not yet. Still tracking down wiring issues. But i was having head gaskets issues on the stock engine (which is part of the reason i pulled it and rebuilt it)

Like i said, girdles help for keeping your shit together when it breaks. Jeff (cobra912) snapped a rod at only 550rwhp (forged btw) and it launched out of the car and just about cut the block in half.

I have a girdle on the spare motor with forged internals, the sbf tends to crack at the front of the block near the cam. There's just not enough material in the block to keep it from going, the caps are small, the crank it 75% exposed its a wonder the block even hols the power it can

It's difficult to define "hard", but my car is driven anything but nicely. Last run was over 100 miles and barely under 4k or 80 mph. I run the bitch hard. That's how the damned bumper needed replaced actually. My opinion: proper setup and tune, no need for head gaskets popping.

I have about 90,000 miles in 6 years on my engine combo which makes 11-12 psi with a Vortech SQi S-trim and puts down 471rwhp. I drag race, autocross, road race, etc and it sees redline every time I drive it. I also use it as my daily driver and since I have customers in northern Cal and AZ that I drive to it's not unusual for me to put 600-700 miles on it in a day.

But like you said proper tuning is key as is the setup. My tune is safe and redline for me is 5800 because of the E303 cam. I have my rev limiter at the factory 6250 and it only hit it if the tires break loose. Even when I'm showing off doing a burnout I don't floor it so it doesn't hit the rev limiter.

I can second that, the only time I blew out a HG it was running super lean. But studs will def make it easier to drop the heads in place. Scratching the bottom of the head trying to get the dowel pin to line up always sucks.

PS, girdles help keep the crank from flexing. Not that there will be so much stress on the crank in a normal app that the block needs a girdle to keep it in place, like rocker girdles, but after 100k miles I would imagine there would be less wear. So Id vote no on a block girdle, yes on rocker girdles.

Ben mentioned adding a couple hundred horsepower capacity to a sbf using valley and main girdles. That mean you're taking a stock block ford from 500rwhp capacity to 700rwhp capacity. No, just no, a stock sbf block will NEVER hold that kind of power for more then a few miles. Not sure how you screwed up a rocker stud but i've never heard of anyone fucking up a sbf rocker/stud with 7/16 studs

Its not difficult to define hard if you've seen Ron drive. I treat my car the same way, though I cant seem to just drive something without fucking with it.

Rons car is a freak but also not reving it helps ALOT with a sbf.

My point was its just subjective. I run my junk hard too.

I have been told by everyone and their dog that revs kill them also. I take mine to the 6200 redline I have set every time it runs. Not sure if that's considered high by all, but by most I guess it is *shrugs*

Depends on the setup. If that was my Cobra I would consider it high but not with my Chevelle. I shift the Chevelle at 6500 and I've hit valve float at 7200 during a burnout before I installed a limiter chip. Oh, and the Chevelle has a cast crank and 2 bolt mains.

Add 13lbs of boost on a motor setup to produce 450hp NA and youll get a better idea how I screwed up a rocker stud. Plus I spin to 6500, rev limiter is set for 7k, and Ive hit it.

3/8 or 7/16"? ARP or standard sbc? Cause ikve never heard of people having issues with studs on a sbf surprisingly.