Hello, Was hoping to get a little information or help regarding a block I recently acquired. What I have I believe to be is a GM or an M&A Casting aluminum block. The block itself is an as cast virgin block that has never been machined. The block has no identifiers other than a raised Turbo 6 logo. The block appears to have provisions for 6 bolt mains two of which cross bolt. The block itself is very beefy in comparison to a iron block and the valley has substantial reinforcement and material. I would like any info anyone has on these blocks especially any help locating someone who might have machined these or worked on these in the past or who may be able to machine these now. Thanks. -A
There were reportedly a few aluminum stage 2 blocks cast. Ive seen pisc oof one but never saw one that was completed and actually ran. Post pics.
There were never any V-6 alum blocks made by M&A. Buick Motorsports did make very few alum stage 2 blocks, and I have only seen one of them. From the reports I heard in the early years, these did not hold up as well as the iron version. The TA alum block is based upon the BMS stage II block, but has many improvements in strength and oiling passages. It also uses very high quality liners which were not available in the 1980's.
I've seen one that John DaGata had at Bowling Green Customs (virgin block). He also mentioned that Mike @ Full Throttle had one as well. I don't think it's a GM block. I heard that they were only good for around 800 hp. Mike will probably shed some light on this subject.
Look anything like my 2? One with iron sleeves, one with aluminum cylinders specially coated. For a bit there, I thought you might have gotten ahold of one of my old Indy blocks, but then you mentioned cross bolting, and mine weren't. These were designed and cast by M&A for Brayton Engineering (Indy racer Scott Brayton). Probably good for upwards of 700Hp, but not much above that.
I have been hearing the same thing, Bobby is the man for aluminum and iron stage 2 motors second to none!
As you can see from the photos the base machining has not been done including general clean-up of the casting plugs. Dave, this might be the an old indy block, I was unsure of the cross bolting it was just speculation by looking at the pan rails. One difference right from the beginning is the placement of the turbo 6 logo being on top of the block. I'm just trying to figure out if this is worth messing with for my application. I may have access to another one of these but depending on the costs of machining and R&D it might just be good trading stock. Were are using these in a Bonneville salt flat car, so light weight blocks are really not the issue its just making them live. This will be my third attempt at trying to make a 4.1 live, so far the last to blocks have let go on the dyno just due to giving them more than they were designed for. Any guidance is well appreciated. -A
Interesting block. It's obviously WAY different in almost every way than mine. There are only a few similarities. Main similarity is the main oil gallery running down the center of the valley. Machining costs to get that up and running would be astrinomical ! Looking at mine you'd think they were near ready to go, but they actually still needed a LOT of work!! One example in particular, notice all the brass screws on the main oil gallery? Care to guess why I had to do that? Also notice the two bumps on the main gallery facing us. Those need to be machined for fittings that would eventually go to the heads to feed the rocker sprayers.
Dave, you wouldn't by chance be the guy another Bonneville racer from Washington was dealing with a couple months ago are you?
I would save the time and money and have RPE build you a TA aluminum motor. I am sure Bobby can make one live past the dyno. Gomes and Fiscus have the baddest Stage motors on the planet built by RPE.
