Thread: Pro's and cons of using a torque-plate while boring a block

Dammit Ben, did you NOT watch my video??

You posted that while I was typing.

it took you 7 minutes to type that? :P

I had this open in a tab for a while until I got to it Mr. Chuckles.

The forum gives you a warning that there was a post made within the time!

It did warn me! I live on the wild side!

Alright, so what would you do in my place?

I've had it bored and honed to 86,5mm, for 86,5mm pistons.

Would you re-hone it at 85,6, but this time with a torque plate?
Or would you re-bore/re-hone it to 87mm with a torque plate and buy new pistons?

Is the block special? If not, I would get another block (people have bare blocks just laying around, I know it) and have that bored... But now I'm thinking... Why the hell are you boring to 86.5mm to begin with? To clean up the cylinder walls? At which point a replacement block (with matching pistons) would also solve those problems too.

So what's your goal exactly? Why did you bore to begin with?

did the machine shop you had do the original bore n hone use a tq plate ? if yes, are your pistons good ? was the motor nice and quiet ? how is the block bore now, nice hatches on walls ? Answer no to any of the above questions, would suggest you go 87mm. If you answered yes to all of the above questions, re-use your old pistons and make a few passes on an oil /wd40 soaked 320 grit ball hone, clean the block, keep it freshly oiled, don't let dirt inside, and reassemble with new rings/ bearings.

Well, I have 1 of the few VE's in the country (The Netherlands), so yeah, it is kind of special.

And I wanted the block to be in the best state it could be, to begin with. As I had to get new pistons anyways (turbo in the future), I figured, if I get new pistons, I want a clean cylinder wall as well. And I didn't want to risk having the cylinder walls to be too thin, so I got the 86,5 ones.

Getting another VE shortblock will probably be more expensive than having it re-bored. If I do run into a VE over here, it's usually a complete block. And very expensive (think €1000-1500, which is about $1300-1940). And I don't want a DE, since I would have to drill a hole for the VVL solenoids, as well as lose the oil squirters.