Hey Hank,
'Scuuze me for buttin' in here . . . .
How soon will you actually be ready to install a girdle ? That's one of the items I was planning on making for my motor. I don't have mine torn down yet so I don't have any measurements. If you can wait a while I would be willing to make several of them.
Here's another item I've been thinking about in regards to strengthening the bottom end . . . .
Cryogenic tempering . . . . . it's simillar to heat treating only it's done with liquid Nitrogen instead,from what I've been reading it should be very beneficial to have the crank treated in this manner. I believe that it would help reduce the inherant problems the inline 6 has with tortional flex and significantly increase the strength of a cast crank. This would be especially noteworthy in Blower,Turbo and Nitrous applications.
Here's a link to one of the companies that do this if your interested in checking it out.
http://www.300below.com/site/home.html 'Crockett
