Reply to "Bud Moore Block?"

Dan,

I've been guilty of this error myself for my entire life, until recently corrected by an Australian friend. I always assumed the Geelong Foundry was located in Geelong Australia, just like the Cleveland Foundry was located in Cleveland! WRONG!

The Geelong Foundry is located in Norlane, Victoria, Australia. It did not get it's name from the city in which it is located.

Also, 20 or so years ago I built a motor for a client with a XE block he had acquired. That motor had siamesed cylinders, I am almost certain, I don't think I would have been mistaken about that. The block was also substantially heavier than the production block, more than "just" 20 pounds difference. In my younger days I could heft a production Cleveland block, but not this one, I tried lifting it & it felt like it was bolted to the floor.

You have owned & been around more of these blocks than I own underwear (lol..), and your conclusion is that none of these blocks were siamesed, and they weigh only 20 pounds more than the production block. I respect your opinion tremendously. It makes sense to me as well that the blocks were all cast identical.

For years I went through life assuming all XE blocks were like the one I had worked on, then seeing posts by you & others on the 'net, I began to doubt myself, wondering, how in the hell I had been so mistaken. About 6 months ago I found my answer.

The block I worked on definitely had an XE number cast into it, but I did not have the rest of the numbers memorized (i.e. 192540) and I did not look it up & verify the numbers cast into the block were the NASCAR block numbers. It said XE, I knew NASCAR blocks were XE blocks, that is as far as I went with it back then, I assumd I was working on a NASCAR block. I did not know other XE blocks & SK blocks even existed, I had never heard of them.

Last fall I ran across a picture on the 'net of an XE block with the casting number XE182540. So, there are other XE blocks floating around out there beside the NASCAR block.

So, in my opinion, when you find somebody who swears they have had a Cleveland block with siamesed bores or some other odd feature not found on a NASCAR block, I believe the explanation is that it WAS NOT a NASCAR block, but it was an XE block. Make sense? I'm sure that explains my situation.

I also wanted to thank you for adding to the topic with your abundant knoweldge. Sincerely, thanks.

Finally, for everyone else, here's a couple of Australian block pics for you, to illustrate some of the features Dan mentioned.

Your friend on the DTBB, George