Girdles are a bandaid, not a solution. The only thing they do is provide front to rear stud rigitity(SP, stiffnes to the main fasteners front to rear ) Buy a good set of main caps and real ARP studs and go for it, unless your planning on making more than 700 HP in a stock block and run the dog snott out of it regulary on pump gas, like I do In that case buy a good block