to stud,or not to stud

[turbo grey]

would it be a wize idea to stud the mains??or are the factory bolts
capable of supporting a low 11 sec car.(maybe high 10's)
I just assembled my short block the other night,(with factory bolts) and wondering if i should have gone with the studs??
not too late yet,pan is still off.
what do you guys think?

 

[turbo buicks]

i vote studs. why skimp out if its all out now. everything ive ever read says studding is better than bolts b/c it disperses the load evenly or somethng like that. i look at it this way, if heads studs are better then head bolts then studs must hold better especially since i always see built enignes with "all ARP studs" listed as part of the buildup then they gotta be better.

 

[rob nolan]

Studs!!!

 

[nonosv6]

absolutely use studs on the main caps!!!!!!!!! joel

 

[LikeMy6]

Studs are better, but if you use them on the mains you will need a line hone.Studs will provide more clamping force than bolts which will slightly distort the main caps so the line hone is needed to make absolutely sure the main bores remain true. Otherwise you will risk wiping your bearings. While you are at it add 2 center billet caps only $150 more. If you are not up to this the bolts have been proven to handle mid 10s but reliablity is an issue.


Frank

 

[Red Regal T]

You'll probably break a stock cap before a bolt......but all that stuff is suseptable to breakage. Studs and billet caps are cheap enough but the problem to me is, how much to align hone the block. I'm not sure, but have heard numbers kicked around that tells me I'm not interested.

 

[Tow Man]

Mains should be line bored with any rebuild! Machining and block preparation is not the place to skimp when building any Hi Po engine.

I do agree that line bore should be done with the parts you are going to use. If you had it done with bolts in place, I would get it rechecked if switching to studs

 

[Red Regal T]

Originally posted by Tow Man
Mains should be line bored with any rebuild! Machining and block preparation is not the place to skimp when building any Hi Po engine.

Yeah, I guess in a perfect world, like if you hit the lotto, you should spend untold thousands to build a hi-performance motor. Like a new TA aluminum block and all the best to put in it. In the REAL world, I don't think there's too much align boring going on.

 

[KendallF]

Originally posted by Red Regal T
Yeah, I guess in a perfect world, like if you hit the lotto, you should spend untold thousands to build a hi-performance motor. Like a new TA aluminum block and all the best to put in it. In the REAL world, I don't think there's too much align boring going on.

If the main bearing bores check correctly for size and roundness, I wouldn't do an align hone "just because". I certainly wouldn't do an align bore unless I had to. This assumes the old bearings looked OK and you're not chasing a reason for previous bearing failure or something.

Back to the point of this post originally: Yes, changing from bolts to studs may stress the cap differently and require a hone. IMO, the cap is the failure point anyway, not the bolt/stud. I'd leave the bolts in.