71coupe

How can these aftermarket and factory aluminum bare blocks be worth 4k to 5k!
It's not like aluminum is some exotic metal. I can understand they probably need to use a different mold than their iron counterparts, & there is a little labor pressing in the sleeves, but geez.
Am I missing something here :confused:

metal tech

1st thing is limited market demand. Most/all Sprint cars can use Al blocks due to the rules. Lots of different sanctioning bodies have rules to limit expenditures to help the average guy compete. Iron is cheap and durable so unless you kick the rods out, your block could last a long time. I'm not sure what blocks your looking at but for $4K, you can get a Dart SBC. A new Merlin Lite BBC is $5200, yet a GM ZL-1 is $5800 and you can't take the block to 4.625 and is 9.8 deck only. Then there is the block stability when pushing very high HP. Iron maintains it's shape rather than moving slightly like Al, this promotes better ring seal. You can get solid Al blocks but that's no good for street use. Hope this helps.

Al

CFI-EFI

Production quanities, for one.

71coupe

Are the raw materials that much more than iron?

Goody

I wonder how many aluminum cans it'll take to make one? :confused:

CorvetteZ51Racer

The major issue is the low production run against the cost of the casting. The actual casting molds are not the same between the iron and aluminum blocks due to the relative strengths of the materials and the need to further reinforce the aluminum block. If they were able to sell the blocks in similar numbers as the irons, the price would only be slightly more due to the cost of the aluminum.

74vetteman

You can probably buy a complete LS1 aluminum engine for 5k.

Corey_68

Because they can.

Sad but true. :cry

CorvetteZ51Racer

Right, but since it's a mass production engine, the production costs are diffused much more rapidly and over a large number of parts.