Main cap girdles re-discussed

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crackedback said:
You ask that question? Really? What girdles are readily available for SBM? The type that tie the studs together. Which is also consistent with the OP's question. Just like always around here, the commentary veers away from the OP's initial into variants of support for inline 6's and ford stuff. Outstanding. I mentioned nothing but SB mopar stuff because that is the OP's question.

Just keep grabbing the stick in that bucket of ****. Girdles are garbage for a SBM.. Carry on.
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Well I figured you may work on some HP stuff and you may have seen something a little more exotic than the usual ones floating around.
Guess I was wrong.. :rolleyes:
 
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I think it's natural that the discussion would naturally turn from "do the available products work on a SBM?" To "why, or why not?"
And then "what has been shown to work best in other applications? and would the same idea work on a SBM?"

This is the nature of bench racing.

It might not be cost effective to make or test a comparable piece that isn't commercially available, but talking about it is freeeee :lol:
 
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frosty_the_punk said:
I think it's natural that the discussion would naturally turn from "do the available products work on a SBM?" To "why, or why not?"
And then "what has been shown to work best in other applications? and would the same idea work on a SBM?"

This is the nature of bench racing.

It might not be cost effective to make or test a comparable piece that isn't commercially available, but talking about it is freeeee :lol:
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Discussion? Here?...... Oh you silly thing!!!

 
Oldmanmopar said:
A stiff front and mid plate added to mount the engine securely to the chassis. Using the chassis to help eliminate block flex is the best on a LA block. Mount ears on these blocks create stress. Did you ever wonder why 340-360 blocks have a narrower mount on the left side?

Watch a sprint car come off a turn. If you would use mount ears on a mopar sprint car the block it would destroy itself. Many race blocks don't have mount ears. Using both front plates and mid plates help eliminate flex. Most high torque cars use the chassis to stiffen the block.

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I agree with several points here but Iin s lot of racing applications, more so in road racing and high end sports cars, the block is a stressed member of the frame. It's the opposite of what you're arguing.

That said I do agree with this on the typical drag engine.

Also....damn that's a badass setup!
 
So, IF I were going to design a girdle, here's how I'd do it.

I'd take the set of main caps, cut from something very high tensile. It would need to be a heat treatable material. I would then design a corresponding girdle (or girdle pieces) out of very thick plate cut from the same material.

Then I would have it professionally welded together on a proper fixture. This thickness of material would require well controlled pre and post heating practices. But in the end you would have all caps and the girdle tied together.

This whole thing would have to be heat treated most likely. Then it would have to be machined to final form.

It would all be quite expensive. But cool. It would probably add a fair bit of rigidity to the system.
 
Mean416 said:
So, IF I were going to design a girdle, here's how I'd do it.

I'd take the set of main caps, cut from something very high tensile. It would need to be a heat treatable material. I would then design a corresponding girdle (or girdle pieces) out of very thick plate cut from the same material.

Then I would have it professionally welded together on a proper fixture. This thickness of material would require well controlled pre and post heating practices. But in the end you would have all caps and the girdle tied together.

This whole thing would have to be heat treated most likely. Then it would have to be machined to final form.

It would all be quite expensive. But cool. It would probably add a fair bit of rigidity to the system.
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Or you could save a bundle of money and time and buy a Ritter block or a used R3 block.
 
I would love it if a few of our members would switch brands, and websites. Some guys contribute nothing but grief
 
Bakerlite said:
Or you could run a brand X engine.
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So during my morning shower I thought about this a little more. Some of you guys act like chevies and fords have zero issues. Well if you would get to the tracks more often you would found out exactly how it is. I’m not talking about a few of our 11 second Mopars that use hose clamps on their transmission lines still and are know to cause a three hours cleanup twice a year but I’m talking 4-5 and 6 second 1/8 mile cars. And at keystone we have a lot of them. I honestly can’t think of one major engine failure last year but boy my Chevy friends sure put on a show. They broke and broke often and I’m not talking Speedmaster and Edelbrock parts they broke good parts, expensive parts. It’s gotten to a point where APD a carb company stepped up and started offering rocker arms became they can’t last the season with the expensive ones out there. So get off the couch and open your damn eyes, please.

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pittsburghracer said:
So during my morning shower I thought about this a little more. Some of you guys act like chevies and fords have zero issues. Well if you would get to the tracks more often you would found out exactly how it is. I’m not talking about a few of our 11 second Mopars that use hose clamps on their transmission lines still and are know to cause a three hours cleanup twice a year but I’m talking 4-5 and 6 second 1/8 mile cars. And at keystone we have a lot of them. I honestly can’t think of one major engine failure last year but boy my Chevy friends sure put on a show. They broke and broke often and I’m not talking Speedmaster and Edelbrock parts they broke good parts, expensive parts. It’s gotten to a point where APD a carb company stepped up and started offering rocker arms became they can’t last the season with the expensive ones out there. So get off the couch and open your damn eyes, please.

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I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said that the GM **** isn’t any better than the Chrysler stuff and when you build like for like engines the cost of the Chrysler is marginally higher.

If you want to compare block pricing the Ritter block is within a few hundred bucks of the equivalent Dart block.

In all my years of engine building there has never, ever been a block of any brand for any manufacturer that doesn’t need a ton of machine work.

Somehow the Chrysler guys think the Chevy guys order a block and it drops out of the sky like pink mashed potato’s all machined up and ready to go.

Nothing could be further from the truth.
 
Cool.... once I get to a point in life where I have a legit need for something like that then I'd definitely go for it. Right now I'd be content with a solid 10 second car and I don't really think it's needed at that point. At least not based off of what I've seen here.
 
Mean416 said:
Cool.... once I get to a point in life where I have a legit need for something like that then I'd definitely go for it. Right now I'd be content with a solid 10 second car and I don't really think it's needed at that point. At least not based off of what I've seen here.
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One of the cool things he does is the min cap registers aren’t just outside the center main bolts like an OE block, or the X and the R blocks I’ve seen.

On his 4 bolt caps the register is on the outside edge of the cap.

That means if you have to cut the cap to fix the main bores you don’t have to deal with the step.
 
pittsburghracer said:
And they aren’t cookie cutter blocks either. Aluminum or steel, 48 or 59 degree blocks, and lots of other choices
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Is Kent's contact info the same as it was in 2017. you posted it over at Mopart's as I remember.
 
Rat Bastid said:
One of the cool things he does is the min cap registers aren’t just outside the center main bolts like an OE block, or the X and the R blocks I’ve seen.

On his 4 bolt caps the register is on the outside edge of the cap.

That means if you have to cut the cap to fix the main bores you don’t have to deal with the step.
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I wonder if he offers girdles. Lol
 
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