When this was Greg's engine he drove his Spectra from Site Six to Laughlin then back and then to Havasu Landing (over 100 miles), the mounts got loose and one of the loose bolts did the damage. It is a Merlin II block and when this happened he had different plates on it that only had 2 mounting bolts per side. His fix was to change out the plates to 4 mounting bolts per side utilizing the water ports. Everyone that I have talked to seems to think that running it with it's current set-up (4 mounting bolts per side) is strong enough and I should not have any problems.

I am just a little different when it comes to doing things and if the block can be welded without creating other problems then that's what I want to do. However, Barry has brought up some good points that welding the block may create other problems.