So I was looking at rebuilding my had this spring with new cams, springs, valves, all the goodies. I know that the ARP flywheel bolts have fitment issues on the evos but what I was wondering was if anyone had used their other bolts (not the headstuds, giving that job to the map headstuds) but like the cam tower bolts, balancer bolts, exhaust bolts and possibly eventually the cap bolts on the bottom end (depending on if the shop that built my engine put the parts they said they did in. I'm just trying to avoid spending the pretty penny for bolts that will end up just like the flywheel bolts if I can avoid it. Thanks for the input.

 

The only bolts you need to upgrade are mains/head/rod. The rest of the bolts, OEM works just dandy. Torque things to spec and you'll see what I mean. The cam cap bolts are a perfect example. The proper torque is so low, you literally couldn't fatigue the OEM hardware. As for the balancer bolts, torque them to proper spec with a tiny dab of loctite, and never worry about them again. There are numerous 700-900hp evos running around with non-ARP hardware on engine parts, mine included.

 

I know they will do it, and I know they are overkill, but isn't that the name of the game. Especially with the relatively low goals of 450 that I'm trying to push I just want to build the car once and it 10-15 years give it to the kid and it still be as good as the day I finished the build with proper maintenance.

 

I did it on my rebuild. I put ARP cam tower bolts, cam gear bolts, balancer pulley bolt, exhaust studs, and IM manifold kit (I think). All of my internal stuff is done as well. I have to agree with the post above, they aren't necessary except the internal stuff.

 

This.

Especially for something like the cam tower bolts that aren't torqued a whole lot, I would rather trust in the oem hardware imo. If your concerned about the bolts just replace with new oem bolts. I think even if the price was close, I would rather go with new oem cam tower bolts vs arp-- if I had to replace them.

 

waste of time doing the rod bolts

 

Thank you Michael exactly what I needed to know.