I used to inspect many blocks that came from Ed Hale. He used to do all our block work other than decking and line honing, that is what I did lol. He mainly just bored them and hot tanked them because we didn't have their machines. So I can't speak for all of the work, but as far as bores go he was OK, nothing perfect or outstanding, but definetely runable. Out of probably 40 blocks I had checked over during assembly or shipment I don't think I found one that was soo bad we had to send it back. Have sent back many cranks to Beans Crankshafts though. And when my block was bored at Total Performance, I was more than happy with the job they did, as far as bore alignment, main cap alignment, and sizing went. They were pretty darn on the money. I didn't have an accurate way of checking the deck at my house though so I'm not sure if it was good or not.
I think Rod's best bet is to buy some Measuring tools, mics, dialbore guages, and dial indicatiors on a magnetic base. Because you ALWAYS have to check over what the machine shop did.
