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Are torque plates suppose to mimic a cylinder head. What I'm trying to ask is that the head bolts are of different length because of the thickness of the cylinder head. Do the torque plates need to mimic this.
Matt

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Matt, the torque plate should mimic the distortion of the cylinder walls as closely as possible. the depth of the fastener in the block does influence amount of distortion, that's the reason the bolt holes are countersunk into our torque plates.
i recently test a R-3 block to measure distortion and found .0016-.0017 near the top of the cylinder after bolting on a pair of edelbrock heads. i removed the heads and bolted the torque plate on and the distortion was again .0016-.0017
the use of a torque plate undoubtedly results in round cylinders during the honing process and results in much improved ring seal. better seal, more horsepower.