ARP head studs question on nuts

[kinger]

Well if you read my saga and most of you have, we found that on the front (carb side) of the engine there are three places were we had to use the factory nuts (it was assembled like this when I got it) and those three nuts loosened right up almost instantly and i had to replace the head gasket and I ended up swapping OUT the arp head studs in favor of the stockers with TJ's head tq procedure.


I was wondering what other people are doing? Are you using factory nuts in these locations (the factory nuts are a cylinder with a allen head in it and desinged such that to accomodate the clearance issues in the head) are you torquing them to 45 ft-lbs? Or are you using all ARP nuts?

Just curious what we did wrong here and what is the proper procedure for other guys adding HD head studs even though I went back to stockers and Ted Jannety's head tq procedure. Thanks!

 

[adirondac blue]

Two years, no trouble. Arp head studs and stock nuts to 48 lbs. Only went to twenty lbs on a 28rs with low comp pistons.

 

[snowy1]

I ran 3 years with arp studs and stock nuts 18-22 lbs.

 

[Ted Jannetty]

Very important that the ARP studs get cut to length before intall or you can ruin the block.

The ARP studs are too long out of the box, they bottom out on the nut then get driven in to the block and have been known to break the block threaded boss.

Ted.