Inliners International Forums General Discussion Hi Performance torque plate

How many of you use them? or don't? I'm referring to the one to use to simulate head pressure effects to fine tune boring and honing. Specifically for a 261.

Did you see the one BHJ made for us for the webrodder stroker engines? It is in part #7.

I use one and highly recommend them for performance applicatioins. For a stock rebuild you won't see much - but it woodunt hoit.

I'm asking because of the webrodder article. I'm building a 261 stroker w/ caddy pistons and 292 rods. The boring & honing has already been done without the use of the plate. My builder sez it doesn't make a difference with the flatheads that he builds. Which surprises me because he is typically very detail oriented. It was his insistence that I have everything balanced. I guess I'm now looking for peace of mind.

I won't build an engine without one. A while back I was shown the effects of bore loading when its hone without a deck plate and then rehoned later after the motor was run in with a deck plate. Where the head bolts bosses were you could see where the ring didn't touch the bore due to bolt distortion.

It is really hard to beleave that there is so much flex and movement in a huge hunk of cast steel that cylinders so carefully bored and honed can become out of round, or that under the pressure of even moderate compression the wall can buldge and leak past the rings, but it does. When you stop to think of what is going on in an engine turnig 6,000 RPM it's amazing they stay together! Anyway a torque/deck plate makes a lot of sense.

OB,
You say the block has already been prepped. Put it together and don't worry about it. On a street engine the peak pressures are too low to see any difference. I agree with your engine man. Run it. As I said previously, all my race blocks get a plate job. Most bore distortion comes from the tension of the head bolts pulling the bores "square". That is why many 'race only' engine blocks and most new generation passenger car engines use LONG head bolts / studs, anchored in the base of the block, so little distortion occurrs at or near TOP DEAD CENTER, where cylinder pressures are highest.