hard block

[William Cunningham <slypigs@domain.elided>]

Today I was visiting with the machinist that's doing the long block on
my F-134 when he leads me over to another block he is working on..."this
is the second hardest %$&^* block I have ever worked on, I can bore all
8 holes on a ford or chevy in the time it takes to do one  IH
cylinder!". So I asked "because of the high Nickel content?"... he
looked at me in amazement and said "YES, exactly".
From that point on he treated me as a peer rather than just a valued
customer.
Never mind the fact that what I know about IH blocks was gained from an
internet digest not a degree in metallurgy and about all I know about
nickel is that it don't buy what it did when I was a kid ;-) and it's
way up on the MO scale of hardness. So what's the point? I don't know
but it felt good at the time.
Thanks folks!

Willy
77 SS II
P.S. The hardest block he had ever worked on was made of chrome-moly and
is in a Hudson Teraplane pickup, the only one known to be left in
existence.