Hi!

I want to make my own honing plate for B/RB and HEMI engines.

I was looking for some advice here.

1. How thick does it need to be? Any other special considerations?

2. Is it possible to make the plate work for both HEMI and B/RB bolt patterns. I think the only difference is the 5th bolt hole towards the lifter valley, but I think it overlaps, so It cant be drilled for the dual pattern. Instead I was thinking of flipping the plate and drilling it for the HEMI pattern because I thinik the holes wont overlap that way. Has anybody done it like that? Does it work?

Get a head gasket for each motor, lay one over the other, and see what you get. Buddy of mine that makes torque plates usually makes them 2" thick, head gasket gives you the hole pattern, depth of the holes is cut to duplicate shape of the head and the clamping load on the block.
It's not as easy as it sounds. Contact CJ @ cj@yother.com or at 510-865-2787, he may have one in stock.

Been there/done that...a whole lot simplier to buy a plate!!!! The time spent making one is way more than you anticipate.

There are going to be some naysayers about this, however ...

Since a torque plate is there to duplicate the stresses applied by the bolts, simply making one out of 2" plate isn't the solution. The plate needs to be milled to accept the shorter bolts on the exhaust side.

If you're going to do it, water-jetting the bores would likely be the cheapest route and they don't need to be accurately sized, anything larger than the bore you're working with will do.

Now then... As previously stated, its the stresses of the bolts you want to duplicate so ... get a length of 7/16" or 1/2" i.d. DOM tubing with as thick of a wall as can be used without overhanging the bores. Cut lengths equal to the head thickness at each bolt. Ideally they should be finished on a lathe to ensure the ends are square so as not to improperly load the bolts. Make a complete set and torque these down. Voila, poor man's torque plate! Hone away!

I can tell you this...use a hemi plate on a wedge block and your cylinders won't come out round.

If you can't afford to buy a torque plate then just use head bolts (or studs) with the correct spacers under them. That is super cheap and will get you roughly the same result.

I can make my own plate. It's not rocket science.

I have a friend with a CNC.

Whats the bore spacing on a B/RB and HEMI? I am asking because I can draw the thing on the CNC, specify 4,6" bores and Im done. Ill drill the head bolt holes by hand on a bench drill using a gasket as a template. or if I can draw them on the PC the cnc will take care of the bolt pattern too.

I also checked with gasket and I can flip the plate and drill both the hemi and RB bolt pattern using the same plate....Ill just have to flip it for RB and then again flip it for HEMI.

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Ill drill the head bolt holes by hand on a bench drill using a gasket as a template.

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17 1/2" holes through 2" plate on a drillpress... You're a better man than me !!!!

I've made two plates over the years. One for a RB and one for my TS engine. (hemi bolt pattern and 4.840bs)

The guy at the engine shop said he had none for mopars so a just made my own out of 2 inch mild steel. Cut the big wholes on a small milling machine and did all the bolt holes on a drill press.

The guy asked me if i would start making them for him cause he said he was paying 800-1000$ for plates.

Pretty easy to make if you have the time.

Keep in mind, the bolt pattern for the inner row of studs is angled on hemi blocks/heads.

4.800 is the bore spacing,, i have a print that gives you dowel locations, bolt holes, cylinder bores,,, give me your email and ill try to send it in the next few days,, it will be an iges file

Jeff while your on here, how hard would it be to use a junk head for a plate?

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Just using the bolts and spacers with no plate would have little to no effect on anything.

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Yeah, what the hell does Andy know !!!

just buy a used bhj hemi plate of ebay they pop up now and again cheap, unless your wicked machinist might do more harm than good