View Poll Results: YES or NO to new head studs?
Replace the head studs
51
68.92%
Keep the old ones
23
31.08%
Voters: 74. You may not vote on this poll
YES or NO to new head studs?
Originally Posted by yesevo
hey.,,,my car was tune by al.,,,and it was street tune.........and the tuneing was perfect ,,,its just that we have weak piston., go talk to any professional evo tuner or evo enigne builder................they know it too that we have weak stock piston.,.,,,it donest matter how good tune u have ,.,,,,the piston just brakes due to too much stress .....its a fact.......guys!~ i didnt have any headstuds problem whatsoever............
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Originally Posted by C6C6CH3vo
Why fix something that aint broke. Someone needs to do a strength test between the OEM and ARP screws just to see the difference.
In my humble opinion, using the stock head bolts as a fuse is just bad policy. It's amazing how lazy people can get. Just tune the car properly. 
I am not a big fan of the one by one method. I feel that the gasket should be changed at the same time. It's only 35 bucks anyway. As one other guy mentioned, the best time to do this is when you have a tbelt job due anyway.
In my case the HG failed last winter, on the stock turbo. I do run the turbo at it's max airflow (no signal to WGA) and aggressive timing on race gas, so it was onl a matter of time before those worthless stretchy bolts (torque to yeild bolts) gave up the fight.
I would rather have done it early and not had to flush 2 quarts of oil out of my cooling system over several weeks, but I honestly just forgot about it. I ran built motors in the 2G for so long I had completely forgotten about stretchy bolts.
The bottom line is that there is no real reason to not do the studs, aside from shear laziness. 2-3 hours of your time is well worth it. For people not familiar with the correct way to install these things, here is a page on my site that I compiled from a bunch of old posts summing up what I learned the hard way. I'd add to this that I also recently started following ARP's advice for breaking in the threads on the first use as well.
I am not a big fan of the one by one method. I feel that the gasket should be changed at the same time. It's only 35 bucks anyway. As one other guy mentioned, the best time to do this is when you have a tbelt job due anyway.
In my case the HG failed last winter, on the stock turbo. I do run the turbo at it's max airflow (no signal to WGA) and aggressive timing on race gas, so it was onl a matter of time before those worthless stretchy bolts (torque to yeild bolts) gave up the fight.
I would rather have done it early and not had to flush 2 quarts of oil out of my cooling system over several weeks, but I honestly just forgot about it. I ran built motors in the 2G for so long I had completely forgotten about stretchy bolts. The bottom line is that there is no real reason to not do the studs, aside from shear laziness. 2-3 hours of your time is well worth it. For people not familiar with the correct way to install these things, here is a page on my site that I compiled from a bunch of old posts summing up what I learned the hard way. I'd add to this that I also recently started following ARP's advice for breaking in the threads on the first use as well.
You guys are really missing the point of this entire thread..
Its not if ARP (or any aftermarket head studs) are better than stock, its whether its WORTH doing it with the common 1x1 method... If you DO NOT INTEND TO DO THEM THE RIGHT WAY, Then its not worth doing them since you may end up with more problems than not doing it.
If you plan on pulling out all the studs, and replace the headgasket, and INTEND to do the job correctly, then head studs ARE a good idea.. the problem is 80% of you guys are not going to install them that way.. And the method for doing it while doing your cams is just unsound, you may get leaks, you will relieve the clamping load on the headgasket, and you will eventually get leaks..
the stock head bolts will stretch, and you would likely blow a headgasket before you blow your engine, there are other obvious exceptions, but if thats the case, then tear the engine down and do it right with high-quality aftermarket parts, do it the first time, and do it right.. If you cut corners, push the limits, are careless, or just don't closely monitor the car, you will break parts..
I have WELL OVER 40k miles on my car, STOCK CLUTCH, Stock short block, the head is stock (including the headgasket and headbolts) I routinely ran 25psi or more of boost on the stock turbo, and I now have a GT35r..
90% of all problems with catastrophic failure are due to pushing the limits.. the remaining issues are just failures related to potentially bad parts..
Splitting a piston doesnt happen very often, either the piston had a defect, or excessive combustion and cylinder pressures melted/damaged the piston.. Snapping a rod is more likely due to the same reasons, same with pulverizing your bearings.. Snapping a rod can also happen when your revving the engine very high, same with the failure of rod bolts..
Stresses on the reciprocating assembly increase exponentially as RPM increases.. And I know for a fact that many of you guys are revving the engine to well over the recommended rev limit... Heck even my engine sees 8200rpm..
Lets be realistic though.. Why introduce a problem, just wait until its necessary and then you can do it right the first time, and not end up spending money twice..
Its not if ARP (or any aftermarket head studs) are better than stock, its whether its WORTH doing it with the common 1x1 method... If you DO NOT INTEND TO DO THEM THE RIGHT WAY, Then its not worth doing them since you may end up with more problems than not doing it.
If you plan on pulling out all the studs, and replace the headgasket, and INTEND to do the job correctly, then head studs ARE a good idea.. the problem is 80% of you guys are not going to install them that way.. And the method for doing it while doing your cams is just unsound, you may get leaks, you will relieve the clamping load on the headgasket, and you will eventually get leaks..
the stock head bolts will stretch, and you would likely blow a headgasket before you blow your engine, there are other obvious exceptions, but if thats the case, then tear the engine down and do it right with high-quality aftermarket parts, do it the first time, and do it right.. If you cut corners, push the limits, are careless, or just don't closely monitor the car, you will break parts..
I have WELL OVER 40k miles on my car, STOCK CLUTCH, Stock short block, the head is stock (including the headgasket and headbolts) I routinely ran 25psi or more of boost on the stock turbo, and I now have a GT35r..
90% of all problems with catastrophic failure are due to pushing the limits.. the remaining issues are just failures related to potentially bad parts..
Splitting a piston doesnt happen very often, either the piston had a defect, or excessive combustion and cylinder pressures melted/damaged the piston.. Snapping a rod is more likely due to the same reasons, same with pulverizing your bearings.. Snapping a rod can also happen when your revving the engine very high, same with the failure of rod bolts..
Stresses on the reciprocating assembly increase exponentially as RPM increases.. And I know for a fact that many of you guys are revving the engine to well over the recommended rev limit... Heck even my engine sees 8200rpm..
Lets be realistic though.. Why introduce a problem, just wait until its necessary and then you can do it right the first time, and not end up spending money twice..
Yeah I agree, wait until the head floats, then take it off and have it resurfaced and reinstall it with a better than stock headgasket + arp studs. The 1x1 method is an awesome way to warp your head. Alot of people have reported no problems doing it this way, but then again there are lots of people who have had problems from it as well. No matter how careful you are, you are unbolting the original clamping force and replacing it with a different one (one at a time). This uneven clamping force can easily warp the soft aluminum head.
Originally Posted by sonicnofadz
Yeah I agree, wait until the head floats, then take it off and have it resurfaced and reinstall it with a better than stock headgasket + arp studs. The 1x1 method is an awesome way to warp your head. Alot of people have reported no problems doing it this way, but then again there are lots of people who have had problems from it as well. No matter how careful you are, you are unbolting the original clamping force and replacing it with a different one (one at a time). This uneven clamping force can easily warp the soft aluminum head.
If youre going to be running stock boost (hell, anything below 28psi) DO NOT CHANGE THE HEAD STUDS. Its completely unnecessary and you can risk messing something up if not done correctly. (Just read what MalibuJack said...)
Yesevo, stop telling people to watch out they might blow pistons with 370awhp. People on this board have been running 500+awhp with stock blocks for over a year and have not had a problem. Just because you had some bad luck and a piston cracked does not mean they are some terrible weak point and we should all build our motors even with stock turbo setups. 90% of the guys running 50trims with 480-500awhp are on stock blocks too.
Ive have 57k miles on my car with 350whp and now 378whp for the last 35k. The motor can handle a lot more. You had some bad luck, a weak piston or something of that nature.
On a side note, I do not have ARP head studs and my car sees 23psi everyday along with 25psi spikes. I beat the living daylights out my car and its been perfect. Head studs will go in my car when necessary.
Yesevo, stop telling people to watch out they might blow pistons with 370awhp. People on this board have been running 500+awhp with stock blocks for over a year and have not had a problem. Just because you had some bad luck and a piston cracked does not mean they are some terrible weak point and we should all build our motors even with stock turbo setups. 90% of the guys running 50trims with 480-500awhp are on stock blocks too.
Ive have 57k miles on my car with 350whp and now 378whp for the last 35k. The motor can handle a lot more. You had some bad luck, a weak piston or something of that nature.
On a side note, I do not have ARP head studs and my car sees 23psi everyday along with 25psi spikes. I beat the living daylights out my car and its been perfect. Head studs will go in my car when necessary.
Last edited by Soon2BEVO; Aug 28, 2006 at 08:45 AM.
Originally Posted by Soon2BEVO
If youre going to be running stock boost (hell, anything below 28psi) DO NOT CHANGE THE HEAD STUDS. Its completely unnecessary and you can risk messing something up if not done correctly. (Just read what MalibuJack said...)
Yesevo, stop telling people to watch out they might blow pistons with 370awhp. People on this board have been running 500+awhp with stock blocks for over a year and have not had a problem. Just because you had some bad luck and a piston cracked does not mean they are some terrible weak point and we should all build our motors even with stock turbo setups. 90% of the guys running 50trims with 480-500awhp are on stock blocks too.
Ive have 57k miles on my car with 350whp and now 378whp for the last 35k. The motor can handle a lot more. You had some bad luck, a weak piston or something of that nature.
On a side note, I do not have ARP head studs and my car sees 23psi everyday along with 25psi spikes. I beat the living daylights out my car and its been perfect. Head studs will go in my car when necessary.
Yesevo, stop telling people to watch out they might blow pistons with 370awhp. People on this board have been running 500+awhp with stock blocks for over a year and have not had a problem. Just because you had some bad luck and a piston cracked does not mean they are some terrible weak point and we should all build our motors even with stock turbo setups. 90% of the guys running 50trims with 480-500awhp are on stock blocks too.
Ive have 57k miles on my car with 350whp and now 378whp for the last 35k. The motor can handle a lot more. You had some bad luck, a weak piston or something of that nature.
On a side note, I do not have ARP head studs and my car sees 23psi everyday along with 25psi spikes. I beat the living daylights out my car and its been perfect. Head studs will go in my car when necessary.
Originally Posted by sonicnofadz
+1 Most likely it was tuning error.