[Tom Vaught]

Quote:

"I saw on HP TV one day a brace for a Ford small block that went under the intake in the valley to help prevent block spliting. This seems to be exactly the product needed that and a Gridle for the mains might make fora very stout set-up. This piece went between the cylinder banks and was set on dowels that were drilled and was bolted down looked pretty neat."

Stealing my ideas again! LOL! Not really.

Some years ago I posted about how to tie the top of a Pontiac block together on a pure race deal.

The guy who made the ALGON fuel injection systems for the RAM AIR V and other things many years ago told me how he made deck plates that went between the block and the heads and used longer head dowels and head studs. There was one plate for each side.

Three things were happening with the deal:

1) The plates basically made the engine into a dry deck deal as there was no water transfer between the block and the heads (like the IA-2 today).

2) The flanged sleeves, that were installed in the steel plate/ block, were firmly held in place in a pocket machined in the plate and by the heads. No way the sleeve could ever move therefore the thin material between the cylinders was not an issue with sleeves being installed in every hole. He did fill the block with concrete though too. "OLD SCHOOL"

The plates had heim connections to preload the block at the top with three adjustable braces. Because the engine used Fuel Injection the braces missed the intake runners and the valley pan.

3) The bottom of the block used a "three main" girdle that went over the top of the three center caps and extended the length of the of the oil pan depth. The pan had to be modified to seal the pan as the girdle tied into the pan rail.

He made a lot of power with his deal and ran a large cid engine with a long stroke crank. Over 500 cid supposedly.
The taller deck motor probably allowed him to use the 421 SD parts with the longer crank stroke.

In those days I have seen pics where Hot Rodders would completely cut the deck off an engine and then braze it back on at a different deck height location.

Now here is the wisdom!

He told me that the aluminum intakes like he was making for the Fuel Injection years later actually made the block fail quicker. He said that the CAST IRON intakes tied the top of the block together very well (especially on the 64 and earlier blocks).

His thought was when you put an aluminum intake on the engine you took away a bunch of that upper strength. Cutting the water cross-over off and running the water hoses to the heads made it even worse. Running the split intakes like the after-market had in the old days with the rubber tubes connecting the two plenum halves was the worst. His FI intake needed to have some way to strengthen the block which is why he came up with the deck plates.

He always thought the cast-iron intake with a front and rear plate that tied the heads together was a good deal. He used a off-set distributor though.

Today we could use a BOP distributor deal.

Just some more history for you to think about.

Tom V.