torque plate

It seems that machinists with a 460 torque plate is about as rare as hens teeth. How important is bore/hone with a torque plate on a block that was filled to the bottom of the water pump holes? (1/8"rings) The heads were on the block when the fill was drying.

IMO, a torque plate won't effect a filled block's (the level you mention) lower 1/2 of the cylinder as much as an unfilled block. Also IMO the cylinder's finish could be effected above the filled area where the rings dwell for longer periods of time. With that said, tops and bottoms of most cylinder's usually are more stable than the centers of the cylinder during the honing process considering temperatures are controlled. Of course if your block has been filled, the cylinders will need attention. I have experienced incorporating torque plates during the fill process. IMO this is a bonus. It is best to manipulate the block's integrity as an assembled part, not a separate piece.

Sorry about the paragraph,
Dave.

Story short. Use a torque plate.

dtimmer wrote:Story short. Use a torque plate.

I've read quite a few times that using one is un-necessary on a BBF.

Chevy guys will tell you all sorts of crap to try and mess up your engine.

A machine shop and or engine builder that's good with FORDS, can make chevies work miracles, machine shops, engine builders that excel at chevies, can fuck up a ford in a heart beat.

Beast wrote:

dtimmer wrote:Story short. Use a torque plate.

I've read quite a few times that using one is un-necessary on a BBF.

It's not required in some peoples opinion, but it sure doesn't hurt to use one.

I hear they are only good for Chevy's since most machine shops don't have any for BBF's since they don't do many.  

supervel45 wrote:I hear they are only good for Chevy's since most machine shops don't have any for BBF's since they don't do many.  

Chevys are different, the head bolts are smaller and more of them, the mounting points are shallow and not blind like a BBF. They are known to warp and distort the cylinders a lot worse than the BBF counterpart.

I was just kidding around. BBF's are tougher for sure than BBC's but if you are building a high dollar race engine torque plate's are always a good idea, regardless, like you mentioned.

kim wrote:Chevy guys will tell you all sorts of crap to try and mess up your engine.

A machine shop and or engine builder that's good with FORDS, can make chevies work miracles,  machine shops, engine builders that excel at chevies, can fuck up a ford in a heart beat.

That's funny, but true.

dtimmer wrote:Story short. Use a torque plate.

X 2

Where are you located? Maybe somebody on here that is close, has one you can use.

While I've never measured exactly how much a plate moves a cylinder in a BBF, I have plate-honed blocks that were originally honed w/o a plate by other builders. The amount of distortion at the head bolt locations is dramatic. They say seeing is believing, well you can certainly measure a tenth or three or five with a good bore guage, but it doesn't carry the same impact as seeing how much honing is required to clean up a cyl that was originally honed w/o a torque plate.

Yep... Everything is made of rubber..... Everything moves.

Thats just green blocks. Need a good rusted seasoned block, 44 years old, hard like an old O-Ring.