Arp head studs

[Robyn]

SO it looks like the head gasket / cracked head issue as raised it's ugly head in my garage. Disappearing coolant, dead cylinder at start up that goes away after a few min, etc. Could be a lot of things but my luck will include pulling the heads.

So if that becomes the case, what is everyone's opinion of the arp head studs in our engines?

Yes I have a Kennedy chip and GM8 turbo, cooling upgrades, main stud girdle, etc.

It had head gaskets replaced under warranty and prior to the mods just before 100k. Has 215k on it now.

Big Green

What year engine....

The late GM blocks did have an issue with some ...cracking the #8 cylinder at the rear near the head deck.
These would cause coolant loss and such but once the engine was warmed up things were so so...
Different than a blown head gasket.......

Get the heads off and look at the #8 hole for a stained gray area near the rear/top of the cylinder.

ARP studs are good stuff....but they will not fix the issue at hand.
The TTY bolts will hold well as Jim mentioned.

Also look at the area on the deck where the stainless fire ring of the gaskets sit against the deck.

The end cylinders are notorious for getting an etched groove in the deck near the end coolant passage....

If the deck has a groove worn in it......The only fix is to machine the deck and use the thicker gasket.......

Felpro offers a .010" thicker gasket for such a task.

I have machined the decks to .015" without issue......

This is not what you wanted to hear I'm sure.....But these areas need to be looked at.

Front and rear cylinders by the large end coolant ports need to be looked at carefully.....number 8 cylinder at the rear about 3/4" down from the deck (Just below the thickness of the deck)


Good luck

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