is it safe to tap holes for accesories? how much at a shop, how much and where to get the factory of aftermarket brackets. its non ac, so just powersteering and alternator.

I've seen it done, but I don't know if it is safe to do. Just be aware that even if you drill and tap those heads, the later brackets still do not line up because the accessory heads have a pad cast where the holes are drilled, and that places the end of these heads in a different position than the non-acc heads will be if you drill them.
You would be better off finding the older brackets or building your own so you don't need the holes on the ends of the heads to mount your accessories.

you can do it w/o the accessory holes. I wish I had pics of my old setup, needless to say I DONT, but it wasnt hard

PS was attached to water pump, header bolt

Alt I can't remember....

the 307 that i had in the car had that power steering set up, on pump, and header. so that i can remeber and recreate. alternator was bolted to head. the heads were 598 and had holes. now its a357 with 291 heads. someone once posted about brackets and a site. finding original is going to be hard and way to pricy for me.

back when i ran powersteering,mine like what the fed said,with a bracket going from the water pump to an exhaust bolt..only problem i had was it would never sit or stay perfectly straight...

as for the alternator i just ran it like normal with one bolt to the intake,one to the WP,and nothing going to the head..ive never had an problem with doing it this way.

I'm running without accessory holes in my '462 heads. I used the stock alternator bracket. The lower bolt just not bolt into the head. Alan Grove makes some nice brackets for mounting everything without holes in the heads. They even make a small bracket to support the back of the alternator. I am using one of their A/C brackets for my Sanden 508 compressor, and I ended up making my own power steering pump bracket because I have a metric pump in my '81...

http://alangrovecomponents.com/S.B.Long_Pump.htm

Fwiw, short w/p SB motor heads don't have holes in them.. ('68 and older.)...

That I know of..

pdq67

Be advised:

I wanted to drill and tap the front of my 462's for accessories a couple years ago. The local machine shop advised strongly against it with the rationale that the front of the castings are to thin and will eventually crack into the heads water jackets . . . ruining the heads. This was not an option for the 461 or 462 castings. What castings do you have?

mine are the 291 castings. i believe it could be done, the 292 right after, were drilled, so i think the same base cast; however i may be selling mine because i think my compression will be in the 9:6-9:7 and thats too much for pump even with a .038 quench. love the heads but can't afford a daily driver on race fuel.

Darknight... Who ever told you that's too much compression for pump gas is wrong..

Although the parts and tune plays a big role, I have ran engine's with higher CR on 93 octane fuel many times.

The cam is one of the major players in if you can or can't run pump fuel.

With my car now I have iron heads (462's), 355 with 10.18:1 compression and it's my daily driver.. Uses nothing but pumped 93 octane fuel.

Around 5,000 miles on engine so far and not a single prob.

I didnt have to back the timing down to 34* in summer, 35* in winter. Med. speed curve, that starts at around 900 to 1,000 rpm and all in at 3,000 rpm.

Jetted my carb up a good bit, and built a sealed cold air system for the carb.

Also had to limit my vac. advance

Night rider-my cam is that 268XE which is a pretty good street cam. 1800-5800 power band,doesnt really need a stall but likes one, needs a good dual plane, and most dynos run it aroun 9:3 to 9:4. the reason they say is that the profile builds cylinder pressure as it climbs the curve. so starting at 9:3 it builds to like 9:5? i could have sworn i had a 280H in my old 327 with fullie heads and never worried about pump gas. but i hear from so many engine shops and "experts" that anything over 9:5 is asking for trouble. i think with my fuelies and the higher compr. that cam would be happier and would out pull the same set up with 67, 72, or 76 heads no matter what brand. good compression equals power. mine is 357, hyper dish, and plan on running a rich 650 edlebrock. 2200 stall and 3.42 rear. adj HEI from accell. Dont know about cold air intake, but will put a valley baffle in to help a little on manifold temp. wrap my headers as well.

I'm running '462s with 0.080 over flat top pistons. The block was decked to get rid of a ding. I have a Comp 268h cam. I am guessing I have somewhere between 9.5 and 10:1 compression. I have run pump gas (93 octane) for 2 years with no trouble, probably over 20k miles...

81baby did your heads get milled any? is it your daily driver? How is that cam throughout the powerband in your car?

my PS bracket on my 71 doesn't bolt to the heads, I think the tensioner goes down to the front top bolt of the engine mount, and doglegs up to the first exh. bolt hole. like every one else just bolt the bottom of the alt. with a short bolt and nut. jim

Dark Night... What's the duration specs and LSA on the 268XE? I'm not a comp cam fan so I don't keep up with thier info/specs

My cam is a crane 272-2 powermax. 272/284*, 216/228 @ .050", 112 LSA, I added 1.6 rockers and that should bump the .050" duration up to 218/230*

Stall and gear, along with tune, quench, etc is what keeps me out of detonation.

I have 210-218 psi cyl. pressure depenginf on weather cond. when I check it, and if hot or cold engine. The "rule of thumb" is 175-190 psi is good for street on pump fuel.

Lugging an engine will cause it to ping if your at the limits. With my 2800 stall converter and 3.42 gears, I'm never lugging the engine.


Oh yeah to answer your real question.. Run a norm. alt. bracket. Bolt the top bracket to the intake and water pump. Then on the lower bracket bolt it to the water pump.

Install the alt. like norm, but get a short lower bolt and a tap. Put the bolt through the lower bracket, alt. and then put the tap on it.

That's what I did on mine.

Now this is gonna sound odd, but for my power steering. I drilled a 3/8" hole in to top right coner of the front driver's head.. I didnt tap it. I just put a bolt through and a tap on the inside of the head. Covered the bolt with RTV when it installed afterthing for good.

For the bracket. I had 2 parts of it. The part that bolts to the water pump and the power steering, and the bracket on the pump with the slide slot in it.

For the other bracket to go from head to pump, I just took an old bottom alt. bracket, turned it upside down and angled some. Works good for me lol. Sounds odd, but don't look too bad. Most people don't even notice it.

Darknight, the heads were ready to bolt on when I bought them, so I don't know the history on them. This was my son's daily driver, now it is mine for the next year and it does just fine in that role. I like the cam, it has a nice lope at idle but not too pronounced. Plenty of vacuum, about 18" at idle. This is the first car I have ever owned with a "real" engine in it, so I don't have anything to compare it to. I don't push it very hard, and have probably never taken it past 4000 RPM. It sure seems to pull strongly up to that point. I guess the combo I have (see my profile) should make power from 1500 to 4500 or so. I do know that if you really get on it, second gear in the ST-10 is still pulling strong at 55 mph http://www.nastyz28.com/ubb/smile.gif

462 castings can be drilled and tapped for accessory holes if the machinest knows what they're doing. I know because I have 3 sets of 462's and all have been drilled and tapped. The trick my machinest did was that he used a 1/2" thick dowel and welded it to the end of the heads in the 3 locations on one end of each head, then ground down to the correct thickness. He obviously has a template or something because bracket alignment is never an issue. This makes the head walls thicker and can be safely drilled and tapped. On all the heads however, the hole closest to the valve cover flange actually penetrated into the rocker arm valley. But that's not a problem. A little thread sealer on that particular accessory bolt and it's leak free. He charged me $30 per head to do this. This guy really knows his stuff.

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Objects In Mirror Are LOSING

This is what I did for the alt. prob.
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/4/web/832000-832999/832290_10_full.jpg
The bracket in the rear I had to make, works verry well. BTW if you decide to run the heads and still need a bracket let me know I can make another.

sweet, nothing is cooler than someone working with metal and welders. i problably will use them, so i will be in touch.