My experience with replacing the headstuds one at a time wasn't a good one. I do realize that this will and has worked for some but it didn't work for me. I didn't shortcut my job and did everything to spec but I ended up pulling the head and it was not very fun at all. Now who knows it could of been on its way out before I did the studs but everything showed up after I did them. One thing for sure is the 70ft lbs is not enough torque. After replacing the stock headgasket I ran mine up to 95ft lbs and enshured that the studs and block threads where clean and dry before I put everything back together. I truly feel that this is an at your own risk move but on a good note I did get to clean up the casting flaws on my head. These were located on Cylinder #4 and #1 on the outsides mostly and were only visible once I had taken the head to have it cleaned and inspected.

 

How long had you let the car cool before the install? What order did you use to install the studs one at a time?

 

So Zues, with the "one at a time" method you're saying that you do not need to remove the head and therefore not have to replace the gasket?

 

The car had sit for 2 days when I installed them and the temp outside was about 40 degrees or so. I used the install order in the manual as it was recommened in the how to thread.

8 6 1 3 9
10 4 2 5 7

 

Yes Whoosh, that is exactly what I am saying. I pretty much refuse to lift the head on a good gasket. The key is the engine must be cool to the core to avoid issue. I'll go so far as go to someone's home to install them if they can't leave the car with me overnight.

 

Strange... I'd be more willing to bet there were other issues at work here. If you do a search on the issue, the companies making the most hp out of "stock" long blocks are using this method.

 

I guess that means that I bought a Cometic gasket for no reason. Dammm!

 

Zeus, this was just my experience. I do know one other person on the board that had backing out issues I believe due to only putting 75ft lbs on them. I am very picky about the work I do on my car and at my daily job. I live for perfection basically and I do not get in a hurry on things. But like I said my headgasket could of been going out before this who knows, I didn't have any real evidence of it but it is possible. Also maybe the 75ft lbs wasn't enough torque compaired to the stock bolts, doesn't seem to be enough after talking to several dsm guys. What I do know is that right after I changed the studs my head started to push oil out of it very very slowly. Nothing got mixed though it just was leaking. Like you said the stock headgasket is a very good piece, when I replaced I used another stock gasket after seeing it.

 

I would not say "for no reason". Do you need it now? No. The OE head gasket will hold all the power your bottom end will. So when you decide to build the block to hold the power your turbo selection can throw at it, the Cometic may come in handy.


...BTW I still think you would be happier on a daily driver dropping down to a GT30 unless you are going to go with a stroker. Now if this is just your "strip car", then disregard.

 

I'd like to see a link to an ARP stud failure, anyone have one?

 

Yes, I had a customer who's car lost seal with the ARP's only torqued to the ARP recommended 75 ft lbs. He could not afford to lift the head again and just torqued them down to 85 ft lbs (not recommended!). The car sealed and has not had issue again, putting down some decent numbers running a fair amount of boost. I HAVE seen this happen at 75 ft lbs. I've yet to see any issue at 85 or over. How did your leaking gasket "look" when you removed it? Keep in mind, I'm not busting your *****, or questioning your abilities. I'm just curious as to what may have lead to your gasket failure. A good mechanic learns from the experiences of others as well as from his self.

 

Zeus I completely understand your intensions, thus being the reason why I wanted to share my experience. As for my story my gasket didn't look like it totally failed it was just caked with oil when I pulled it off. There were no tears in it at all, just oil filled and filled inbetween the two pieces of metal gasket. The outer pieces had oil on it as well but hard to tell if it was there before due to the removal. You could also see traces of coolant burned all the way around Cylinder number 4 on the gasket and on the block and head so my feelings where that it would of gotten worse.

I had seriously thought about just putting down another 15ft lbs on them once I saw the leak but when I checked them they still held their torque values so at that point I would of never felt secure don't that in the long run. Things like that just don't set well with my mind so I just became committed to pulling it out and putting a new one on to be for sure.

 

ARP specifies 65 ft lbs.
Mitsu specs on the stretch bolts are 58 ft lbs, back off, retorque to 15ft lbs then give it 2 90 degree turns(tighten 1/2 turn in 2 steps ,1/4 turn each).
Hard to compare since hardware materia is different.

 

Exactly. This is why I talked to a couple of local DSM guru's in my area to see what they recommend. They stated 75,85,95 or 70,80,90. Using arp lube on the nuts, don't use engine oil.

 

...I stand corrected. I had forgotten ARP's spec of 65 since I never use it. The customer wanted 75.