In about 2-4 weeks I will be in need of a honing plate for an .080 overbore is there anyone that has one that will work and they are intrested in renting it out. I may have one built if it would be cheaper then sending the huge chunk of steel around the nation.

I have one, but i dont think you would want to ship it all the way from Canada! FWIW, Mine cost be about $125 to build myself.

I have one... CA or MATS (Las Vegas).
DD

Thanks dartwells but by the time I send it back and forth to you I probbelly could buy one. And doc how heavy is yours it does not look like I will not be traveling any time soon because any day now I will have a new baby here so trying to figure out how much it would be to ship. I am thinking of just making one. My question is does the six cylinder holes need to be the same size as the bore or are they to be over sized and the only thing the plate is doing is pushing down at the bolt hole locations?

The cylinder bores in the torque plate need to be only slightly larger than what the finished bore size will be, maybe .100 larger at the most to give the most accurate reproducing of the cylinder distortion as the cylinder head does. Also, torquing the main caps when the block is final honed is just as critical. They pull and distort the bottom portion of the cylinders, just like the head does when it is torqued, and many shops overlook this at times, either because they are in a hurry or just don't realize its equally as important in creating a round, straight cylinder bore.

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There's no such thing as too much cam....only not enough engine!

What should the thickness of the torque plate be?

I think most of BHJ's are between an 1-1/2" to 1-3/4". Then you use spacers(sometimes)to replicate the overall thickness of the head. This also allows you to match the thread engagement of the bolts/studs into the bolt holes, which should also be as close to what you are going to be using as possible.

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There's no such thing as too much cam....only not enough engine!

I assume aluminum would be the best bet to keep weight down?

BHJ makes aluminum ones, but you need to use a steel/iron one if you have an iron head, and an aluminum one if you have an aluminum head, it does make a difference in how they each distort the block differently when torqued. It won't stress the block the same if you mismatch them by using an aluminum plate to hone it and then bolt an iron head on the block. Even though iron/steel plates are used when using aluminum heads with no problems.

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There's no such thing as too much cam....only not enough engine!

$868 for a steel one for a Slant 6 on the BHJ website, 2009 price.

Yes BHJ makes cast iron ones too,I have one,it's 1 3/4 inch thick,and has spacers to duplicate the thickness of the S/6 head.And yes it was expen$ive,had to be special ordered,and took 6-8 months to get.

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V8?? We don't need no stink'n V8!!

I have seen some posts on how people have made there own plate by choping the top off of a block how would it work if I used an old drool tube head and just cut out the top section and the head and combustion chamber area? I have a plasma cutter with a 5/8s clean cut so I can start at an open valve hole and just start to take metal out the then clean it up with a 3 inch drum sander and a hone. Has any one done this or tried?

I've seen some guys before do this with a 2300 Pinto engine for a Pony class in dirt track racing. At that time, not even BHJ or anyone else made a torque plate for those engines, and he had to do, what he had to do. He just took an old cylinder head and basically bored or cut thru the head so it looked like a torque plate. I think that would be about as close as you could get to duplicating or simulating an actual head being bolted to an engine. If you have the means to do this, go for it.

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There's no such thing as too much cam....only not enough engine!

Couldn't a person just use a head gasket as a pattern and have a plate plasma/water jetted to match? The price of the 1 1/2" plate would be the killer. Does it have to be that thick? Could a person use 3/4" - 1"?

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Thanks Mike

Thats how I built mine. 1" plate cost $90 and having the 6 holes cut by waterjet was $120. I drilled the head bolt holes on the drillpress at home.