So thanks to this thread, I have a couple of good leads for getting my hands on a torque plate, this community is awesome.
But that still begs the question, how necessary is a torque plate? The way it was explained to me by a couple of local machinists, the head bolt holes on a Pontiac block are so far from the cylinder walls that their effect on bore distortion is minimal at best, especially compared to something like a Chevy small block where the holes are really close to the bores. Plus there's only 4 bolts per cylinder, vs 5 for the Chevy. That means fewer bolts pulling at the cylinder walls.
There's a whole bunch of Pontiac enthusiasts around my area, and every one I spoke to was like "meh, don't need one for Pontiac engines", followed by the usual anecdotes of "my engines make over XXXhp and I ain't never had a problem" (which doesn't actually answer anything about the benefits of honing with a torque plate). Meanwhile, most of the Internet and all the Pontiac engine rebuilding book authors are advocating for a torque plate as "essential" to a healthy, long-lasting build. Does the truth lay somewhere in between? Like maybe it's somewhat beneficial but not essential? 25stevem makes a good point that Pontiac didn't use one, but then we're making the cylinder walls thinner when we bore, and I'm hoping this build will last longer than a stock Pontiac one.
For what it's worth, I'm definitely planning to use one.
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