[turbo69bird]

Originally Posted by Joe's Garage

Maybe in some corner of the universe a collector would rather shell out big bucks for a 'WW' block with the wrong serial number on it, but we haven't run into many that think that way.

Instead, we've found (over the past 40 years in Pontiac-land), that the most acceptable replacement for a missing original engine block is a verifiable Service Replacement block.

I've never had anyone question a Service Replacement block further than "Why is there a SR block?"

The explanation is direct and simple:
1) The engine got killed.
2) The car got a new SR block.
3) Life went on.

That's probably why a SR block will command just about the same money as a real RAIV block that is not correct for the car.

That's our experience, but we've only sold around two dozen different SR blocks for various applications over the years with ZERO issues.

389, std 400 RAI, RAII, RAIII, RAIV, 455, 455HO & SD455.

I might have to take the time to make a list......

I can say with certainty sometimes a SR block did end up in these cars. These short blocks didn’t last long as race engines.

If you had a car like mine that had the dealer swap in a RAII block that was already balanced and blueprinted for the race season, then drop in a SR block at the end of a season what would you put in the car? A WH block that never saw any time in the car at all since day 1 ?

Let me clarify( stephens RAII short block survived because they didn’t use the stock rods but the mystery rod found in Mc carthys book) I only know this because I still have the rods. Regular guys didn’t have those upgrades for an option. Stephens had whatever they needed.