I guess all through time alot of people did not take good care of their vehicles,I am fighting the same negative remarks with a Y block Ford I plan to build for one of my cars and lack of care was usually the culprit for their problems. I have been around Y blocks alot more then I have with the 216s so I am less leary of them.
most of the bad things that have been said are pretty much unsubstantiated, and disbelief that a set up like this will actually work, but it does, and pretty well too. I converted mine to full pressure mostly as an exercise. I drove mine since 1984, the engine was rebuilt in 1979, and I just took it out last year, to put in the full flow version. It has a long way to go to out last the old one yet. Yes people lose them, but a lot of that has to do with maintenance (or more accurately lack of maintenance) running them out of water, etc. people have complained about the piece of junk, then it comes out that they have been running with no temp gauge or an oil pressure gauge or some nonsense like that. There is a lot of false perception about these engines. At least that is my take on it.
