Convince Me Not to Cut This Cylinder Head Into a Torque Plate

[Benjamin A.R.]

I've been fighting the urge to do this ever since I started planning my turbo engine. It's getting harder now that I'm close to machining the bottom end. I know a guy who will let me borrow his stuff to do this. I can't get a 50 RA with the machine he's got, but it shouldn't matter. If we could, I'd do all my machine work for free haha.

 

Pros:

- Saves me money/trouble renting one from VAC.

-Might be better than a traditional torque plate since it's pretty damn close to being an actual head.

-Science!

 

Cons:

- It might lose too much rigidity to work or just break because studs clamp hard.

-I'll for sure ruin a head that might be fixable.

 

 

 The head in question...

Crack between valves in combustion chamber for #2.

Rough idea what 89mm holes will do. It looks like this could work, especially if I put some old rocker shafts in. 

 

I know of some guys who have had success doing this on other engines and I've heard of one guy who did it to an M10. No documentation that I could dig up online though. I'll be the guinea pig unless someone wants to make a small donation to my build and save this 121 for something better.

 

I would ask if anyone in the SF bay area would let me borrow their proper one, but I'm not 100% sure on which auto machinist I'm gonna trust with my cash. So I'm not sure on the timeline for when I'd need it. It might be better to make this happen?

 

Edited January 7, 2017 by SnowDriftin44

[Preyupy]

If you are in SF just go to Terry Tinney he does a lot of M10/M30 race engines. He has a torque plate. 

[Benjamin A.R.]

I've never heard of him! I'll give him a call on Monday. Thanks for the tip, I was hoping you'd chime in Preyupy.

 

I still really want to try this someday though.

[Doug Riparetti]

"Riparetti Cylinder Head Service" in Kuna, idaho has a VAC Motorsports torque plate that is for rent, (he bought one for my S14 build).

 

$350 for deposit plus shipping. You get a $225 refund upon return 

 

John Riparetti

fasttrackracer7@yahoo.com

831-682-2257