If one of these block girdles were to be installed on a b20/b18a-b block, would you have to have the cylinders bored/honed? I know if the block were apart, this would be the best option- but is this necessary?

 

I think you're a bit confused. Honing/Boring the cylinders is a matter of prepping and enlarging the walls in preparation for new rings. Having the girdle is for "bulletproofing" your maincaps to live up to the abuse of you eventual LS/VTEC conversion. The two are separate steps in preparing your motor. If you're getting new rings/pistons and already have the block apart AND is planning to reinforce the bottom end, then of course you would hone and bore the block and then bolt on your girdle.

-Jeff C.

 

Its not necessary to bore/hone unless you are getting new piston or rings.

Maybe if your engine has high milage and/or did poorly on a compression/leak-down test, it might be good idea to bore/hone and then re-ring the pistons, but its not necessary.

 

Hmmm... I'm not doubting you guys, but... nobody thinks that the block girdle can put the cylinder alignment out of whack? The non-vtec blocks didn't have the girdles to begin with, so I figured bolting a girdle in place may "flex" the block enough to put the cylinder walls slightly out of alignment. Thus would come the need to re-bore?
Anyone with "built" motor experience here?

 

the thrust washers keep the crank aligned to the cylinder.there will be no problem with puting the girdle on a ls or b20. if using a gsr or itr girdle you must use the girdle, 6 main bolts, pick up,windage tray, and oil pan off of a gsr or itr.
i have one on my ls/vtec it works fine.

 

you are correct in assuming that you need to have the block girdle assembled and torqued down to spec along with your main caps when boring/honing

 

Well considering that correct use of a girdle (Z10 or oem) needs to have the girdle doweled to the main caps. I'd say comparing line bore versus cylinder bores......the line bore check is most important when adding any girdle.

But I'm also not going to say that the girdle (done correctly) will not have any affect on the cylinder bore. I probably does, but is it to a degree that would adversly distort the walls? If it were me in the same situation I would dowel the girdle, check the line bore, and hone the cylinder walls with the girdle in place/torqued.

If you gonna install the girdle w/o doweling it corectly and checking the line bore....don't bother with it in the first place. All the girdle will do is take up space in the oil pan and look pretty.


[Modified by SLPR, 1:23 PM 3/7/2003]