BDE Crank Girdle

Discussion in 'Technical' started by chewy, Apr 15, 2018.

  1. chewy

    chewy Active Member

    How sweet is this crank girdle from BDE. Good to see people still creating new parts for the old girl:
    http://www.bde-performance.com/bedplate.htm

    Just need a reason to strip the engine down and $4000 USD spare cash :)

    [​IMG]
     
    bret likes this.
  2. bret

    bret Member

    That’s sweet I like that
     
  3. induetime

    induetime Induetime

    Add that to the Aluminum block he is also working on & you have a killer bottom end.
     
  4. chewy

    chewy Active Member

    do you have a photo of the block?
     
  5. jellybeans

    jellybeans Active Member

     
  6. LitlElvis

    LitlElvis Z32 Servant

    The VG aluminum block is on the back-burner while I finish up the bedplate. At the very least, I plan to do a billet VG for myself and then see how much interest it generates.
     
  7. MagicMike

    MagicMike Moderator Staff Member

    Can you outline the benefits for us please?
     
  8. jellybeans

    jellybeans Active Member

    weight reduction im guessing? and no engine numbers so unregisterable. Unless BDE will engrave the same one as you have in your car now. :)
     
  9. LitlElvis

    LitlElvis Z32 Servant

    As far as I'm concerned, the number one benefit driving me to develop an aluminum block is increased bottom end strength with solid main bearing bulkheads that will allow for 4 bolt mains to increase fastener preload. Not far behind that is roughly a 30 to 40 lb weight savings. Another benefit are replaceable wet cylinder sleeves similar to Darton's MID stystem to allow full water jackets and potential bore sizes up to 100mm (new heads would be required to feed that much increase in displacement though...).
     
    MagicMike likes this.
  10. MagicMike

    MagicMike Moderator Staff Member

    Thanks for that, keep us posted!
     
  11. chewy

    chewy Active Member

    A 100mm bore would take it up to 3.9L right?
    Sooo... when are you going to do some nice billet alloy heads too :)
     
  12. jellybeans

    jellybeans Active Member

    this is sounding pretty exotic ,would a gtr v6 be cheaper though
     
  13. LitlElvis

    LitlElvis Z32 Servant

    That depends upon how you look at it...

    The VG/Z32 has a large amount of aftermarket support built up already, to not take advantage of all of that will cost extra. A VR/Z32 is just a concept and hardly any better promise of delivering to the level of expectations that is pushing this development in the first place.

    What does it take to adapt a VR into a Z32? Or, what are you willing to pay for someone to figure it out? A quality adaptation takes a lot of time to sort through everything, and doing it as a one-off would be exorbitantly expensive to pay someone to do - even with the intent to develop and sell in quantity, the investment would be enormous. In the end, you would still be stuck with a stock block - there are already some billet VR blocks that have been produced for the GT-R crowd, so apparently the stock VR block has limitations that didn't meet the expectations of someone, and now we're right back where we started... talking about making custom engine blocks.
     
  14. LitlElvis

    LitlElvis Z32 Servant

    Yes, in that range of displacement with a stock stroke crank.

    It would be really cool to make some new VG heads, but they would have to be cast to get the water jackets in them... probably 10 years for me to get there.:eek:
     
  15. jellybeans

    jellybeans Active Member

    Don't get me wrong i would prefer an alloy VG with 100mm bore and new heads. Could your engine be road registered and would it have engine numbers. Im not sure what the cost of an engine like the one you are proposing to build would be worth and i am guessing going to that extreme its more likely to be used for racing purposes where the benefits are better realised. To use those advantages on the street might be a little antisocial. Just what sort of dollars are talking for something like this. 25K bare block and bare heads?
     
  16. lidz

    lidz Well-Known Member


    Actually Brett one of the members here has already swapped a vr into the z32, have a look at Badxtc's build thread https://aus300zx.com/xenforo/index.php?threads/300zx-gtr-r35-holinger-syvecs.336742/

    (Great work as always too with all the latest innovations!)
     
  17. jellybeans

    jellybeans Active Member

    it doesn't fit though
     
  18. lidz

    lidz Well-Known Member

    Of course it does, needing clearance from the bonnet is a pretty common issue with a lot of the engine swaps. That hardly means it doesn't fit.
     
  19. LitlElvis

    LitlElvis Z32 Servant

    I'll have to admit that I've never considered whether an aftermarket block could be road registered in Australia since it isn't an issue here in the US. I do understand though, because I too feel that I need to be able to drive my race car on the street to fully realize my "investment". It would most likely have to be considered a "legal for off-road use only" part and the end user would assume the responsibility if they decide to use it in a street registered vehicle. LOL at your "antisocial"... good name for the product if it ever comes to be.

    I hate to throw out prices on a product that is barely even developed, so nobody hold me to this... I did do quite a bit of research on casting an aluminum VG block and figured I could produce it for around $6K USD including sleeves and steel main caps, but only if a minimum of 2o are sold to help offset the core patterns and tooling costs. Doing the same to a set of new heads to cast would most likely be a similar pattern/tooling cost but I imagine finished heads would cost less since there should be a higher quantity demand for them to use on stock iron blocks also.

    Billet would be mainly machining time and the cost of the 6061 chunk... roughly around $25K USD for just one block. I've contacted every billet block manufacturer on the planet, none have done a VG nor plan to, and they all want a minimum commitment of anywhere from 4 to 10 blocks (depending upon who you talk to) before they'll consider it, AND, I wouldn't own the rights to the block for resale... unfortunately I'm not independently wealthy and I simply can't do that.
     
  20. LitlElvis

    LitlElvis Z32 Servant

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