Are stud girdles legal in Stock?
 

I know it's probably in the NHRA rule book, but I can't find it!!

Scott

Re: Are stud girdles legal in Stock?
 

No.

Re: Are stud girdles legal in Stock?
 

We can't even use roller rockers.Not sure but I don't think you can use guide plates,unless they were factory equipped.But some combos can have aluminum heads

.

Re: Are stud girdles legal in Stock?
 

No stud girdles. Aftermarket studs, poly locks, guide plates, and pushrods are allowed.

Without stud girdles, if they allowed full roller rockers in stock, the first thing that would happen would be a lot of engines with stud mounted rockers would start breaking rocker studs.

In most cases, where the old school style rockers are used, the rocker arm is the "fuse" or the "weak link". Changing to aftermarket roller rockers will merely change what part breaks first. Then the people breaking that part will demand aftermarket versions of that part be allowed, or some sort of device designed to prevent breakage be allowed.

Yeah, I'm one of those guys, who thinks Stock Eliminator has already moved too far toward Super Stock.

Re: Are stud girdles legal in Stock?
 

Alan,not disputing what you say but in my original gremlin i ran a 390 with 7/16"studs,crane rollers w/poly loks,guide plates with a .510 lift cam.Granted the duration wasn't very aggressive at .232 @.50.I put over 3600 runs on that engine
with two puff ups and new pistons once.Shifted at 6000 rpm.I never broke a valve train part in all that time.Colud the aggressive cams we run be the culprit?
BTW the car ran as fast as 11.20 122mph.Tight converter I'de say.

Re: Are stud girdles legal in Stock?
 

Ed, no doubt it is the new camshafts, every year they figure out how to make a lobe more aggressive. And every year, we buy better valve springs.

What I said about rocker studs goes back maybe 35 years or so, it's in the old Chevrolet Power manual. They talk about rocker stud failures escalating almost as soon as people started putting roller rockers on.

When you think about it, we run cams in Super Stock now that are more aggressive than Pro Stock cars run not that long ago. We're running roller cam valve springs on flat tappet cams now because the flat tappet cam valve springs won't live, and don't have enough spring rate.

As one of my friends who has been racing 50 years said not long ago, "we ought to take all these new parts and ported heads they told us to run and find the guy who allowed them in, and stick 'em where the sun don't shine". This from a guy who makes a good living, and runs a real nice real fast Super Stock car, from porting heads and building engines.

Re: Are stud girdles legal in Stock?
 

Alan you are correct..................:p

Re: Are stud girdles legal in Stock?
 

If someone at the NHRA tech dept. had any brains they should limit the valve spring pressue to something like 150 seat pressure and 350 open pressures for all brands and types of engines. End of breakage problems from broken valve train parts and unlimited RPMS. Of course some will have to change those S/S type cams back to something more reasonable and slow down a little. Its another thing to check during tear down but its not that hard to do when you already have a couple of valves out for inspection anyway. They should NEVER have allowed the high dollar lifters and expensive valve springs in "STOCK" eliminator in the first place. . My 2 1/2 cents

Re: Are stud girdles legal in Stock?
 

It's a sad fact,you can never go back.

Re: Are stud girdles legal in Stock?
 

Probably not, but if we're smart, and we don't let people get out of control, we can stop the escalation.

Honestly, while not ideal, aftermarket replacement blocks and heads are not nearly the hazard to the health of Stock Eliminator that some of the other stuff out there could easily be.

Re: Are stud girdles legal in Stock?
 

Why not? It would sure save a lot of money for the stock racers. Except for tires size and cam lift they are already Super Stockers and dont tell me about the heads not being ported.

Re: Are stud girdles legal in Stock?
 

Not very many years ago, SS heads weren't ported, and racers didn't have to spend $4000 on a stock head "valve job" to be competitive.

Re: Are stud girdles legal in Stock?
 

Do ya really believe that stocks heads are not ported even more than super stock eliminator heads. SS just says it is legal. That is really the only difference and $4000 probably want get it done especially if you throw in the intake and then there is that thing called a carbotator. Short block aint expensive any more. It is what ya bolt on the d--n thing. Hell I got out cheating on my wife cheaper than I can on a Stck elim car. At least she kept me warm during tha winter and I only paid the lawyer once. Damn car wants somthing every time I start it
charles

Re: Are stud girdles legal in Stock?
 

Yeah, but you can lock the car in the garage for as long as you want, no one will have you arrested for it, so long as you own it. And if you don't start it or work on it, you won't have to listen to it.

Re: Are stud girdles legal in Stock?
 

Did you not know that HUSBANDS are the ones that created the Ipod. When the wife walks in, we install the earbuds in our ears. Hell I even turn mine on every once in a while. I did not know for a year that music came out of the blooming thangs

Re: Are stud girdles legal in Stock?
 

I sometimes feel I made the decision to come back to class racing to late in the game, but I have a dog in the fight now and am trying to become somewhat competitive on just my own resources. It is very hard just to remain out there and not embarass ourselves but we made the choice to run a very tough combo because that is what we ran years ago.(396/375 Stick) I would welcome a return to a more traditional stock interpretation of the rules but would that not put us even further behind the newer cars with favorable technology? P.S. I would like to personally thank all who answer tech questions on this forum, especially Alan Roerich.

Re: Are stud girdles legal in Stock?
 

I thank you for the compliment. I feel I have a debt to repay, there are several people who really stepped up big time to help me when I was struggling a few years back. Too many great people to list here, and I'd leave someone out if I tried. I figure I owe it to them to "pay it forward" so to speak. It's a debt I'll gladly try to repay.