I need to tighten head bolts. Is it the same pattern they use to put a arp head studs and the same torque specs.

 

Should be, yes.

 

most definitely, yes.

 

It is my understanding that the factory method used on OEM head bolts causes the bolts to be stretched but not deformed. The idea is to provide the maxium clamping grip. Therefore, the method used for tightening arp headstuds is not the same as for the OEM bolts. Also, OEM bolts need checking for elongation before reuse.

 

I know you might be on a budget, or maybe you are just plain poor, thats not for me to judge. However, please do yourself (and your car) a favor and cough up $100 to get a set of ARP's. Re-using the stock bolts is a nice way to blow your head gasket twice in a row.

 

I didn't blow the head gasket. I had a problem where a plug in my water pump blew out. 05's have this problem. I have searched on here and other people have had the same thing happen to them. They said it was because from the factory some of the 05's head bolts were not torques correctly there for under boost the head would lift and boost would get into the cooling system thus blowing the plug out!

 

If you broke the seal of the headgasket, it's always a good idea to replace the head gasket. Once lifted and contaminated, it's not likely you'll get a good seal again.

If you have no reason to believe you've broken the seal and you're doing this as a precautionary measure, that's good preventative maintenance. But if you think that's why you blew the freeze plug, then that is a "blown head gasket" and it would be wiser to replace the head gasket, and you might as well do ARP hardware while you're there.

 

+10000000000

 

I had the same issue with the plug on my water pump. I'm just installing ARPs and being done with it.

 

so is the one by one method a proven accepted method of putting in ARP studs or is everyone pulling the heads and putting in a new headgasket?