Well now that I got the ATS turbo on and can push over 40 lbs of boost I'm getting worried. I am being really careful and have not gotten it over 40 lbs yet. I wanna do the truck pulls next month, and I was gonna run the stock class with the HE351, but am now thinkin I'll run the 2.8 class with this Aurora 5000 turbo. And I've heard torquing your stock head bolts to 135 will help keep your stock head gasket alive for a while. Both my tranny and my head gasket are ready to blow, not sure which one will go first though... But I want to keep them goin as long as i can with limited funds right now... I am planning on getting a PS intercooler soon so that should drop my boost a bit, but I still want to be safe.

So should I just pull the valve covers and some of the injector lines and tighten all my head bolts down to 135 ft lbs the way they are? Isn't 125 what factory spec is? or should I take each bolt out one at a time, and do the drop test, oil it, and then put them back in and torque them? I just don't want to break or stretch a head bolt.... I have a friend with 24 valve with twins and he has head studs and I was tellin him about it and he said just to get a set of studs. I think he said he just pulled his head bolts out one at a time and then put studs in one at a time without takin the head off. Can you do this? and would that be a better way to go? Also what is the head bolt torque sequence, I remember seein a picture somewhere but don't remember where. Thanks guys.

 

IMO studs is the best idea for you because youre going to be doing twins eventually anyway. might as well do it right the first time IMO.

I was just reading on how to do the studs without pulling the head. might want to google it and start reading.

 

Torque them equally to 120 ft lbs. If 1 turns more than 1/4 past the others, look for new bolts.

Wasn't someone in a red/white 2nd Gen 3500 2wd that ran the quickest manual had the factory but new head bolts?