Thread: arp head bolts or tty bolts?

if you intend on never pulling the heads off again, by all means use the TTY bolts, but given that you take off the heads one more time the studs will have already paid for themselves. i thought they were 110% worth buying.

yeah, you have to clean the holes. any oil left in there will skew torque readings.

get head studs.

Head studs if you plan to keep your car.

TTY bolts if your not going to keep it.

Studs will pay for themselves like said above.

When I build my engines, or install heads, I chase the threads of the bock with a tap to remove the old thread sealer, clean the threads with break cleaner before installing the new studs.

DON'T follow the instructions in the ARP Box on their installment. They are not specific to OUR 3.8 engine. You want to know the tips and tricks of installing them the first time trouble, and worry free, ask me when you get them, or just shoot a PM. I can type it up for ya again.

~F~

You put them in wrong, take the heads back off. short on the out side long on the inside. Clean the threads in the block out and then torque the studs to 10ftlbs.

Did you clean the threads out in the head? You can not get the studs to bottom out by hand, that is where the 10ftlbs comes in.

That's why I said NOT to follow the instructions from ARP.

This is what I do, and have never had a problem in doing so.

FIRST and for most, the block and the heads need to be prepped, making sure all the old gasket is gone, the surfaces are prepped and totally degreased and cleaned well. Cleanliness is next to godliness in my book on engine builds.

1.) Clean the threads in the block well. I use a tap to chase the threads, this will clean and remove the old original thread sealer. You can pretty much chase it by hand with little to no effort. Degrease the threads in the block with some brake cleaner.

2.) using Teflon Paste (NOT TAPE) that has a temperature rating of at least 500*F (read the back of the tube!!!) put some on a small, thin flat bladed screw driver, and add some to each and every hole in the block, about two pea sized drops per hole will work fine.

3.) take the studs and pre clean them if they are new out of the box, they will have machine/fish oil on them, so degrease them, so spray with some brake cleaner to clean them, and separate them. There is 8 long, and 8 short, put into groups, of 4 long, and 4 short per side of the engine.

4.) once the studs are clean, coat the threads well with the Teflon Paste, put enough on, that you cannot see the threads on the stud anymore, and only do the end that screws into the block.

5.) Hand start each stud into the block, LONG studs go towards the top/center of the engine, towards the lifter valley, and the SHORT ones go low, towards the headers, and then pre torque them to 10 lbs ft. This will insure they bottom out, and that is important.

6.) hand wipe off the Teflon paste that oozes out around each stud as it was threaded in, if you see this left over ooze, you did good, and have enough in there. Degrease/wipe off the area of the block around each stud once all the paste is gone to insure a good clean mating surface.

It should look like this at this point:

*This is a locals engine I helped assemble a few weeks back.*

7.) install the head gasket, make sure that the left (look for a "L" stamped in the gasket) and if marked right head gasket are on the correct side of the engine, or if there is an arrow, its pointing towards the front of the engine, (where the belts are is the "front" of the engine).

8.) install the head - carefully sliding it onto the block, and setting it down easy.

9.) with the MOLLY lube supplied with the studs, put about a dime sized drop on the tip of a small thin flat head screw driver and coat the threads of the studs sticking up.

10.) washers and nuts for the studs, preclean them again like you did the studs with brake cleaner to degrease them.

11.) with the washers, coat each side of the washer with the molly lube, just enough you cover all the black and I use a pair of needle nose pliers to install them on the studs.

12.) the nuts, i will put a little dab of molly lube INSIDE each nut so when its threads on, the threads inside are very well coated, and go ahead and hand start all the nuts, and run them down till they touch the washers.

13.) the torque sequence and torque specks: start out with light torque for all the nuts, and then bring up the torque till you reach your target torque.
I do 40 ft. lbs. then 60, 80, then 90, and then 90 lbs. ft again after they heads sit for a while, I usually like to let the heads sit for a day, and then check the torque again as you will most always get a little more turn out of them because the head gasket will settle or crush a little more.

This is your torque sequence for each head.

5 1 3 6
7 4 2 8

Hope that helps.

We should make the above post a sticky, because I don't know how many times I have typed all that up on all the different forums over the years.


~F~

yup I followed what you have in the how to write up section. Worked perfect, I used ultra black rtv on the threads tho instead of teflon paste.

^RTV?

That's a new one. I guess if it works...

Not what I would do on anyone car, or my own.

~F~

Lots of guys use rtv on head studs. Mine sealed fine.

Asking around, I guess the Ford guys do it to their engines.

I would just hate to clean the mess up, and worry about the RTV setting up, where as the paste will never turn solid. Which is nice, for different heat cycles and temperature changes.

~F~