Studs or Bolts

[petew]

For a Street 445 build with aluminum heads what are the opinions on head and main cap fasteners , stock bolts , arp bolts or studs ?

[blykins]

99% of guys just need a good quality bolt. 

On aluminum cylinder heads, you need a washer, which a factory bolt doesn't have. 

On my builds, I usually use ARP bolts on both mains and heads.

[My427stang]

Agree completely, and most aluminum heads don't have room for a socket on the top row with stock bolts too.  Non-starter even if you could add washers

[FrozenMerc]

I like studs because the clamp load produced during torquing is more consistent from fastener to fastener if the procedure is followed correctly.  That doesn't mean the bolts won't work in your application, just that the old Test Engineer in me tries to optimize as much as possible.

[petew]

Thank you all for the replies .

[66FAIRLANE]

When I first rebuilt my 390 with Edelbrock heads, some 30 years ago, money was tight. I made hardened washers and used grade 8 socket head cap screws with no issues. When I freshened it 10 years later I used ARP studs. For no real reason other than I wanted to.

[fairlaniac]

On shock tower cars, bolts make it easy to pull the heads with the engine in the car should you need to do that down the road.

[FrozenMerc]

On shock tower cars, bolts make it easy to pull the heads with the engine in the car should you need to do that down the road.

Or even on Pickups that have heater core boxes on one side and master cylinder and brake boosters on the other.  Studs normally make pulling the engine the default option.

[blykins]

Most studs are removable with a hex head in the top of them.  You can back them out easily.