Which aftermarket block is better Merlin or Dart?

Sorry, I have not tried the Dart block yet.

dart big m required less deburring but they are both stout pieces have used them both with no trouble

Thanks for the input. I bought a merlin tall deck and I was at the engine builder Friday and we lifted the 2 motors into the stands and the Merlin was quite a bit heavier than the Bow Tie block. He machined the block and was very impressed with the quality. He also said it was much harder to cut. So far I'm impressed.

Um Mark,,,, I thought we were just freshening !!!????

The DART Big M blocks are the best at the moment.

I run a merlin raised cam 10.2 pro block and it is one of the best
pieces i've seen so far.

Thanks Guys I bought the Merlin and It's nice.

Dennis,
Well we ran into a problem with 1 block. The last builder did not deck the block and line bore it and when we did we were going to have to go 60 over on an already 4.500 bore So we opted for a new block since the other block only needed to go 30 over.
They are supposed to be done today and we are going to run them Saturday morning.
Did you get your motor in yet?

Mark

Sorry to hear about that. Like I said feel free to ask if you need a ahnd getting them back in.

Yep,,, motor is in, I got pretty lucky, the guy I bought it from left the 502 complete, injection all the way to the bell housing !!!!showing about a 6 mph gain, ( 74 on the speedo )not bad seeing it is a used motor. I am still going to yank it at the end of this season to refresh ( you have me scared of that term now !! )
and maybe some head massaging and a cam upgrade,,, see what we can squeeze out of it and still keep it reliable.

What engine builders are you guys using in the Chicago area?