I did not get to it yet. Yesterday I helped my buddy finish up the wiring into his Talon. One of the questions I had about doing this was whether or not I needed to use a HG when I did this. I have a Cometic, so I don't want to bolt that down and then have to remove it later.
Can I do this without using a headgasket? We have a stock felpro just laying around from my buddy's gasket rebuild kit, but I was wondering if I needed one at all just to test this theory. Any input? Push comes to shove, I'll use the stocker to get it tested out, but I didn't want to waste my cometic.
---EDIT---
Got ahold of my Machinist just now. He says when he bored/honed my cylinders he did NOT use a Torque plate.
This has me worried. I've been told this guy has built quite a few 4banger motors for my buddy (mostly hondas) and has never had a problem out of any of them. Most ran 11 and 10 seconds on boost.
Now, I understand how a torque plate works (simulates the variations of distortion that bolting the head down will create). How BAD is it if he DID NOT use the Torque plate on my motor and I go to slap this all together? I'm really concerned now because this is a pricey build for me and my income level, and I don't want to have to scrap the block and the 200 it took to get the work done and start with a fresh one. He says the drag in the center is the actual force of all 4 rods being in the middle of their stroke and creating their normal resistance due to opposing forces.
Any input?