I'm trying to decide if I want to put head studs or not in my pickup I'm putting 150hp injectors and a aurora 4000 turbo with a lift pump and an edge juice with hot unlock code I would prefer to do it when I have it tore apart if they are going to fail right away but I'm not sue if they will I need some more opinions so what do you guys think??

 

Cheaper than replacing your headgasket and you're going to want to push more power later on anyways so you might as well just get it done and not have to worry about it.

 

If you tear the head off then yea go ahead might as well. If your gonna push past 40 PSI of boost you need it done.. But get a good firering head gasket.

 

I would stud it and in my experience stud it one for one method, mine was still a little warm when i pulled mine off to put a thicker head gasket on. Ended up warping a hair and i had to get it redecked so make sure its nice and cold if you do pull the head off.

 

if your head gasket is good, no need to pull the head off...

just replace one head bolt at a time with a head stud and fully torque it down so you don't cause the head to lift off of the gasket any...should maintain the proper seal.

that is how I did mine 3 years ago, and I recently retorqued my studs about 3 months ago when I did my pushrods, valve springs, and new injectors.


btw why are you going with a ATS 4000? they are overpriced and not very efficient...

if you are going with "150's" I would get a nice set of 7x.010 SAC injectors from DFI and hit up jacob from DAP for a 62/71/14 or a 63/68/14 turbo... be a great combo and will put you in the low 500hp range. ARP 2000 studs are highly recommended at that point.

upgraded pushrods and valve springs wouldn't be a bad idea either... if/when you are looking for pushrods and valve springs, either pm me or look up my thread about them... I can point you in the right direction to get a nice budget set for cheaper than just springs alone from hamilton or maxspool, cpp, etc... work just as well if not better, plenty of us running them in high performance trucks with zero issues including myself.

 

if your head gasket is good, no need to pull the head off...

my coolant was mucky so i pressure tested and was losing pressure. stock head gasket was cracked by a water jacket