guys.
My dad and I were doing some sonic checking of a few blocks in the shop. We are looking at building a stroker assembly for one of the 59's we have, this will be a street car. We have a few 59 blocks and decided to tear a couple apart. One was set up for a blower, bored 4.190", that's .130" over bore, the other was .030" 4.180" over. We sonic checked the blocks and compared it to a factory 1971 455 H.O. block we are freshening for a customer. The 455 H.O. block was bored +.030, the cylinder walls showed the thinest spot at around .120" wall thickness. The thinest spot on the .130" over bore 59 block was still .145" thick. We compared the thickness of one of the other 59 blocks and the castings wall were consistent to the large bore block.
It's a shame the factory thinned out the blocks as the years went on. Just image how many stroker sleeper GTO's could have been out racing if the factory would have standardized 3" mains and maintained all of the block casting that could be effectively bored out to 4.210" with a 4.000" crank.
Calvin Hill
Hill Performance
708-250-7420
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