Originally posted by Streets

Oldsmobile and Pontiac blocks aren't made of mush, rather, they are made of high quality cast iron with plenty of nickel to make it strong. Olds and Poncho engines were cast with extremely high nickel content until mid 1977 where by Chevy used very little nickel in any of their blocks. You can see where the nickel content is if you look at the valve pockets of an olds or Pontiac head where they have machined it and it is virtually smooth, like it was "polished" at the factory...
Good Oldsmobile, Good! Actually though, im not surprised. Chevrolet was designed to be a more mass production car. Pontiac and Oldsmobile were a bit more pricey, and i dont know about anyone else, but if the block cracked in my expensive car, I would be just a "little" angry. However, Why did all of the auto manufacturers stop using high nickel? It seems to me as HP has gone up, it would make more sense to re-use the high nickel design of the older blocks. Can anyone tell me, or should i just assume that the EPA had something to do with this?