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Side Note: We are no longer accepting PayPal donations. They have changed their terms of service and stated they would fine PayPal users for spreading "misinformation" and "hate, violence, racial or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory". PayPal did not provide definitions for some of these vague terms. Woke corporate policies regarding "misinformation" could result in an automatic fine of $2,500 which would have been removed directly from the customer’s PayPal account. PayPal did backdown from some of their policies but quietly implemented portions of them in later terms of service. A financial institute has no right to monitor social media accounts or speech. This is unacceptable and I'll no longer do business with PayPal.

Quote
Jake Morgan
To me this is one of the most interesting gray areas in the sport. Here’s the scenario for those who don’t know: The Silver Bullet runs a 3208 Cat V-8 block. The OEM block is 100% legal to use as it came in (later) Oliver 2255's as well as a White 2-180's which are both Two-Wheel drive type tractors. Like all engine blocks there are some issues with reliability in certain areas. At some point (probably 15-20 years ago) Cat cast special blocks for the Bullet team. I personally never saw the blocks but I heard they were quite different from the standard production blocks. I also don’t think they were all identical to each other either, but I can’t remember all the details that I was told.

To call them a billet block wouldn’t be true because they were indeed cast, but to call them a recast block would also be misleading. To me a recast block is one that is a copy of a production block but has been cast by a third party. Whether that third party is Hypermax or D&R or Joe’s Foundry doesn’t matter one bit, it’s still third party (yes, Hypermax is third party even though the first Gen blocks had an OEM number). Here’s the part that’s interesting to me, these Cat blocks were cast by Cat in Illinois. They were not cast by a third party but directly by the OEM for that engine. Sure the blocks were different, sure they may have even been cast out of a different material, but it was still all done at the discretion of the OEM. The truth is that the OEM has the right to change those specs for whatever reason they see fit. They can, and do, change the formulation/recipe of the casting from time to time without altering the part number. They also make casting changes from time to time without changing the part number. That is completely at the discretion of the OEM. The OEM made them, approved them, and either sold them or donated them to the Bullet team.

To me it still qualifies as an OEM block. Yes, it’s different, yes, it might not be available to others… (who knows maybe it is if you talk to the right person), that’s not the point. The point is that it still fits the OEM rule.

It was an incredibly smart move by the OEM and it’s definitely a benefit to the Bullet team. Personally I’d say it was a mutually beneficial arrangement that skirted the fringes of the rules but didn’t break them. Was it within the “spirit of the rules”? No, but they simply exploited a hole in the rules. They aren’t the first to find a hole and they won’t be the last.