I read about a lot replacing head bolts with ARP studs but never see any feedback on how well the studs are performing. Anyone had any problems with puking once the studs are installed? Are you running the same tunes and driving your rig the same after the studs were installed with no problems? Anyone having problems with the bottom ends (cranks or rods) now that the weak link HGs and head bolts were replaced with studs?

Just curious before I do the stud upgrade to my X.

DSMMH

 

Good question, I blew the gaskets at 9k and had the studs put in. Not much of a chance to test it since due to other issues the dealer created (leaks and now injectors are failing). But I am curious how much this engine will take with the studs in it now. Has anyone had a gasket failure with the studs?

 

You could still get puking if your egr cooler fails even with the head stud, put the egr blocker plate in and that will make it so you won't experience puking once head studs are installed

 

ARP studs with good, flat deck surfaces will provide a nearly indestructable head seal, even with the stock gaskets. I have been using them for 2 years with great luck.

 

My headgaskets went at 35k mi. along with the egr cooler. The egr cooler, heads, and headgaskets were replaced and ARP studs were installed and I have put 5000 mi. on since with no problems.

An egr blockoff is next on my list!

 

As Matt said they work very well, no problems with my truck.

 

I've only heard of very few ( 1 or so) people having puking problems after the installation of ARP headstuds along with new gaskets, EGR valves and EGR and oil coolers. I do really think that this is due to the heads being warped previously since everything else known to cause the problems were fixed at the same time.

 

Are the head gaskets and stock bolts a real problem if you are watching the boost and egt's with a monitor and espeically one that will defuel at setable temps on the pyro and also for coolant temp and transmission temp.?
05' 6.0 L 75,000 miles on it got a triple dog on it with outlook monitor but mostly run it in tow / economy mode for the extra fuel mileage i get along with the extra power with out going crazy. It also makes the engine run a lot smoother than in stock. In tow/ecomony mode it starts better in the cold and idles smoother on the cold start up.

 

Yes they can be. First off there could have been a bad install from the factory and sooner or later it's going to go. Second, you could have problems if you run it hard before it gets up to operating temps(I've known some that have done this with no problems but they have also admitted to having a good flat head already, if it's shaky then you run the chance of problems moreso the more you run it hard before it's up to temp). I had the triple dog with the outlook and I wouldn't trust the reading's it gives for tranny or coolant, but I know from experiance the tranny one for sure. Where ford has their sensor(and where the outlook gets it's reading) is a colder part of the tranny then if you were to get it from the pan(I've noticed as much as 50 degrees and the only difference in testing(atleast that I had control of, but environment was almost identical enough so that would be a negligible difference) the two different gauges was the fact that I had two different gauges). I'm willing to bet that would applies for the tranny temp will also apply to the coolant temp and oil temp as well(which you could use either one to determine operating temp). By the way, I had the triple dog w/outlook and the machine shop had to take off .0003 off my passenger heads, now I don't know if it was that way from the factory or from the bullydog setup, but nonetheless I had bad heads and I had something that was set to defuel for all the properties that you listed(and had the same setup as you), and you could ask Matt, more then likely my defuel properties were at a more conservative point then your's I'm willing to bet.

 

Either bad install or the heads weren't machined before installation, if you don't machine them and they have puked once, they will puke again later rather studded or not.