Purpose of a Toqrue Plate?

[Colossus]

Now....I've read a bit about them on here, and in the past everyone just says you need one when you get the block bored. That's all I ever knew about them. Well, the time is coming up to get my block bored over, and they don't have a torque plate. A buddy of mine showed me a place to get them for $200 a piece, and he said that after it's installed, it actually stays on the motor? Can someone explain a little more into detail about torque plates?

 

[1fast97gsx]

your buddy is a dumbass. YES .. torque plates are necessary though. They basically bolt up to the block to stretch the block as if the head was installed on it. Then the honing gets done and it makes sure that the bores are round when the head is on the block since the block will stretch when you tighten down the head studs. IT DOES NOT STAY ON THE BLOCK .. that's only used for the machining. You can have a machine shop make you a torque plate for $50 - $80. All it is is a piece of metal with 4 holes larger than your actual bores and another 10 holes for the headstuds to bolt it to the block. You can jsut take a headgasket and make a pattern on the metal and have it drilled out at the same machine shop even. Once again just make sure the bores are LARGER on the plate than on the block.

 

[Colossus]

Yeah that's what I thought. There's no way it could stay on the block, because then it wouldn't have enough of a stroke to make compression....I don't know why he said it, but I figured I'd mention it to get pry at a good response from someone. I didn't know if it was something a ,machine shop could just make, and $200 is damn exspensive for a one time use thing.

 

[1fast97gsx]

yea it's really easy to make a torque plate so don't spend $200 on one..

 

[DSMJim]

You can also bore the block without one and not worry about much distortion. The change is very minimal and many blocks have been done without it with no ill effects. The out of round is .002 or less generally. It's not like we have an aluminum block with an open deck sleve in it like a stock Honda block. Honestly we have bored GSR blocks with no deck plate open deck sleved and made 500whp on them with no problems. Some guys just refuse to pay the extra money and wait for a machine shop that has a plate.

If your planning on 600+hp then use a torque plate, under that it's a step that is good if you can get it but not worth paying $200 for. I think machine shops make a lot of money off people based on fear and internet rumour....