ARP Head Studs
 

Any pro's or con's to using the ARP head studs on a 2.8?

pros=they are better than dilivar, better than stock steel, better than 993TT in holding strength, less expensive than 993tt studs

cons=they loosen more than any other head studs i've tried, not as good as supertec head studs

Another vote for Henry, then. Scott, if you had a spare set of used stock steel head studs lying around, would you spend the money on the Supertec units?

it depends what you're building, i think. i try not to tell people what to do with their engines, only what not to do, because i don't want somebody to say, "hey , i would have used ____ studs until i got scott's advice...now i gotta take apart my motor to fix a broken steel stud..."


i will say that i have never seen a broken steel stud, steel studs were/are used in all kinds of hot engines, and i even used them in the 906-spec. 2.0L i put in the infamous "Adamowicz" machine [SEE this month's Excellence!]

If you are using a Mag case then I'd use Dilivar studs. I'm in the minority here but I've seen steel studs (like ARP) pull even with timecerts.

-Andy

Thanks for all of the feed back. The ARP's have been shipped, so that is what I will go with. What started this, was my engine was reassembled after rebuild, to the heads. When the builder returned to the shop, the next moring, there was a broken head stud on the floor. A stud snapped while sitting there?! He is a well known, well respected mechanic in the NW. They were torqued to factory specs. So I got all freaked out about steel, and bought the ARP's
Has anyone ever heard of this happening before?

That was most likely a Dilivar stud. Was it old or new? Some break when new but rarely. The rash of broken studs we are now seeing in SC and Carrera engines are on engines that are 20-30 years old.

-Andy

I have no idea how old the studs are, but the engine was built about 10 years ago, and had 14 - 18,000 miles.

This might be one of the first recorded cases of steel stud decapitation. Real Dilivar studs are non-magnetic. Can you apply the magnet test to the broken stud and let us know?

thanks,
Sherwood