Another vote for STUDS!!!!

 

if you have the heads off already, it's not that much trouble or expense to add the studs for a lot of peace of mind down the road. My vote is for studs. I'll be doing it to mine when the time comes, no doubt.

-Mark

 

The American Racing Products Studs have been used by many when thier head gaskets have been replaced. They are also highly recommended if you have tuners or modifications that increase horse power. The heads of these engines are tanks and can handle quite a bit of compression. The TTY (Torque To Yeild) bolts have been fingered by some as one of the reasons that the head gaskets have failed.

Still others (Mechanics) while disassembling and engine for head gasket replacement have found that the bolts do not seem or are blantantly not torqued to the same value. This could be attributed to plainly the bolts not being torqued properly, or under severe conditions the TTY bolts have stretched.

And still yet there is another belief that the original gaskets were inferior.

It is hard to tell if the TTY bolts actually stretched, were not torqued properly or the original gaskets are the main culprit.

What is known is that the combination of the current OEM gaskets coupled with ARP Studs is a robust combination with proven results.

The Edge Insight/Juice with Attitude is a type of tuner that has up to 7 pre-programmed settings. 0-Stock, 1-Mileage, 2-Tow, 3-Drive, 4-Race, 5-Extreme, and with a Hot-Unlock code a 6th setting is available. It may be callled "Stupid" I am not sure. The Edge Insight / Juice with Attitude "tunes" the brain of the truck to perform differently in these different settings. It also is known or suspected in causing damage to the transmission by forcing the automatic Torqueshift transmission to shift differently than normal. Shifting settings "on the fly" is probably a big contibuter to this.

The primary reason I use the Edge is that it allows me to monitor critical engine parameters. Boost, Coolant to Oil temperature deltas, System voltage, Exhaust Gas Temperature (and many others) four at a time displayed. The Edge also records engine codes and allows the user to set alarm points on things like speed, temperature, boost, etc. I got the Edge pretty much for free from a friend and knowing of some of the problems people have I leave the settings alone, changing only between 2-Tow and 3-Drive. I have used the Edge now since August of 2010 (I think) and it has been a very useful and helpful tool.

The newer Edge Color Touch Screen is popular also. I do not know if has any compatibility issues or not. Soon I will be transitioning to a Bluetooth OBDII link with the Torque APP downloaded to my Motorola Droid. This is a passive way to monitor the same things that I and many others are concerned in watching.

Back to the topic!....

I have compromised head gaskets under load. What that means is while climbing a grade, under sustained boost, while towing my fifth wheel I am venting from my degass bottle.

To verify this condition I had Ford perform a TSB on the engine. The gasket condition was verified. Under normal driving conditions, there is not enough of a load to cause the venting to occur.

So over the last few months I have set money aside and am having a laundry list of items done to head off future problems. Those items include:

ARP Studs 250 4202
4C3Z-6051-EB Head Gasket kit
BPD 4C3Z-9P456-AJ EGR Cooler
3C3Z-6A642-CA Oil Cooler
4C3Z-8A616-AA Electric Fan Clutch
3C3Z-6731-AA KIT – Oil Filter
3C3Z-9N184-CB Fuel Filter set
*W302908* Dummy Plug Hardware Set
3C3Z-9229-AA KIT Injector O Ring set
*W302725* Hardware, O Ring
6C3Z-9448-A Exhaust Gasket
3C3Z-6584-AA Rocker Arm Gasket V
3C3Z-6584-BA Rocker Arm Gasket V
Idler Pulley
Idler Pulley, Tensioner
Additional Parts
COOLANT BYPASS KIT
Fluids

Several of the people I have got quotes from have offered that the ARP Studs, which are a great thing, may not be necessarily required for how I drive and use the truck.

Personnally I am looking for assurance that, should I go with the recommendation to use TTY bolts, I am not shooting myself in the foot. I have already priced and planned on using the ARP studs. I'am just using the forum as a sounding board to get feedback on the use of TTY over ARP Studs. The feedback has been horribly lopsided in favor of ARP Studs.

There is nothing "just because" in this equation. This has been months of reading, looking, an learning. I have yet to be lead in the wrong direction by the good folks here.

With that being said. ARP Studs it shall be.

 

that has been my experience here.

when someone has come along with information
that isn't sound, there will be half a dozen posts
from different folks to sort it out.

most diesel truck forums are pretty sketchy...
by the time you filter thru all the "who makes
a good smoke tune?" and "my 6.0 has 700 hp
with a bully dog tuner" posts, you just about
give up in disgust.

this one's pretty amazing, to be honest.

 

Good decision to put the studs in since you are changing the gaskets - I wouldn't ever put TTY bolts back in anything, since they are designed for production line efficiency rather than being the best repair choice. I've studied fastener engineering in race engines for well over 20 years, and I've been using ARP products for the same length of time, most rod bolts, head studs and main cap studs, and I like the product. My only question was around if you had damaged head gaskets or not - if you didn't then I would personally not change good gaskets. TTY bolts are an acceptable engineering solution to the production line problem, but I wouldn't use them twice, or put new ones in if I had another choice.

Edit: wrote this and then realized that I am going out to my shop to begin assembling a race motor right now - a BMW M20 SOHC2 litre engine that has custom forged pistons, Pauter rods, ARP rod bolts and ARP head studs...

Brian

 

Studs for sure