Reply to "AFD Alum heads"

Kevin,

You and I must have been typing at the same time this AM. Sorry I missed your post earlier this AM.

You are welcome, I'm glad you've found the advice you're getting helpful. This topic has had a lot of views, we've apparently got everybody's attention! lol.....

Your old school mechanic likes the iron heads because he "knows" them, he knows how to set them up & make power with them. He feels he'd have to start a whole new learning curve with the alloy head. In reality that isn't true, he can just bolt them on, no porting necessary to make over 400 bhp like you must with the iron heads. But some folks don't handle change well, and there's nobody more cantankerous & opinionated than an old mechanic, I know. If he knows Clevelands then you keep him. Again, it seems you've made good choices.

Yes I've done a little automotive & motorcycle work for others, built a few engines. I have the aptitude, got started real young. I've dealt with people about modifying their cars & engines. If you & I had been talking in person rather than on the internet, I would have really grilled you about budget & how you intend to use the car. Its very important that a mechanic & customer see eye to eye before any work begins.

With a stroker crank, roller cam & alloy heads, I think you are underestimating the torque/bhp you'll be making with your combo. You should be able to hit the 500 ft/lbs range. At 500 ft/lbs I strongly recommend you do a half fill with hard block. Do as much of the manual block prep as you can before hot tanking. Then hot tank the block, afterwards do the half fill with hard block (up to the bottom of the water pump passages). Let that cure for at least 30 days, then finish the machining work (align boring, decking, boring & honing). Your mechanic should know to do the boring & honing with the caps torqued in place and boring plates torqued to the decks. The hard block squeezes the cylinder walls so tightly it distorts them, it's imperitive that you hard block prior to beginning the machine work.

The cylinder walls of the C block are thin & have a tendency to split at power levels in the 500 bhp range & above. The hard block supports the cylinder wall much higher up along the outside, makes them considerably stiffer. As a side benefit, the cylinder walls flex less, ring seal is improved, and your engine should produce another 20 ft/lbs of torque. The draw back, oil temps tend to run 5 to 10 degrees hotter, but that is really not that much of a drawback. If you're going to track race or open road race your car, you should run an oil cooler anyway, which will more than compnsate.

I'm sure girdles are available if you or your mechanic asks around. I purchased one earlier this year from a Canadian named Jadeo Persad, he had several of them at the time. You may contact him & ask if he has any remaining at: goygoy3@yahoo.com. Tell him I referred you. Its a nice piece, it interferes a bit with the Armando pan, but a little grinding fixes that. Clevelands were so popular in racing for so many years, there are all sorts of race parts laying on shelves all around the country, its a matter of finding the mechanic or racer with the parts on the shelf collecting dust. Texas is a big state for auto racing, should be lots of stuff on shelves all over your state.

I am in the same boat as you regarding Clevors, I have too many C parts on the shelf. I keep banging the drum on the internet, for the manufacturers to read, that we need a good aftermarket C block, in iron to keep the price down. SJ performance will be manufacturing one in alloy, but its an expensive SOB.

your friend on the PIBB, George