Was tearing apart my 351 and on the front end of it under the lower intake I found this....

 

Yep! Casting point. Just went through this with a 302 out of a '65 mustang. We did not think it was suppose to be there and the budget allowed (sort of) for a new crate motor. Freight delivered the new 302 and it had the same hole. We might not have told the bank roller that the new block was the same as the old block. Lol

We called the engine builder and sure enough, that is a casting point where the casting is popped off with a hammer at the foundry.

 

Ohhh wow you do not know how relieved I am to hear that!!!!! I thought I bought something with a hole in the block! They should've made it a perfect circle haha it's a little confusing

 

We felt the same way. We were going to use a die grinder and round out the hole and were told not to by the builder. He said there was no risk of weakening or cracking. We took pictures of the old block and the new block and blew them up and could not detect any cracks around the jagged holes. Seems strange to me, but I'm not an engine builder.

 

Haha yeah how bout it! I'm not either and was freaking out a little

 

Not nearly as freaked out as I was when i realized that the new block had the same hole! I told my buddy to get the intake put on ASAP before his Dad realized that the old block was fine. Lol

We wound up with an H.O. block and allot better motor overall, but still...............

 

I see that you have a roller block. That is great! No worries about retrofitting a roller cam.

One thing you will want to check on that 351 roller block is whether or not there are hairline cracks above where the cam bearings go.

This is common on 351s that were poorly maintained (and have been overheated a few times), but yours looks very clean and well maintained, so hopefully that's not the case.

 

Thanks qdeezie you've been helping me a lot throughout this and I really appreciate it!