Main girdles

[arlancam509]

someone mentioned earlier, the bed plate. here are a few pictures i took of a honda. pretty stout stuff.

the iron main caps are cast into the aluminum.

What do you think that piece is worth if you have failure. Wow.

scrap aluminum cost per pound, i am assuming. haha.

[Leftcoaster]

Hi again Arlan - - engine model, capacity, and approximate year please?

[Ken_Parkman]

The thermal expansion coefficients are quite different, with aluminum being much higher, almost double. However, the temperature is quite low and so are the linear dimensions, so the actual delta in growth is also very small. No doubt their design procedure takes this into account for bearing clearance, crush, etc.

[PackardV8]

Which takes us around again. Some BBM builders switch to aluminum main caps and Honda casts iron main caps into their aluminum bed plate.

[arlancam509]

Hi again Arlan - - engine model, capacity, and approximate year please?

i am not 100% positive, but i think it is the K24 - looks like from ~2013. stamped on the side is "5A2"

2.4 liter

[Leftcoaster]

Thanks to all, now to visit the local import wreckers - -

[peejay]

Ahh yes. Almost like ol FE

Nothing at all like an FE!

This is a not uncommon way of building engines anymore. It's not just imports, the Northstar V8 had it, the Mopar 2.0 and the 2.4 had it, as well as some others.

There are no separate main caps. It is all one "ladder" that fastens around the perimeter as well as at the "main bolts". Mopars are fun because one of the bellhousing bolts you need to use with an engine stand is on the bedplate.

You could PROBABLY do something like this for any "American iron" (even though I deeply suspect that Cleveland started life in the southern hemisphere, nobody this side of the equator is crazy enough to try for 2 thousand from a Cleveland), make a bedplate that uses either the stock registers or preferably uses a new width register so that you know the block is starting from where you want it to be. Cheap? Probably not! And then you'd need to make an oil pan, although for something serious enough for this you might as well just dry sump it.

[Steve.k]

IMG_1694.JPG

. Yes not quite like FE. Im going This way.

[Steve.k]

Ahh yes. Almost like ol FE

Nothing at all like an FE!

This is a not uncommon way of building engines anymore. It's not just imports, the Northstar V8 had it, the Mopar 2.0 and the 2.4 had it, as well as some others.

There are no separate main caps. It is all one "ladder" that fastens around the perimeter as well as at the "main bolts". Mopars are fun because one of the bellhousing bolts you need to use with an engine stand is on the bedplate.

You could PROBABLY do something like this for any "American iron" (even though I deeply suspect that Cleveland started life in the southern hemisphere, nobody this side of the equator is crazy enough to try for 2 thousand from a Cleveland), make a bedplate that uses either the stock registers or preferably uses a new width register so that you know the block is starting from where you want it to be. Cheap? Probably not! And then you'd need to make an oil pan, although for something serious enough for this you might as well just dry sump it.

I beleive the 2000 + cleveland was built by Aussies.

[BBO Omega]

There are several versions of this offered for the Oldsmobile V8 SB or BB. Without tying into the pan rails I can’t see where any improvement is made other that limiting the rocking of the Main Caps. That said, I have a Tool Steel Halo layered on top of the Billet Steel Main Caps on my 468BBO for a tiny piece of mind.

[pdq67]

Please -- AGAIN!!!

"How do you reinforce a SBC's valley to keep it from splitting like an egg right through the cam tunnel and down through the mains??"

Like in say I want to make 1200 to 1500 hp with a 1st Gen. SBC block.. ----- Blow hell out of it here.....

And again, "The main's area seems to be fairly well covered."

Or is it as simple as just buying a Dart, "Pro", block cast out of Ductile Iron..

pdq67

[Bos's5.0]

girdle.jpg

VG350-1.gif

[cgarb]

I bought this part for my SBC, its cast out of aluminum and it ties both heads together so that the block wont flex...its called an intake manifold.

[peejay]

I bought this part for my SBC, its cast out of aluminum and it ties both heads together so that the block wont flex...its called an intake manifold.

Make sure to tighten it down reeeally tight on those bolts so it tries to open the block up like splitting a log

GM went to super low torque on the Vortecs, in the neighborhood of 12 ft-lb. Makes you wonder if they did that so the plastic gaskets would live, or if they went to plastic gaskets so they would stay sealed at 12 ft-lb (until they broke, anyway). This was towards the end of the SBC life and they were doing everything they could to get the most out of the engine, long after Ford gave up on the Windsor as being too noodly to be able to pass upcoming smog specs...

Hmm.

[pdq67]

I bought this part for my SBC, its cast out of aluminum and it ties both heads together so that the block wont flex...its called an intake manifold.

Then why doesn't the intake manifold keep SBC engines from cracking along the camshaft tunnel down through the mains under severe horsepower applications? The block cracks in two like an egg!! I want to say that I would be on barrowed time if I made more than about 750 hp before a 1st Gen. SBC block cracked into two pieces.

I'm thinking along the lines of 12 to 1500 hp here by blowing it!! I'm reading about all these LS- engines making this kind of hp so I would like to do the same thing with a 1st Gen. SBC engine. Using either one big or two smaller, matched, turbochargers here..

pdq67