What is the consensus on removing one head bolt at a time and replacing them with studs? I just bought a 2006 with 197,000 miles and is completely stock.

 

With low mile trucks I wouldn't be that worried to give it a try. There are a handful of guys on here that have been very successful, even running tunes. I don't think I would attempt it with that many miles. JMO

Be prepared for some tough love with this question.

 

with out the right tools , It's a PITA bolts are long so the hard side would be next to the Heater box , then ya need to Torx ,really need to see the Torx # , But it's been done M-Chan, Anthony Where are youuu

 

We are here. I would not be doing it that way. But if it's gonna happen,, you should evac the ac and remove the hvac box entirely. However the bottom bolt-stud on the rear of the driver side will be fun. I'm sure that's why the people that have done it jack the engine up and remove the engine mount so they can jimmy the engine around to get those back ones out-in. Good luck nevertheless.

I have done one HG job for a guy that did try this. It didn't work for him.

 

The stock bolts have been holding for 197,000 miles, what makes you think studs will work better?

 

I did it without removing anything. I wrote a procedure for it. Just search for DSMMH and you will see the original post and an update. Did it with around 65K on the clock. Now have 126K on the clock and no problems.

ED

 

^^^^. I believe FTE member "Curt's05" followed your procedure with success, and tuned.

 

I remember your thread,, I thought you removed the engine mounts. Guess I should remember better??? Lol

 

If I do any deep diving, I'm removing everything off the front of the truck. It takes a while for your guts to heal up after laying across the top!!

Anthony, when are you going to advertise those heads on your website?? I would like to see some details about them!!

 

Through the most awesome wisdom and guidance of this site I also did it without removing anything. However, I did have to peel back the heat shied liner on the firewall and massage the firewall just slightly to remove that pesky driver's side rear lower bolt. Once that old bolt is out and the new installed the heat shield liner lays right back in place covering the "massaged" area. I also had the AC evacuated as recommended by "Super Duty Service" and removed the HVAC box creating a huge gaping hole with plenty of access on the passenger side. I also took the time to weld in new double braided flex joints in the y-pipe as I found a hairline crack in one of them.

About the Mileage:
With no gasket issues what so ever I decided to take the risk like a few others on here and replace the TTY bolts one by one with ARP's in reverse order. As far as the mileage goes, I did this at roughly 100k miles. I now have 175k miles on the truck and put the SCT3 back into play within 500 miles of of the install. That's approximately 75k miles of tuned driving (heavy I might add) with no problems what so ever. This obviously does NOT mean this is a reliable or proper way way to upgrade the head bolts, I'm just sharing my experience and results.

 

Thanks to all. i think I will wait till I have a problem, then pull the heads