Are stud girdles legal in Stock?

[mcmanus2301]

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

Scott

[Jeff Lee]

No.

[Ed Fernandez]

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

.

[Alan Roehrich]

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.

[Ed Fernandez]

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

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.

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.

[Alan Roehrich]

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.

[Bob Bender]

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

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.

Alan you are correct..................

[X-TECH MAN]

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

[Ed Fernandez]

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

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by Ed Fernandez

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

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.