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John,
if you use goodcalculators then the result is less than .080", which is a lot less than .125". But that is for pure aluminum, not the alloys we are using. These alloys will grow less than pure aluminum. As an example, Bruce Anderson did a test and heated a Niksil cylinder from 20C to 120C and measured the rate of expansion. What he measured was an expansion of .005" from 3.365" to 3.37". Extrapolating from 3.365" to 36" would give you approximately .054" total expansion.
Speedy Squirrel,
I hope that you are not inferring that the bolts holding the engine together are actually controlling the expansion rate of the Aluminum. All the bolts do, is providing a certain amount of clamping force, which will increase with Aluminums higher expansion rate than steel. But the bolts will stretch to accomodate the growing aluminum and if designed properly, the bolts will stay in their elastic region. If you think that the force applied by the bolts will overcome the force applied by the heat expansion of the aluminum, then I would suggest an experiment with an iron V8 engine block in the winter time. Let the anti freeze out of your cooling system and fill it with water instead. See what happens in a hard freeze.
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