[mysticmissle]

finally got around to dropping my stuff off at machine shop yesterday. Machinist had a bunch of questions. I had talked to Bob C and he said cometics with the small water holes are doing quite well. Talked to Jeff V and he prefers dry decking and titan copper.
Its going to be a bracket motor 850-900 hp, what is currently being run on aluminum block 4.350 bore and 14:1 compression range. I have a set of wet deck wide ports i plan on using for the first season or two, and i could dry deck them if i go that route, and then i will uncork it and either have them worked up or put some heads that flow on there.
thanks in advance.

[Jack Ferris]

May be a silly question. My IAll is not drilled but the heads are. Do you have to plug the head as well?

[mysticmissle]

yes or you drill and make the block wet also, Frank said to use a 5/16'' bit i beleive, just need to make sure the hole matches your gasket location

[twooldgoats]

Originally Posted by Jack Ferris

May be a silly question. My IAll is not drilled but the heads are. Do you have to plug the head as well?

That's what Paul Carter did with mine to dry deck it. A lot of holes to weld in those heads and they had to be re-surfaced and made straight again. Then, he used copper gaskets and O-rings. So far, it works. I run water in the heads only, not the block.



Jim

[Richie Hoffman]

I’m building a aluminum block for customer street car going to be turbocharged doing a wet deck not gonna get crazy on boost

[BADDTA]

Hey Jeff
We have Jakes aluminum block wet decked. We plan to push 4-500 thru it also. Using Cometics also. I didn’t have time to pick it up yet for assembly. Been done for a while. Work is crazy busy.

Brian

[taff2]

No need to weld up the coolant holes, drill and tap them for pipe plugs and then get them surfaced, it's what I did to my factory heads and block. If you ever decide you want wet deck then just remove the plugs.

[mysticmissle]

Brian and Richie, you guys plan on using cometics? what bore?

[Richie Hoffman]

Cometics block will be 4.250 bore

[BADDTA]

4.350 bore and Cometics

Brian

[mysticmissle]

thanks guys, Richie, you prescribe to the 5/16'' cooling holes?

[Richie Hoffman]

Been using 1/4 on big bore stuff

[PontiacMatt72]

If you decide to dry deck, X2 on tapping for pipe plugs and install *aluminum* plugs. I used a high temp thread sealant on the plugs also.

Another method suggested to me was install a tapered press-in style plug?

Either way, after plug is in place, have head surface machined flat. Good to go. In my case, this process took off enough of some of the plugs that they won’t be easily unscrewed. But I imagine wouldn’t be much trouble to drill back out if need be.

As for whether to run wet or dry deck, I chose dry... and hope it was the right choice. I have an iron IA2. My choice was based on the potential for adding boost or nitrous later.

Probably not much help. Just sharing.

[RAIV-Z]

Jeff,

Dry deck it, external cooling lines work. Either plugs or welding the heads/block will be fine.

[jimmy daniel]

My block and Tigers are dry decked and plumbed from rear of heads to back of block. Seems to work real well. My block was never drilled and the heads have plugs in them

[73 TRANSAM]

I have a dry deck and reverse cooled on my turbo set up. I like it as its not messy when u need to pull out the heads and a big plus is you don't get any water in your cylinder on PA application incase your heads lifted.

[adam woodmancy]

i am planning on doing an aluminum 482 bracket/limited street shortblock this winter. I am not looking to make big power, mostly, just looking for the weight off the nose and reliability. I will be reusing my 340 std port e-heads and using a scott brown hydraulic roller. The couple guys that I know personally using the aluminum stuff are dry decking them, but I was hoping to keep this build as standard possible. As I said, my car worked great with my 400 block setup, and I think would work even better with the weight off the nose from the aluminum block. (stock suspension/9" radial) I do not under any circumstance want to out and Iron IAII or MR1 in it. If the aluminum block doesn't seem like a smart way to go with the wet deck setup, I will use another 400 block. I am happy with the power where I am already, as I said, just trying to ditch as much weight up front as possible. Motor will be n/a, probably make 650-700 hp tops.

[Bill Eveland]

FWIW My ia2 iron block is 4.350 and wet decked, i used the cometics with copper spray from Butler as a drill guide. 14:1 380 highports. Have to keep in mind the thickness of the sleeves , so slightly offset holes in that hole range are better to keep the drill bit away.

[aaronman]

We have built two MR1A wet deck 535 bracket engines. Both around 900hp with KRE high ports and cometics. Both engines have went 250 passes between tear downs. No issues. Cools really nice. I don’t recall the deck hole size. They were drilled at KRE.

[Skip Fix]

Mike had some pictures of drilling the holes on their road race aluminum black a year or so ago. Some larger material for head bolts in the bloack made some head gasket locations had to have to be off center.