Why spend $80 on a set of stock bolts when you could get a set of 12mm allen bolts from Mighty Diesel for $130?

I havent put mine to the test yet but Ill let yall know how it goes when I start gettin some extra pressure in there.

 

While I still partially disagree I will say that yes studs are a piece of mind, however boost still has nothing to do with blowing headgaskets. Its cylinder pressure. Yea without the right mixture of alot of things 80lbs will pop a gasket. I would rather have a head o-ringed and run stock bolts much more than i wanna go throwing 400 dollars down on studs.

 

How can replacing headgaskets be cheaper? You have time you need to account for even if you do the work yourself. You should have the head checked to see if its warped and if it is have it decked. For $430 bucks seadstuds like arps 247-4202's are a cheap insurance policy. And are bolts and orings more reliable? Most people I know with Oring and fire rings have issues. How many years at 65 psi of boost can your stock bolts take without blowing a headgasket? I know one person who has had his studs in for 5 years at 700hp and tons of abuse and never replaced a headgakset yet

 

And cylinder pressure is a result of what? If you add boost you add pressures everywhere, including in the cylinders. Even if you throw a drive pressure gauge on the truck and do the adjustments to make boost/drive pressure equal, it doesnt mean that you're not going to blow a gasket. It comes down to this... If you don't have the money to build the power correctly, don't build power.

Look at it this way, 6.0 powerstroke... You wouldn't fix the head problems that they have and put stock bolts back in overtorqued... Why? Because you're not fixing the root of the problem. If you want to fix something you're better off doing it the right way and not being cheap about it.

Just because the studs themselves don't add power doesn't mean you should save your money for something that does. Supporting mods before performance mods and you're truck won't have down-time!!!

 

Studs in a 6.0 is not fixing the root problem so what are you getting at here?

I have never heard of guys having problems with o-rings?

Once again, this is the way I look at things. If you don't like that well fine I don't really care. My time is cheap and for a truck that isn't being built to blow dynos up bolts work like a champ be they stockers or allen bolts from pappy. If your head and deck are flat and you have o-rings then I'd say its good to go.

I have two engines torn apart right now this whole thread really makes me want to build a 600+ horse engine and BOLT the head on.

 

Studs in a 6.0 is most definitely fixing the problem. The reason they have gasket problems is because of head lifting from bolt stretch... Putting stock gaskets underneath a head held together with studs is the fix to the 6.0 problems. That and egr delete. But the concept is the same. Bolt stretch causing head lift and gasket leakage. The truck in my sig is knocking on 600hp's door and id be damned if I didn't at least have studs in it. Go ahead and make a 600hp truck with bolts and o rings. It will most likely hold, I agree. But this thread was started concerning bolts vs studs, not o rings and fire rings. That's a different subject all together. I still don't understand why you would build a head with rings and then not stud it however. Lol. But it's not my truck to rely on...

 

And this is supposed to mean what?

 

Studs dont fix the problem of 6.0 heads only having 10 bolts per side. Also most 6.0s didnt have a flat head or deck surface from the factory.

 

It means don't expect to have a reliable rig if you're going to be cheap when building it

 

I don't know if we are talking 12v's or 6.0's here, but for a 12v, I just run (new)tightened bolts, with no orings if you are keeping under 65#.