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Girdle? Yes or no

4K views 13 replies 10 participants last post by  blown473 
#1 ·
Ok I'm rebuilding my 460, and I'm trying to figure out if I should spent the extra money and buy a girdle. I see alot of ppl on here saying there revving to 7k. I'm not trying to do all that. I just want to rev it up to maybe 6,500. My motor has stock crank, eagle steel I beam rods with seal power hyper pistons bored .030 over. Eldabrock rpm preformer heads with dual valve springs, 1.7 roller rockers. Comp cam magnum pushrods. So yeah I'm just wondering do you all think I should just spend the money and buy the girdle or it should easy do 65 with out the girdle and no worrys?
 
#4 · (Edited)
In my experience, girdles are good for breaking valve springs. Oops, now looked at link. I would spend your $$$ on main studs and skip the girdle. If it was a 302, I'd say yes because when the block splits it'll hold the pieces together until you get it out.
 
#6 ·
I would spend your $$$ on main studs and skip the girdle.
In my opinion, I would much, much rather used the OEM main bolts over the ARP studs in a combo such as the one noted in this thread. Springing for studs would be money poorly spent and which could be more wisely spent on other potentially necessary upgrades.

Paul
 
#5 ·
Ok I'm rebuilding my 460, and I'm trying to figure out if I should spent the extra money and buy a girdle. I just want to rev it up to maybe 6,500. My motor has stock crank, eagle steel I beam rods with seal power hyper pistons bored .030 over. Eldabrock rpm preformer heads with dual valve springs, 1.7 roller rockers. Comp cam magnum pushrods.
You don't need a girdle. We've done numerous engines of larger displacment and horsepower haven't used a girlde.

Paul
 
#8 ·
Ok i'm going to be that guy... A good girdle does well (billet) been running my 557 for 4 years now it's seen 9,000 rpm more than once but 8,000 regular. D9 block, no crank walk, bearings look like new every time I check.... not saying you need one for a mild build tho....

Derrick
 
#10 ·
As Paul mentioned, I too think the stock bolts are very underrated. If you can get some studs that are necked down in the mid section to evenly stretch the length of the stud when torqued, that's great. Otherwise, I'll stick to the stock bolts.
 
#13 ·
Not sure, but I've not heard of anyone ever breaking one. It's probably been done though maybe with a way overtorqued bolt and a lot of detonation. You'll get cap walk before the bolt breaks and the cap itself will crack before the bolt. The idea is the increased clamping load of studs reduces cap walk, which is probably true at least at the point cap walk first starts. But if the caps are going to walk around, I'd rather have a fastener that's stretched along its length than one only stretched at the threads.
 
#14 ·
girdle

I'm going to be the second guy to say a positive comment, the Canton piece you are looking at is a quality piece, one of the best girdles made IMHO. I've run a girdle now on a blown 460 for many years and my engine hits the 7000 rpm limiter almost instantly, and I've had no bottom end issues whatsoever. I will also agree that at the power level you are building, follow Paul's and others advice and spend the $270. on other parts that will give you more bang for your buck, your not pushing a good 2 bolt block that hard. Greg
 
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