Used steel head studs, good idea?

[Hoffmanmotors]

I Very nice pelican wrote me today and said he has a set of used steel head studs i can buy for cheap. Is using used studs smart if they are clean and in good looking shape?

-Jeff

[Superman]

Yes.

There are opposing opinions, of course, but I have done the homework and my strong belief is that the regular, plain steel head studs are as reliable as anything else. At least.....on an aluminum-case engine like your 3L SC. In fact, I could not come up with a single documented example of a plain steel stud breaking. Dilivar, sure. But not the plain steel ones. Your engine has plain steel studs on the intake side. The Dilivar ones are only on the exhaust side. I replaced my Dilivar ones with steel ones, and I'll be shocked if there is ever a problem.

[Jadams1]

New ones were not that expensive (2002), I think I paid $11 each. You only need to do the bottom 12 like superman said. Used should be ok if they are in good condition.

[the]

Using used steel studs (as opposed to new steel studs) on the bottom row in order to save a hundred bucks makes about sense as buying using used condoms to save a couple of bucks.

[ChrisBennet]

The purists may wince but as long as they were removed correctly (using a collet type stud remover so the threads weren't damaged) they're probably fine. After all, 99.9% of air cooled 911's on this list are running with "used" steel head studs (on the top row).
-Chris