As you can see from the pics Steve has done a great job of strengthening the BLOCK by tying the pan surface together and he also has a 6 bolt main cap deal. The outer cross bolts help keep the cap from "pinching in" at the bearing.
By making the skirt fairly thick this allows Steve to also make the material in the main cap above the bearing much thicker which makes the cap even stronger.
Steve has not tied the top of the caps together but he may not have to with the much greater material above the bearing and the wide thickness of the caps.
The only better solution to do to Steve's deal would be to make a skirted block like a 427 Ford Shelby aluminum block:
with two bolt mains going downward in the normal manner and cross bolted 4 bolt mains (one at the bottom near the pan rail and one near the top of the cap). This would eliminate all movement in the caps and the block in the vast amount of the applications.
Tom V.
ps I keep preaching for a fully skirted block to Bob C. for very high hp applications. Like 3000 hp!
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"Engineers do stuff for reasons" Tom Vaught
Despite small distractions, there are those who will go Forward, Learning, Sharing Knowledge, Doing what they can to help others move forward.
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