Same principle, just more holes to plug. 

On factory FE blocks, you watch close for the oil passages going from the cam to the mains and from the cam to the decks.  On aftermarket blocks, you check everything, including the side main galleys. 

For water, anything is game on a factory block.  On aftermarket stuff, I've found most issues are in the lifter bores.

I use my manual hydrostatic pump and soapy water to pressure test both coolant and  oil passages. Works great and there's no doubt when and where a leak may be.

Quote from: blykins on January 05, 2018, 08:02:08 AM

On factory FE blocks, you watch close for the oil passages going from the cam to the mains and from the cam to the decks.  On aftermarket blocks, you check everything, including the side main galleys. 

On my SOG block, Blair found two pin-holes in the lifter valley, along the inner cylinder wall area. Probably from vent areas on the casting process, but they were not visible to the naked eye. He showed me with air pressure and spraying the area with a soapy solution. I'm glad it was checked, because I probably wouldn't have done that and that would have been a quick disaster. Brent has it right...ALWAYS check.

Quote from: ACHiPo on December 04, 2017, 02:24:37 PM

At the risk of asking a stupid question, how do flat hydraulic lifters compare to solid flat tappets or hydraulic roller lifters?  I originally wanted hydraulic roller lifters (seems to be the popular thing to do) in a mild 482 FE side-oiler (BBM block), but my engine builder claims to have had a lot of issues with hydraulic rollers in FEs so he put in hydraulic flat tappets.

Here's my take.  In general hydraulic flat tappet cams are less "aggressive" than solid flat tappets and hydraulic rollers.  By aggressive I mean the steepness of the lobe, how fast the cam moves the pushrod up as the cam lobe turns.  I have to say in general because there are all sorts of cam grinds in each type of lifter.  There are some pretty aggressive hydraulic flat tappet grinds and there are some very mild solid lifter and hydraulic roller cam grinds. 

I don't know what issues your engine builder had with hydraulic rollers, but they're used all the time.  Maybe he had valve control problems at higher rpm?  If you're under 6000 rpm it doesn't seem to be a problem.

My opinion is that on a big engine like a 482 you're probably going to have a cam with a good amount of duration, even if it is a fairly mild build, just because of the cubic inches.  In that case I would think a hydraulic roller could make some significant gains over a hydraulic flat tappet.  The greater duration gives the roller cam more time to blast by the flat tappet and create more area under the curve.   It can hold the valve open further for longer, even if the 0.50" duration is similar.

JMO,

paulie