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Larger head studs in MG engine

Michael Oritt

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Does anyone have thoughts or info on increasing the cylinder head studs from 3/8" to 7/16" on an MGA engine?
 
It is sometimes not the clamping load availiable but the head gasket installation and prep and the h.g. design.

Engine parameters such as bore spacing , number of fasteners per bore etc. all come into play also.
 
Interesting thought, to do a FEM analysis of the MG head. You can be pretty sure the factory didn't do one. This could give you an idea of the deformation of the head under the compression forces of the bolts.

Larger diameter bolts would still want to give the same compression forces to the head that the factory bolts did or else the head may deform more than it should, and possibly permanently. They would need to be torqued to a lower value (given the same thread pitch). They would then not stretch as much as the standard bolt. Any further stretching of the bolts would be with a higher deformation constant. The bolts can also become loose easier because any un-stretching of the bolts relieves the force very quickly.

Short said, The head bolts hold the head tight by stretching. Larger bolts stretch less and therefore loose their clamping force quicker when slackened. (Slackened due to anything, like for example a permanent deformation of the head)

However, if the standard bolts are susceptable to breaking it would be a good idea.
 
Donn--

Thanks for your encouraging reply.

Nevertheless I have relegated this project to the "faggedaboudit" category, along with some of my other concepts such as the hands-free, motor-controlled, voice-activated droplight that will turn off and on and face in the right direction, or the non-disposable toothbrush with tiny, screw-in replaceable bristles.

I have a life to live and races to run--let someone else make the fortune!
 
Here's my opinion on this, fabricating something beyond factory specs is like lying, one you tell a lie, you got to tell another one to back up the first one /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif So if you got to a larger stud size you'll have to modify the head, more than likely the head gasket as well. I think I would get ARP head studs, if you don't already have them and a good gasket, if you running real high compression ratio look at a Cometic MLS head gasket.
 
Hap Waldrop said:
Here's my opinion on this, fabricating something beyond factory specs is like lying
/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/sick.gif /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/lol.gif

Don't you build Prod engines Hap??? /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
 
Yes, but you know what I mean, pepele just do it alot of the time for heck of doing it. When I bought my FP car, they had a Aeoroquip An hose for the radiator, so you needed to weld a fitting on a stock water pump and the thermo housing menaing you would always need a modified water pump for a spare, simply overkill and over complicating the situaction. kinda like tapping SU float bowls for An hose, why, so you can put a heavier hose and fitting where rubber fuel line will do the same thing, and it what the interior of the Aeroquip hose is anyway, thru the cockpit of the car ok, but form the tee to the carbs, no. Sometime people mdify thing that don't need to be modified, that's the point I was trying to make.
 
Hap, in my experiences, well over 80 percent of all aeroquip lines I've seen in anything other than a full competition vehicle are there for the "oooh" factor.

I think it's guy thing, left over from our teenage years. I was into it a bit myself until I took a really closeup look of one of Dan Gurney's AAR racers back in the 70's. Then I realized that logical, focused engineering is so much nicer than the latest, greatest, shiniest.....

Saw a guy spend several hundred to put -4 aeroquip through his chassis for brake lines, and then moaning and complaining about not having enough funding to run the car. When I mentioned that he would have been able to save a couple hundred on just installing steel tubing in the chassis with the aeroquip going out to the calipers, I was met with the old "deer in the headlights" stare.
 
Oh yea...Bling engine bays...

Don't see too many in ITB.
My idea is...Simple is elegant.

Every extra connection is a possible source of future problems as well as any non-standard part.
Plus...I'm crazy about keeping the weight down.
 
Not a lot of bling here. The carbs <u>came</u> with the #4 AN fittings in them, and I had the hose and fittings on the shelf.

Jeff
 

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Jeff:

Is that a pocket fisherman on the left side (pass side) of the engine? /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif

IMHO Simple = Greater Reliability and Lower Weight.

Pat
 
No, Pat, it's a short pry bar with a tranny dust plug laying on it. I was in the middle of working on the thing when I took the picture, and didn't bother to do a tool sweep.
Besides, I usually fish with explosives.
Jeff
 
Jeff

I was just bustin ya, at a quick glance that is what came to mind. Sick Friday afternoon at work.

Promise no ice fishing or explosives on Dale's boat /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif

Pat

Pat
 
GB1 said:
Jeff:

Is that a pocket fisherman on the left side (pass side) of the engine? /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif

IMHO Simple = Greater Reliability and Lower Weight.

Pat

OK, fuuny story here, back in the early mid 80s when I owned and raced a Huffaker MGB, At the Daytona SCCA national we forgot to burp the radiator and the car got hot enough to alarm me, and I shut if of just before the back straight chicane, the worker waved like mad for me to get out of the car and go up the bank where the lake is at Daytona Speedway, so that's where I sat until the session was over, on the banks of the lake there. Went back to Daytona a few years later, and my crew chief at the time, told me he wanted to show me something he had installed in the trunk for that event , he had zip tied a Popeet pocket fisherman in the trunk, he said if you get stuck over there again, bring us back some fish /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
 
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