Originally Posted by
More Power
If money is no object, we would all live life differently and make different decisions regarding diesel engine service. Fact is, the ARP head studs are $650 and the factory TTY bolts are about $100.
Take an old truck to a diesel shop or dealership, and ask them to install a new head gasket kit ($400), ARP head studs ($650), new injectors ($2400), new injector hard lines ($650), new water pump ($125), new hoses and an endless list of "as long as we're in there" stuff, and of course at least $5k in labor - and you've made a bad decision regarding financial common sense - i.e. spending $10k+ on a truck that in even perfect condition is still only worth 10K. When faced with that reality, most thinkers will crush/part-out the truck and not spend a dime on it... We didn't even talk about brakes, ball joints, steering components, drivelines, tires, rust... and on and on and on...
Meanwhile, our performance 6.5TD Project ran without a problem to 300,000 miles in 7 years using TTY head bolts (till we sold it), and my 2001 GMC ran to 140,000 miles using TTY head bolts - even with the poorly designed factory crimped-style head gaskets. I get where the ARP stud advocates are coming from. I can actually read the engineering specs and understand the logic. This is partly why I installed ARP studs in my own 2001 GMC LB7 head gasket repair. I spent extra on this truck only because I did the work (and because I needed to say I did it, could photograph it and eventually write about it). It's just that at some point, people need to make a decision... Crush the truck or do what is necessary to save the truck without compromising basic service and dependability while not violating financial common sense. As part of an overall budget strategy, the lower cost TTY head bolts fit into that paradigm. Lil Red is getting TTY bolts.
What would mean most to me regarding this discussion about the value of studs/bolts is to study the actual service histories comparing engines built with studs/bolts along with a description of how the trucks were used, and then be able to discern some sort of recommendation from that. Right now, the stud advocates "say" they are better... We can read about tensile strength and a wide range of other stuff, but what's that mean in the real world to average truck owners?