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Short Block Builder Kits with Customer Supplied Pontiac Block (Ready to Assemble)
Pontiac V8 Short Block Builder Kits with Customer Supplied Pontiac Block (Ready to Assemble)
Your Block, Our Machine Work — Short Block Builder Kits with Customer Supplied Pontiac Block (Ready to Assemble) for Pontiac V8s
If you already own the block, this is the program for it. A Short Block Builder Kit with a customer supplied block sends your own 389, 400 or 455 core to Butler, comes back fully machined with a matched rotating assembly, and gets assembled by you or your shop. It keeps a numbers-correct block in the car and still gives you modern clearances.
Butler arranges the inbound freight and paperwork, photographs the block as received and inspects it before any money goes into parts. The kit then includes a cast or forged crank, internally balanced assembly, forged pistons, Total Seal file-fit rings, H-beam rods and performance bearings.
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1. Which Combinations Butler Builds This Way
The customer-core kits cover the three blocks people most often already have sitting in the shop, in the strokes that suit each one.
| 389 block | 3.750" stroke at 395-400 cu. in., or 4.250" stroke at 448-454 cu. in. |
| 400 block | 3.750" stroke at 406-412 cu. in., or 4.250" stroke at 460-467 cu. in. |
| 455 block | 4.210" stroke at 462-469 cu. in., or 4.250" stroke at 467-474 cu. in. |
2. What Happens to Your Block
The block goes through the same process as a Butler-supplied core, and comes back ready to assemble rather than ready to machine.
| Inspection | cleaned, magnafluxed and sonic tested, then completely deburred. |
| Machining | bored and honed with a torque plate, line honed with ARP main studs, deck squared. |
| Finishing | cam bearings and brass freeze plugs installed, so the block arrives ready to assemble, on a reusable engine cradle. |
3. The Bore Conversation, and Getting the Block to Us
This is the part that separates a customer-core kit from buying a finished short block, and it is worth understanding before you ship anything.
| Most blocks go .030" over | a 4.120" bore is usually usable at 4.150". Butler contacts you to confirm the bore size before machine work starts. |
| If it does not clean up | there are two options, go to the next larger bore that will clean up, or re-sleeve the worn, pitted or cracked cylinders. Either one is a conversation, not a surprise. |
| Some of the cost is spent either way | inbound freight, inspection, cleaning and magnafluxing are non-refundable, because that work is done before anyone knows whether the core is usable. Return shipping on an unusable block is not included. |
| Strip it | Butler will tell you how to prep a bare block before shipping. Send a block, not a partial engine. |
| Freight is handled for you | Butler's shipping department sets up the inbound leg and provides the documents and scheduling. |
| It ships unassembled | these are builder kits. You or your machinist puts it together, and Butler is available for clearance and tech questions while you do. |
Have your cam, head and compression target settled before the block ships. The pistons get ordered off that information, and it is the one thing Butler cannot read off your core.
Not sure what your Pontiac needs?
Call our tech team at 866-762-7527. Tell us your engine, heads, car, and power goal, and we will put the parts together as one combination that works.