first of all, if your going to use studs, make sure that all the holes are bottom tapped, i was shocked at all the stuff that came out of the bolt holes in the block, i got a really nice spiral bottoming tap(thread pitch is M12x1.75) from MSC supply for about $20. it was well worth it, i just did mine head over the winter, i only torqued my studs to 130 with moly, i dont know if would go to 145 with the ARP 2000 series studs, thats really borderline stress for the stud, especially if you have got really high cylinder pressure(nos, water meth, high timing, lots o boost etc.),now keep in mind the new arp kits have a slightly shorter long studs(the stud that goes where the rocker arm tower is), so that there is no valve cover clearance issues. remember back in the day when we had to grind down the webbing, and slightly knock out a hole in the valve cover so the valve cover would clear the stud, and seal right, well arp went back and shortend the stud, only problem with that is that the rocker arm support tower has to be machined down in the corner where is stud is so that there is enough thread protrusion to install the washer, and nut. a local machine shop did mine for about $30. there should be instructions in the kit that have the dimensions of the material that needs to be removed from the rocker arm support towers. i got eveything back together, fired the truck up, drove around the neighborhood keeping boost under 5psi to let the engine come up to operating temp, and kept it there for about 10min. got back in the garage, immediately plugged in the block heater to help retain the heat in the engine, took all thats needs to come back off to do the retorque, broke each stud loose one at a time!!! in the cummins sequence. only loosen one stud, and torque that stud so the head does not relax. backed the stud out, and retightend hand tight, some of them seemed like they got tight in the block, this is normal and happens from normal tightening. reapplied moly to the nut, and washer, then torqued in the cummins sequence. i would not reccomend line torquing the studs to start with. ARP has the right sequence on the back of the direction sheet. basically start out in the middle and work your way out. if you follow the sequence right, the front 2 studs closest to the rad., will be the last 2 that you torque. do this also for when you first install the studs, and torque them. by having some heat in the engine, it allows the studs to relax a little bit, even though your are torquing them, when the metal cools down it will shrink, and the head will bite into the gasket even more. reset your valves, cause the head is going to settle, and the valves are going to get tight, after the 2nd retorque, i drove the truck around for about a week with low boost, i did my best to keep it under 10psi. this is very critical if you want things to seal up good. the following weekend i did eveything i just described above. i then drove the truck for about a month or two, only really romped on it a few times, i drove say about 2,500miles or so, and did another retorque. so far i have 4 retorques on the head, and i have seen the head settle each time, granted it got less each time, but it still setteled. im hoping eveything is good now, i have done 2 fire ring setups before this oring setup, and both had failed, eventhough they are installed correctly. i hope this helps you out nick. feel free to ask anything. take your time, and you'll do great.
wes
wes
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