my engine is gonna go under the knife and i want a reliable strong engine. should i get billet main caps or a girdle money is tight i really cant get eitehr one but im gonna anyway just to be on the safe side for teh future. i see the girdle seems to be cheaper? let me know your opinions on this.
billet mains or girdle?
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sixgun86gn
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I can't speak from experience but I think the girdle is all thats really needed for most applications.I am basing this off of advice given to me and other stuff I have read.I have also been told that the billet mains like to "walk".If you get the mains you will have about $500 or so more in machine work.
steve hughes
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In my opinion i would get a girdle. I've been running one for 3 years with no problem.
I went with the girdle vice the billet mains mostly because of price and relative ease of installation. I've had NO problems. I've got the RJC girdle. I think that almost vendor has them. I know Jack Cotton and ATR sell them, or you can go directly from RJC like I did. I even sent the caps to RJC for the machining.
Derrick
Derrick
I did mine originally with the motor in the car. It's not 'easy' but can be done. I had to send my caps to him to have them machined. But it was pretty quick. And yep, the only machine work required was were the caps. RJC has a website that comes up on some of the ad's here on the board. His info is also listed under the vendors page of gnttype.org.
Derrick
Derrick
toofastforyou
2FAST4U
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Steel main caps!...not girdle...
I'm having my engine rebuilt right now at Dynotech, and after speaking with Erik Schertz, he recommended that I go with steel main caps, because ALL of the customers he knows who have the girdle, complain about leakage problems. It's not that the girdle is not good he said, just they can't seem to stop them from leaking...
'bye!
Claude.
I'm having my engine rebuilt right now at Dynotech, and after speaking with Erik Schertz, he recommended that I go with steel main caps, because ALL of the customers he knows who have the girdle, complain about leakage problems. It's not that the girdle is not good he said, just they can't seem to stop them from leaking...
'bye!
Claude.
I've had my girdle off at least 4 times for other reasons, and have never had a leak from it. I think the leaking problems are kind of a hit or miss kind of like replacing the rear main seal. I just put a SMALL bead of RTV between the girdle and block and it's worked perfect every time.
As for which caps to be machine I really can't remember right now. I know the rear cap needs some specers welded in. And the center caps needed machining. I think the front cap was left alone. But I really can't remember as I haven't had the motor apart in the past year. But Jace at RJC knows exactly what's needed.
Derrick
As for which caps to be machine I really can't remember right now. I know the rear cap needs some specers welded in. And the center caps needed machining. I think the front cap was left alone. But I really can't remember as I haven't had the motor apart in the past year. But Jace at RJC knows exactly what's needed.
Derrick
steve hughes
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All 4 caps must be machined and it needs to be line bored after the girdle is put on.
All 4 caps cust be machined. Line bore is almost never required. I do recomend a line hone. this just trues the bores but does not change the location of the bore like line boring does. As i said i di recomend line honning it bit this also is not absolutely necessary. I have had many customers skip this step and had good results.
Installing a girdle does give the oil one more place to potentially leak from. We have gone a long way in developing procedures that keeps this from happening.
The caps can't be premachined as each and every cap from the factory is specifically for that block and main position. they are not interchangeable.
the billet caps will keep the caps from breaking but do nothing to strengthen the webing of the block. the webbing is weak also. I have seen on more than one occation where the crank was thrown on the track with steel main caps still attached to it.
once a girdle is installed the caps don't carry the load like they used to so i recomend using the stock caps with the girdle. the install is alot easier this way and you have alot less problems.
hope this helps.
Installing a girdle does give the oil one more place to potentially leak from. We have gone a long way in developing procedures that keeps this from happening.
The caps can't be premachined as each and every cap from the factory is specifically for that block and main position. they are not interchangeable.
the billet caps will keep the caps from breaking but do nothing to strengthen the webing of the block. the webbing is weak also. I have seen on more than one occation where the crank was thrown on the track with steel main caps still attached to it.
once a girdle is installed the caps don't carry the load like they used to so i recomend using the stock caps with the girdle. the install is alot easier this way and you have alot less problems.
hope this helps.
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