I recently drug a 73 Camaro home from the Nevada desert. It is a plain Jane with a 350. It is all numbers matching. I am going to hot rod it and think it would be neat to keep the origional block in the car. Pretty sure it is a two bolt main. Any idea how much machine work is to put the splayed caps on? And is it stronger than a GM 4 bolt block? If it isn't worth it I will just spend the money and go big block with a 5 speed. Thanks, Scott

Splayed caps are no big deal really, just needs to be line honed and the extra outer bolts drilled/tapped.

Sounds like a fun project!

Were talking about two different issues here. Are steel splayed caps stronger than stock four bolt nodular iron caps (yes they are); and would it be cheaper to build a thumping big block (no not even).

As stated the machine work (drill and tap the extra holes then line hone) runs about $400 plus price of caps (normally only the middle three are replaced; though if you want the ultimate Milodon sell steel front and rear main caps as well).


Larger Dave

Pro-Gram brand caps are fairly inexpensive (about $80) and are very good. I don't pay $400 for a line hone either ;)

I agree that splayed caps are stronger than a factory 4 bolt, but a factory 4 bolt is good for a lot of power "as is" if that is what it turns out you have in the car.

Milidon caps are nodular iron.

We charge 125.00 to cut the register for the flat bottom caps and drill and tap for splayed caps and 125 to line bore the 3 center caps and 160.00 to finish with a line hone. And we buy all our caps from Kenny at Pro-Gram Engineering and they jobber at 172.00 a set.

There are cheaper caps out there but the outer bolts are more then 10 degee angle you have a good chance of gettin into the water jacket and fat bottom caps are the way to go over stepped caps as there is more contact area with a flat bottom cap.

Here is a pic of a block we machined for splayed center caps and a front billet cap and a strap on the rear main cap.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y276/CNCBLOCKS/SPLAYEDCAPS023.jpg

CNC,

Where are you located?

CNC,

Where are you located?

My CNC shop is in Gorham Me. an hour form the NH border and 10 minutes from Portland International Airport and my engine shop is 20 minutes for the CNC shop.