In catching up with the slew of threads that were posted while I was galavanting at the Y-Block Shootout, I came across the girdle requests in Seppo’s roadster thread.  Due to the interest that’s being generated, I’ll make a new post out of this.

And Ted, congrats about joining in the 8's club . We are far behind, but...

           I too would be up for a girdle or two also, at any level, though a stud kit, drilled etc would be a definate plus, thanks and congrats on all your work/efforts,

                                                  ScottY!

Chuck.  Your soon to be completed engine is using the girdle that was supplied with it.  Are you also requesting another girdle?

AH! Chuck, now we all know what your got!!

     Couldn't resist. I don't follow your reasoning on the rear main at all. There is torque or twisting force on the main, but the stiffness of the cap wouldn't affect that either way.

     Since the torque is applied in eight bursts, (as each piston fires) the maximum torque it sees is the same as all the other journals except, of course the front main, which sees none. Obviously the frequency increases front to back. The rear main and the front main would probably see less distortion from the firing because they only deal with two pistons on one side of the bulkhead. I think the biggest issue with the cranks is probably the overlap of material between the main and the rod journals. The smaller that section is the more likely breakage will occour. I suspect most of the block issues result from the loads caused by the cranks imbalance at higher RPM. That load is not happening in one direction but all around the circumfrence. Obviously that force changes with RPM and amount of torque applied to the piston weight. Blah, blah.. 

I see your point but I have always heard that the reciprocating acceleration loads of the pistons et al were actually higher than the firing and compression loads.  If this is so then the crank is accelerating and decelerating as it rotates even without the firing loads.  The very purpose of the flywheel is to smooth out these accel/decelerations which it does by applying a reverse torque to the crank as the crank trys to accelerate the flywheel.  This torque must be at a maximum at the rear main since this is where the total inertia of the crank and recip masses is at a maximum (relative to the flywheel). 

But the burden of my question concerning other engines with or without girdles was to see what real world experience is with engine/crank failures

Also the purpose of the girdle is "to stiffen up the bottom end" or to say a bit more technically to keep all the main bearings on a common centerline.  This would seem to be just as important for the rear main and where it may be a greater problem since the rear main has to deal with the imbalance of the flywheel as well as the crank loads.

I’ll be aiming for the end of October at having some girdles ready for machining/drilling.  I figure another two weeks after that to finish girdle machining.  Once I get an initial price for the material for the girdle blanks, I can give a price for the girdle and another price for the stud kit.  Steel prices being in a constant state of flux prevents an accurate price estimate at this time.

I'd also be interested in a drilled girdle, so add my name to the list.

Thank you

Missouri Mike