400 4 Bolt Main Caps

[20862ls]

Does anybody have or know where I can get a set of 400 4 Bolt Main Caps that I can buy? Need a set that are Iron. Cant use these steel caps. Please help! Need soon.

 

[4X4HIGH]

For iron caps you're going to have to find some used ones somewhere. All of the aftermarket caps are steel that i'm aware of. You do realize you will have to have the block either align honed or possibly align bored? Main caps are machined for the block they came on and cannot be swapped without more machine work and sometimes you will have to go through several caps before you find some that are close enough to be made to work.

 

[89yimmiJ]

PAW used to keep hundreds if not thousands in stock in their machine shop. I don't know if they would sell them to you over the phone or not but I have walked into their warehouse and been able to buy them at will call.

Why can't you use some Milodons, Moroso, etc?

 

[20862ls]

No problem on the machine work. I am 1 of the lucky ones who has a fully equipped machine shop at my use. I am not afraid to to do the machine because it is free (Yippeeee). Just need to find some.

 

[20862ls]

As far as not using the steel caps, (not to start a can of worms) but steel caps on a iron block spell disaster on daily drivers. Iron heats and cools at different temps than steel. If you use these for daily commutes, they will destroy main bearings quickly. The steel caps work great for drag racing where you will be replacing main bearings frequently. As far as using on aluminum blocks, they work great because the aluminum is more forgiving because it is soft enough to flex and form when needed. Thanks for the info on PAW. I had completely forgot about them.

 

[4X4HIGH]

People have been using aftermarket steel main caps on street cars for YEARS with no issues. Yes the expansion rate is slightly different but with the caps sitting in the register correctly and the proper fastener clamping the cap they won't move and can only expand slightly changing bearing clearance minimally. This is also easy to overcome by changing the clearance when you align hone the main bores to compensate for the difference in expansion rate. The dimension is not set in stone that it has to be exactly .00XX" clearance but there is a .00XX" - .00XX" dimension.

 

[20862ls]

Yeh I know they have, just dont want to use them. Like I said I dont want a can of worms. I have seen the results first hand in road course and circle track cars on what happens. This particular motor I am puting together will have alot of stess on the mains, and would like to keep it to a min. I am kinda going to be maxing out the stock block as far as use. If I could afford to buy a Dart block I would, but cant. Thanks for the reply. By the way, has anybody been having problems today here at Colorado K5?