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Where hid ya get hardened washers, better yet how did ya make them, a surface grinder, or a mill?? That stuff is pretty hard.

Will the non mill way be ok on a 500 hp engine.

Kasey

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Made the spacer's at a machine shop that I used to work at out of 4140 pre heat treat and made them a little long ,then after they were heat treated then I surface ground them to length, as far as the non-mill way, I really cannot answer that, I know I didn't like the process of installing them that way, so I went the extra step and used my own method, advantages of working in a machine shop, and liberty's I am going to miss by no longer working in one.

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This is the way I did mine,,I milled the cap's and then milled the spotface (where the main stud's are) on all to a determined height then made hardened spacer's to fit the spot face at a thickness that gave a .005-.006 preload on the center of the cap, my machinist saw how they said to do it an agreed highly that the way I did it was far superior to their way of using a stack of hardened shim's to get the preload.

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This is the way I did mine,,I milled the cap's and then milled the spotface (where the main stud's are) on all to a determined height then made hardened spacer's to fit the spot face at a thickness that gave a .005-.006 preload on the center of the cap, my machinist saw how they said to do it an agreed highly that the way I did it was far superior to their way of using a stack of hardened shim's to get the preload.

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Also, do you have any pics of the installation when finished?

Thanks

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Will a girdle help with this??

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Im conserned that no one here has ever just used the 1st method to put the girdle on, and I am forced to go ahead and have the caps milled/machined and do it the second way as It makes more sence having a little preload on the caps.

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Kasey,
I would say that over half of the ones we sell get put on by guys at home without a mahcine shop. Anything that ties the caps together will help. We like this better than the 4 bolt cross bolt mains. Drilling and notching for the crossbolts weakens the block about as much as the 2 extra bolts help it. We have had very good luck running the girdles on the small blocks. Several have dyno's well over 600HP and are still running strong with of sign of cap walk.
If you need any help installing it you can call us anytime,
Merry Christmas!
Kevin

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Thanks Kevin. Im really impressed with the quality. Super nice piece!!

You guys have been great, Im glad for the good service.

kasey

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I'm no engineer but I'm pretty good at what I do...

With that being said, when I see most of the girdles that are out on the market to me the only thing that your stabilizing is the main studs. There is no "triangulation" going on with the main cap and the block.

Now.....If there was a bolt going through the girdle and it threads into the top of the main cap itself.....now you have triangulation and stability.....everything is tied together and sound.

It seems like most caps break....like the ones that I pictures above....at the 8 o'clock position. A 5/16" drilled hole at the 6 o'clock position is not a week area. Many of the after market caps already have a taped whole for a slide hammer to aide in removal.

This is just my

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I'm no engineer either but I have thought the same thing for a long time. There is still the ability for friction with the current set ups that are our there like Hughes or anyone elses.