[Jeff H]

Yikes! Looks like it was rotting out from the inside but there might have been something like a coolant leak into that cylinder that caused it to hydrolock and blow out the cylinder wall? I saw someone else do that to a small block this summer, but that was a 900+ hp race motor so you can't compare what happened or why it happened. Time for a new motor! I say stick with a 427 and make it look like a 396.