As far as only 1/2” of thread engagement, that would more than likely be enough. General rule of thumb is 1 times the nominal screw diameter for steel holes, 2 for aluminum. Block is of course cast iron but I would think that ~1x nominal diameter engagement would be sufficient, especially since there isn’t a particularly large amount of thrust loading on that bearing/plate (or else they would have used tapered roller bearings instead of ball bearings
)
Good info. I might just go with the 1 inch bolts. I was really surprised
at how close the 1.25 inchers were to bottoming out. Pretty scary. Would
sure hate to crack a block.
Ken