This BILLET Block Girdle Could Be The Key To Insane Horsepower!

[@LoudandProudBSE]

Glad I could help bud! That was a fun one haha

[@Calvin-Nelson]

Can't thank you enough! Thanks again!

[@rickywade177]

It is complicated to machine the first time. But wayyyyy easier to cast, if its something you may be interested i am set up to do such a thing. And would love to see the atlas get more attention.

[@LoudandProudBSE]

@rickywade177 this is the answer. Near net cast and then machine to cleanup

[@yeahbuddygarage]

Man that’s some killer work especially being from a home built CNC machine! Bryson, you’ve definitely earned my subscription 👊

[@andrewnelson3733]

​@@rickywade177we need to talk. I will visit with Calvin about contacting you.

[@jcooper702]

Its a shame this channel only has 46K subs - it is very well-produced and informative!

[@hifi4lyfe406]

As Walter White once said... your goddamn right.

[@macattack1392]

Ditto

[@macattack1392]

Sad thing is I can't even make a new comment. Can only reply for some reason

[@MotorSwapDan]

He'll get there

[@macattack1392]

@@MotorSwapDan should of been already is what he is saying

[@hoost3056]

It could sell, and I know how. Gotta take the braced Vortec 4200 to a lot of events and beat people, especially the small tire/no prep ones.

[@PiDsPagePrototypes]

The girdle is one of the key parts that keeps a Barra together, this is a big step forward for the 4200. That price per unit would be pretty fair - you and Bryce could do it it as a machined-to-order product, only setting them up on the CNC bed once a 50% deposit is paid.

[@anomamos9095]

You can sometimes mitigate warping issues by plotting the cuts in a similar manner to tightening head studs. Avoid removing too much in one spot in one pass, also drill through the corners of any full depth cuts first. Keep doing temperature checks across the material to ensure that there’s no hot or cold spots that are more than a degree or two different.

[@SkypowerwithKarl]

Next time use 7075 aluminum. It’s much stronger, machines great and has the same thermal expansion. All metals will move after machining. You machine the parts to finish except for the critical surfaces where you leave stock. Un clamp the parts to let it go to a relaxed position. Now level it up and place shims under the high spots so it keeps its relaxed shape when clamped so critical dimensions can be machined. Now you have new registers that can be used to do any additional work. I do this practically everyday. Yes it’s tedious but it’s the right way if have close tolerances.

[@Calvin-Nelson]

Yep. We talked about doing that, but decided not to.

[@williamstel9330]

I was told by a lady running a leading drysump pump manufacturing shop that 2024 has much better strength at high temp than 7075. And that was why her husband had used it.

[@DavidM2002]

I built 3 home CNC machines and have been using them for over 20 years and I've never seen anything so well thought through and so well executed by a home designer and maker. So well done.

[@FastSheetGarage]

First off, thanks for even going down the endless rabbit hole that is building ATLAS engines. I’m a technician by trade and have had a poor opinion of these engines and a poor opinion of the chassis that they had wrapped around them. You hands down have changed my opinion of the power plant, and fellas like JWhit have changed my mind about the chassis. I could be wrong, but this video to me seems like the beginning of a max effort build of the ATLAS, and I’m 100% here for it!

[@shadowopsairman1583]

The trailblazer with said engine is still pretty popular here due to fact it is rwd and not a fwd suv like the current model is.

[@FastSheetGarage]

@@shadowopsairman1583 agreed. Most of the TB/Envoy/etc. vehicles in this area are between 150-200k so we are not seeing them in dealerships nearly as often, but they are still very present.

[@brianmiller1149]

I am proud to see fellow Pennsylvanians build such awesome stuff! Building your own cnc machine then machining a part like this is next level!!

[@mikellewis2346]

O I didn't realize he's from PA. I'm near Harrisburg PA. Small world sometimes.

[@nobodynoone2500]

You should release the files! (perhaps with an NDA if you want to sell them in the future should production become cheaper) Great work so far!

[@battleaxefabandmachine]

As a mechanic and machinist, I can have a great appreciation for that piece. I'm just an old school manual machinist. Lol

[@emperorbobarino]

The girdle, scraper, windage tray combo is a great idea. Looks really good. Also, good on you for recognizing that precipitation hardened Aluminum doesn't always love having the hell machined out of it.

[@Levibetz]

Holy shit! I've had an interest in building a CNC router to do similar stuff before myself. Primarily I think it'd be extremely cool to be able to machine plates to be able to build cylinder heads. I could copy-paste LS port shapes onto an AMC 4.0, or possibly even just machine two LS heads to bolt on with o-ring grooves sealing the two halves in the center. The ultimate dream is to build a GMC 478 V6 with billet heads to make a crazy high RPM big block V6 like they do with BBCs. There's gotta be some 6 cylinder racing class with no displacement limit. I think you could take like a 1" plate, machine a deck, then machine ports in two halves, weld them together, then weld them into the deck, plates to weld together the valvetrain deck and sides.

[@bobg3034]

Thank god something other than an LS!

[@kalybnielsen4183]

I like watching engine builds and new ideas, but the LS, as great of a motor as it is, it is enough to gag you, "Let's turbocharge it!", wow, just like everyone else, congratulations. A straight 6? You don't hardly ever see a build unless it's a Jeep 4.0, big whoop, a Ford 300, yay, you never see a GM 250, those were great engines, reliable, and once in a blue moon, there is someone that mentions a 292 with no details. This Atlas series is awesome, there is 1 guy that would ever dream about using it and it's on this channel, now I want one in a late 70's Chevy C10, just because

[@edugj23]

In the US, yeah, V8s are so plentiful that inline sixes fade into obscurity. But we play a lot with them down in South America, and they're some old platforms making big power.

[@benandjakehuston6321]

Super, super, super cool. Hella stoked for you. Youre doing everything i wish i could right now

[@whereisamerica7384]

Very cool. It's killer watching your ideas come to life. It's nice to see others team up with you guys to make this platform work. So many people guard information like It's the nuclear codes.

[@fuse8052]

REALLY enjoying these videos. I know we make some good engines in the US. These videos prove it! Makes me want a single turbo 4.2 in my S10 so I can go eat imports!

[@Tommy-B.]

I knew you were no dummy from watching your previous videos, but this truly demonstrates genius, sir.

[@Lagrange1186]

Well… this part is definitely a game changer. Bravo sir I feel like you are gonna bring the platform to yet another new level

[@jondahl3173]

I liked the pressure vessel demonstration, it really accentuated the point!!😅

[@jeffheins6624]

This is wild. Can't wait to see the camaro come together on a race week

[@jamest.5001]

I wanted to do something similar with a small block Chevy. Design a two piece oil pan. The upper sealing to the block with a o-ring and bolting on with the mains. Things got complicated around the oil pump! Running a external pump would be simple. Just drill a oil passage to the rear main. With it also attaching by 1/2" bolt just outside the main caps. On the main webs and possibly enlarging the corner end pan bolts. And add a few dowels to lock in place, possibly using dowels in the main caps to girdle interfaces. The problem would be oil pans, no one makes them! It would require possibly 2-3 different pans. Maybe making a pan kit, basically a modular design. That are like Legos, that get welded after the pan is in the required shape, so a front sump, rear sump, wide shallow sump. 2/3 -3/4 of the pan would be basically flat going at a slight angle to the sump. It's complicated, but a baffled aluminum pan would look awesome, possibly add cooling. But sbc would be fine with the small steel girdles..

[@Baard2000]

Love the choise of music !!!!!!!!!!

[@michaelb5330]

Barra killer ! Oh how much the Aussies would love it if we had access to this motor and had it in some Australian built models from GMH to stick it to the ford guys in some friendly rivalry between inline6 from the big two (Rb30) Aussie already give the ford guys some fun

[@frankensteincreations4740]

Next version you can integrate the main caps into the girdle… 🤔 Pretty sweet! I’m in the middle of prototyping a part of my own… Working with a local cnc company. I did the exact same thing lol. Designed it to a t in the cad program, and now he has to go through it and run all of his tooling and tool paths… 👍🤘

[@brandonrenwick9125]

+1 sub for the nice cnc machining. dude thats a very well thought out design! mega boss moves on L&P making that part with that cnc im very impressed with the programming!!! that part would rip in the vf2ss at work. we are in new freedom PA if the need arises for more than one.

[@danh.4995]

I am looking forward to this build coming together in the Camaro! Can't wait for the next live stream.

[@TurboWorld]

Totally gnarly man, can't wait! Just got one for my redblock from overboost racing channel across seas. Great things this year fam!

[@danielcarroll5667]

Intense ! A piece of art , yup , there'll be a market for it when you start doubling the power anyone has made with the platform before...

[@zdkama]

Oh shit, that intro music. You must play KSP :) The first half of this felt like The Odyssey by Billet ;). Really nice job.

[@philipschrantz8402]

So satisfying to see the chips flying and the design be revealed!

[@fatbubba2097]

Turned out amazing! Another great video, keep them coming!

[@jasonshald1912]

Finally the algorithm nails it. Awesome work. Heading over to your buddies channel. Doing much the same as he is but with a 56' chev and in the process of building another CNC mill. Lots of questions for him. Thanks!

[@slfrules1]

That thing is beautiful man! You nailed it fr! Looks like it could come in a Dailey kit

[@button-puncher]

WOW. That is a work of art. Mesmerizing watching it being made. Incredible work all around. I'm guessing just the cost of the billet block would it put it out of the reach of most. BTW, ever try ATF when drilling aluminum? I love it. Made to keep steel from sticking to aluminum.

[@Calvin-Nelson]

Thanks. I'll have to try it.

[@JimBosGarage49]

I have ran CNC machines for 30 years and still love to watch them work. Awesome job to both of you.

[@gafrers]

Great work. Love the development. LoudandProud's build is Insane.

[@edwardoneail1537]

Amazing abilities on both design and execution,thank you!

[@warrenlucier5796]

I think the 3rd iteration of this is a charm and hopefully it works out as intended.

[@matthewlarson1050]

That's amazing!!!! Can't wait to see some Dyno numbers after you get it installed!! I love all the Atlas content! My first car was a 1979 AMC AMX with the 258 inline six and a four speed! I've always loved inline six engines and I fell in love with the Trailblazer/Envoy performance.

[@HOTRODPOKEMON]

Nice brother looking into the platform now thanks for paving the way

[@MichaelDurig1]

This was fun. My Dad was a tool Maker and was considered by his peers as a Cracker Jack. (A designation to describe someone who was in the top 1% of the trade) He often spoke of using a milling machine and how his trade was being replaced with computers in the early 80's. Thanks for sharing.

[@monkeybarmonkeyman]

Milling has always been a very alluring process to my eyes and mind. I never got to do it myself but I used to work in an automotive machine shop many, many years ago. You know, rebuilding blocks, valve jobs, even working with the old babbit bearings in those straight eights. I'm going over to Bryson's channel to sub up, at least for a while, see what he's got. As to what you, your dad and mom are doing race car-wise, yup, eager to see anything you folks want to put up for us to watch.

[@danielhertz7266]

That "warping" is from the material stresses relieving during cutting.

[@Calvin-Nelson]

Yep.

[@nicksautorepair6936]

I love the major level of innovation on this channel. It’s amazing!

[@Mattndew676]

6061-T6 billet can be fly cut to relieve the curling stress and then bake at 400° for 4 hours to stabilize it even more.

[@gsturnerjr]

Stick with it sir, not throwing money out the window AND going fast... 🏁🏁🏁🏁

[@bdkw1]

Tooling plate will warp due to material removal too. Your part has pretty even material removal and shouldn't have warping issues no matter the grade of aluminum. Cast tooling plate is better at damping vibrations than wrought aluminum, so that may be a benefit.

[@Calvin-Nelson]

Yeah. You could be right there. I have thought of just trying to have one machined and see what happens with regular 6061

[@bdkw1]

@@Calvin-Nelson I do this every day. If you want something better, use QC10 mold plate.

[@jaybee6477]

It’s too bad you won’t be able to see it once installed, it looks awesome

[@SCARFACE69247]

When you get that engine figured out it's going to be awesome!

[@edugj23]

Oh, technology development! It's surely one of the best things that come from the pursuit for high performance.

[@patpayson]

It looks like a very nice piece and should perform well.

[@manitoublack]

need the associated dry-sump pan

[@Mastermindyoung14]

You're the tip on the spear. Keep it up!

[@maldo72]

crazy that you have less than 50k subs (2024) with he amount of work you have been doing .. great content

[@Bajahaha70]

I could only imagine what you would have to charge for one of these. Mind blowing work can’t wait to see how the Camaro works out!!

[@jakeness4863]

You are an inspiration man

[@Sir.JohnHawkins]

Hell yeah I can't wait to see you really push these atlas motors 🤘

[@rosch1964]

no project is sucesfull w/o a little help of the friends... nice an be proud that you have one. Thats what friends are for...

[@jessealbright8593]

This is awesome man keep up the work i can't wait to see this engine being used more normally 🤘🇺🇸

[@Stona999]

Fantastic work. Keep up the great content!!

[@danielfmyers]

Looking like middle school bathroom “wall art” around 11 minutes 😂

[@Calvin-Nelson]

Yeah. That's just what to computer generated. Bryson and I just shook our heads. Lol

[@lloydratsoy2057]

KUDOS! That is sweet. You are very lucky to have a buddy that can and will do things like that for you.

[@michaelwoods1812]

This really is a diamond in the rough channel. Like the early stages of Rob Dahm’s channel.

[@Low760]

But they have been online since 2016 with the 4200

[@michaelwoods1812]

@@Low760 I only stumbled across this gem of a channel about a month and a half ago. So I guess I got a lot of content to catch up on.

[@Calvin-Nelson]

Rob Dahm is a huge inspiration for me. I got to meet him last year. What a cool dude.

[@Watchmedome3017]

By far the coolest Timelapse I’ve seen on KZbin so far ❤

[@Thesaurcery4U2C]

There is nothing more satisfying as watching chips fly, while listening to one of the best composed musical pieces ever.

[@CrazyQbin]

Hell yeah keep up the hard work team.

[@albertsalzman6618]

I can watch CNC videos aaaaaallll day. That part looks like jewelry to me. Also, how you gonna just casually have the ginormous snail on the floor next to you when you know we all watch these vids thirsty for jet engine noises? That's torture. C'mon, man!

[@jeromedenmark7587]

WOW looking forward to the next video

[@Moto_]

Love what you're doing with the 4200

[@bobeeman9730]

Beautiful piece. I got a box chevy wagon with an olds motor, and you got me on facebook looking at donors. 😅

[@Кто-тоНонея-у2я]

Great job. Keep up the good work. Good luck.

[@MrBigR928]

Good stuff 👍🏾

[@uptownsamcv]

awesome!! it's amazing watching technology at work.

[@andrewisenbart3404]

Wow! that is an awesome girdle. I'm curious how many hours went in it, tell by the time laps a lot of machining alone.

[@Calvin-Nelson]

It was a LOT.

[@scrapmetal_sleepers]

Beautiful part, cant wait to see it installed.

[@2dogsmowing]

I'm curious to how long it took to cnc that piece? It was cool seeing the fast version but when it was in normal time. I could see that piece taking a week. That's with it running over night. Which it looked at times it was.

[@Calvin-Nelson]

It took quite a while. Probably 100 hours if I had to guess.

[@2dogsmowing]

@@Calvin-Nelson ha, I was pretty good on about a week and working nights also. 😂 Keep up the great work. I can't wait to see the car make a pass down the strip.

[@ryanlovins1607]

That's a beautiful piece.

[@johnwjr2905]

Kevin you've done it again! Hope everything works out great and that you and your friend can continue with this somehow

[@michaelbrooks9462]

So a game changer to really get a name out there would to build the 4200 as a AWD car like something in a 5 gen Camaro or c5 corvette. GM really screwed up when they stopped developing this platform. It would be cool to see some of the i5 engines that GM made and slapped in to something like a Chevy volt or cruise.

[@Calvin-Nelson]

Yeah. Definitely would be cool. I just have some bad blood with torque steer.

[@paul5683]

From the looks of that cnc mill/router, I can only imagine that is a noisy sob. There's a reason machine tools are made out of heavy cast iron, not just precision but also vibration reduction. Very impressive bit of engineering. As long as I'm not in the same room as that howling beast. I can imagine what something like this would have cost for a real machine shop to make. Good thing Bryson works for free.

[@Calvin-Nelson]

Eh. It's not horrible. You definitely want hearing protection though.

[@joshlewis5065]

Shit just got REAL

[@LoganC278]

Very cool! Loving the new videos this year

[@jeffer9499]

Wow that was a huge task on what essentially is a robust cnc router.. Geez that had to take forever.

[@LoudandProudBSE]

It did. Lol. I built a router to do molds for carbon fiber. Someday I'll get a "real" mill. Someday is the day after I get a bigger shop! Ha

[@erikrummel6277]

@@LoudandProudBSE what are you machining the molds out of? Epoxy tooling board? I ask because I’m interested in CNC molds for large carbon fiber parts.

[@LoudandProudBSE]

@erikrummel6277 poor mans tooling board. Machine MDF .100" stock to leave. Brush on infusion viscosity epoxy. It soaks in deep and hardens the surface. Come back and finish machine to size. If you wanna get a higher grade finish... reepoxy with a heavier resin and run another skim pass. Does a great job and is much much much more affordable than tooling board

[@spencercoates9067]

SUMA TECHNOLOGY in Huntsville Al. I used to work there when they did the milling on shuttle fuel tanks.

[@angelobauza3964]

Very impressive young man l love it

[@Thefrostedslime]

Is there any way these might eventually be up for sale? I plan to do a 4200 swap one day but don’t have the machinery or know how for stuff like this

[@Calvin-Nelson]

Something like this really isn't required for almost anyone. The factory main girdle is quite the piece. At some point, we may pursue selling them though.

[@scottsutherland7426]

The classical while machining is the best AVE reference I could have asked for 🫡

[@brendanlongo1749]

I will be here for the process. Not going anywhere

[@AppleBag1000]

was that a cnc router table , how long did that take

[@roadrunner4404]

Greatness.

[@dat_blue_si]

Seriously, I love what you're doing, man!!

[@shanmar3356]

Would it be beneficial to incorporate the main caps into this piece?

[@Calvin-Nelson]

Yes

[@nickdoescher9957]

Any body wanna pitch in and have this guy create us billet parts 🤣😂

[@chestercobblepot7839]

Now you’ll just have to make the upper half of the block billet. You know, so it’ll match.

[@Calvin-Nelson]

That's a great idea!

[@nobodynoone2500]

Oh, but then you'd need billet heads.

[@chestercobblepot7839]

Billet all the things!

[@TomBudin]

insane

[@ronstiles2681]

Lot of work sir, i prefer to fit a ho v8 ,but its about enjoying what you want !!! Nicely done

[@balljointfd3s]

Just curious, have you ever seen the stock Girdle fail? Amazing piece of work and hope this leads to making some big numbers!

[@Calvin-Nelson]

Nope. Stock girdle is awesome. Never seen a failure. He have started to notice uneven main bearing wear though

[@michaelblacktree]

I don't think the issue here is girdle failure. The issue is the girdle flexing enough to let other parts fail.

[@michaelblacktree]

That's awesome! 👍