Indy Bare Block Assistance

[FlagCraig]

I am looking for a 440 block and have done the Craigslist look for a few months now. I am in no hurry so I can look at different options. One of them is the bare stock blocks from Indy Heads that are fully machined and blue printed. The advantage here is piece of mind knowing the block should be like new. The price would be about $1,800.00 total to my door.
To me the additional money for piece of mind is worth it.
However, I am also in the E body forum and many of those guys rip apart Indy for their customer service and won't do business with them. Customer service has always been very important to me but also is the quality of product. Anybody here have thoughts on this or dealings with Indy either positive or negative regarding blocks.
Thanks.

 

[PurpleBeeper]

That's a lot of money for a block.....unless you have an 8-71 blower, keep looking

 

[mmissile]

PM sent.

 

[lewtot184]

i wouldn't do $1800 for a stock block, and wouldn't trust their machine work.

 

[super-bee_ski]

Listen to lewtot184

 

[moper]

$1800 for a fully machined block isn't bad. Get a core block, was it, magnaflux it, align hone it, bore it, hone it with torque plates, and square deck it. That's what a core block, good work, and shipping costs. But - Indy is incapable of doing good work. I would NOT recommend them for this purchase. You can get a "block in a bag" from other places. Look up Bob George Racing and see if they will do it (in Ohio).

 

[64 Post]

For that kind of money I also expect the lifter bores to bushed/corrected, but not at Indy.

 

[moper]

Lifter bushings are another $400-500. Nevermind fitting main studs or better caps or other oil system mods that a higher horsepower build might need. To race prep a stock block, well, to locate a good one, clean it, mag it, test it, then do a full race prep on it will run closer to $2500. That $1800 is a solid foundation for a power level around 500. It gets less solid as the power goes up - do you have to spend more to get the service life.

 

[64 Post]

When Chenoweth Speed & Machine was still in business, I got their block in a bag for $1600. It included all the std machine work, main studs, bushed lifters, bottom of the bore clearances for stroker crank, hemi oiling mods, holes chased, deburred, etc, etc. Point is, it was all CNC'd and that's what made it cost effective. If I had to use a shop that did all that **** by hand/manual set up it might well be $2500, and I'd be looking for another shop.

 

[lewtot184]

i went to the indy website and found a stock block $1300. it's bored, squared, thermo-cleaned, align honed, cam bearings, pressure checked and arp main bolts, plus a $250 core charge. i had some work done last october (this is block work costs, i furnished the block) , cam bearings and install, freeze plugs, bore, check align bore, deck and square block, bore and hone with plate, clean block, and magnaflux; $500.

 

[moper]

Too bad Chenowith moved on. He had some great product and was fairly inexpensive for it. I pay more. The work is done on a Rottler CNC mill and I'm in the most expensive states in the union. As they say - speed costs money son...

 

[lewtot184]

Too bad Chenowith moved on. He had some great product and was fairly inexpensive for it. I pay more. The work is done on a Rottler CNC mill and I'm in the most expensive states in the union. As they say - speed costs money son...

i've always wondered how much of the cost of edelbrock heads and intakes were california taxes.

 

[multipleBs]

If you do go with Indy you need to re-check all of their machine work. Stuff goes out the door not in ready to run condition. They are pricey and for that money many assume they are getting the best. All I can say is NOT SO! Bought a set of cylinder heads from them, the guide clearances were set up so tight that a couple of valves stuck once everything was hot. A couple of bent valves
and push rods were the result. From that point on I checked every dimension during reassembly. No more problems. It seems it hard to buy good workmanship, many in other parts of this forum seem to be having big problems getting rear ends rebuilt properly, it's labor intensive and many shops just don't take the time to do it right. I don't have direct experience with Indy blocks but if I was going to use one I would not trust it until every machined dimension was rechecked before assembly. In this case high price does not mean high quality.

 

[snakeoil24]

I would buy a world castings block. All machine work is well done. Happy customers!