This may not belong here, so please feel free to move.

Went to my local parts store today because I wanted to see how much the guys would charge me to bead blast an intake. So I went out back to the machine shop and my friend said if I do it myself, no charge! Well I ain't scared, so I told him I would come back the following day to do it.
As I was talking to him, I noticed a few blocks sitting in a corner, and asked what was going on with them. He said most were customers, but he thought one had been hanging around for a while.
Turned out it had been there for almost 5 yrs! Customer just abandoned it, with a set of iron RECT PORT heads. I looked closer and it was a big block 4 bolt main block! So I asked how much $$$. He talked to his boss, and get this...for the heads, which are bare, but like new, and the block, he said is $75.00 fair? I said are you sure?, he said I'm a good customer, and they wanted it out of the shop anyway to make room. Needless to say I bought it!...who wouldn't!
And I thought it couldn't get any better...but it does, It turns out the casting number, (10051107) comes back as a 9.8" MARK IV BOWTIE BLOCK!
I just had to tell someone how my day went, as all my wife said, "that's nice". She don't get it, but I'm thinking you guys do! Thanks for letting me tell my story. Dave.

Kudos to you. Once in a while Lady Luck actually smiles at you! Now go get that block stuffed with goodies:D

WOW. thats like finding a hundred bux at the geisha joint.

AWESOME SCORE, DUDE !!!!!!
I wonder how far past 4.500 it will bore? Sonic check time! Figure out the biggest bore you can have with cylinders still .200 thick, then drop .060 from that and use that as your starting bore size.
Tell the wife it's kinda like if somebody offered her a Luis Vuitton dress for some ridiculously low price, like, say, $500
Now you can afford to buy some of the better internals for a 540 like that Bowtie block deserves! Use accessories in your analogy to your wife - since she scored such a great deal on the Luis Vuitton dress, of course it'll need the matching purse, don't worry about the $750 price tag on it. She knows what a shameful thing it would be to wear a designer dress out without the correct fashion accessories, just as you know what a shame it would be to stuff that block with junk.

Buy her a Prada purse and tell her what you have is like one of these.

She'll be whelmed - overly!

Good score, by the way.

great story! :hurray:

Jody

Buy her a Prada purse and tell her what you have is like one of these

:thumbsup: Absolutely!

Awesome score. It always pays to ask. That's how I scored a running small block that I'm putting in mine. For free!

Yes we certainly "get it" Congrats. The guy who has done some machine work for my dad has a 69 Z-28 engine block and 2 sets of 69 Camaro z-28 heads just sitting on the floor of his shop. Been there a while. I keep asking him if he wants to get rid of them. He says..theyve been there forever and i hope to do something with them. I have a feeling selling them to me for $75 isnt on of those "somethings".

WOW. thats like finding a hundred bux at the geisha joint.

Wouldn't that be more like 12,190 Yen ???

Good find Dave :thumbsup:
It always pays to stay friends with the guys at you favorite machine shop ;)
I take stock heads, spare blocks and other things I come across, or get left with me after a project, to them as often as possible to see if they can use it - or just turn it in to the scrap-guy for their "beer scrap" fund :beers:
They have done numerous favors for me from tanking parts to pressing bearings and stuff for no charge in their spare time. I'm usually not in a hurry for anything I take in to them and they have never charged me anywhere near the going rates for work on most things they've done.

Thinking back on all the performance engines made by the major manufactures over the years and the few muscle cars left with their original blocks & etc. gets you to wondering how many of those good parts are really left just floating around out there ???
I actually knew a guy in So.Ca. years ago that had an aluminum 427 in a motorhome :eek:
He got the engine from a buddy who pulled it out of a boat and he said something like 'he wanted to lighten the thing up a little while adding some power' when he replaced the original BB after it went out. He towed his ski boat to the river with many times and he was hard to keep up with going up the Cabazon grade ...
Always make me wonder now what happened to that thing and the look on some mechanic the first time he opened the engine cover to see that :D

Good on you! I always like these stories, gives me hope of finding some myself!

Good on you! I always like these stories, gives me hope of finding some myself!

This from the guy who recently hit the Pontiac lottery. Congratulations to all. Mike.:yes: :beers: :beers:

congrats ..always good to keep your eyes open

I brought my 427 crank in to get turned and it was shot and already .030 under so the guy says well I have a nice forged 427 crank here .010 under that I guess I can sell as the guy who left it never came back. I ask "how long has it been here" he says "oh about 10 years" so he checked it all out and cleaned it up and sold it to me for $200

The more I think about the deal I got, the more I felt like I stole it! So today I went back to the shop and brought the guys a couple of large pizzas...you would have thought I gave them a million dollars! So now were all happy.

$75, and 2 large pizzas for a BBC Bowtie Block, and a set of Rect Port heads, I won't top that any time soon!

Thanks too for all the sugestions as what to do with the stuff, but I have a 565" motor in the car now, but at that price, I couldn't go wrong! Maybe another project down the road, or give someone a heck of a deal, but boy, I could have saved big time if this was around at the time I did my set-up! But isn't that how the engine gods work?, When ya' need it....it ain't there, if you don't need it, your tripping on it. It's funny because I was looking for this same block at the time I wanted to do my motor, but could not find one. What's nice also, is the guy's at the shop said they would keep me informed on things that have been left at the shop and need to be "disposed" of.

Nice find! That is way cool for sure. Sometimes the dragon really does win! Done right, that could be a funny car in the making.

As for all you guys so up on your ladies fashions ... Just a little TMI there fella's :eek: Ahhh ... So how about those Yankees now ... :D

:beers:

The more I think about the deal I got, the more I felt like I stole it. So today I went back to the shop and brought the guys a couple of large pizzas...you would have thought I gave them a million dollars! So now were all happy.
ppl who do /think like that are not lucky....the effort has its returns and respect.
Was it luck that you saw them, or a previous attitude that they respect and trust u into the machine shop where others are never allowed?
As my old man always said when I was a kid, "courtesy costs nothing, but goes a long way"

Dave:thumbsup: I'll take two at that price!!:hurray:
---Bill.