John_P

Hey Tim, you want me to bring my 22ft. flatbed up to Muncie
"just in case?" As I told you in December, you are
on "borrowed time" my friend!! You are one LUCKY
individual!!

----------
John_P

Don M

I know it seems crazy and its contrary to popular belief, but I am still convinced that Tims gasket will hold to 70 PSI.

John, one of these days we are gonna have a topic we agree on If it kills me

I really believe he may be towing someone else home from Muncie

I ran stock bolts and stock gasket for 3 years! No o-rings. It finally popped a month ago at 73 PSI from a single turbo with enough timing to blow a gasket on a stock engine. I made probably over 50 600HP runs on the dyno trying different combos and ragged that truck to the hilt on the street racing ricers, etc. I smoked 5 turbos, one SBC clutch, two input shafts, and burned a few valve seats, but the stock gasket and bolts kept going. That poor old engine has over 200,000 miles on it.

Re-torqed bolts or studs and moderate duty cycle using the power...they can live. Heck old Sled puller Gene ran a stock gasket, stock bolts and a single o-ring in the block for how many seasons? ETH trucks are a different story! They blow out at will.

Don~

GO 4LO

More of a general question, but can ARP do the higher-strength material mentioned at the beginning of the thread in 14mm studs, too?
Chris

Don M

They can make anything. Its about a 1000 bucks to have the 12's made in CA 625+. I suppose the 14's would be close to that figure.

Don~

GO 4LO

Thanks, Don. I'll be contacting you eventually .
Chris

Don M

BTW, if anyone is interested....ARP and myself are sold out of 12 valve studs! I guess someone bought the entire lot of them up. I was lucky to get the two last sets Monday morning.


Don~

Timinva

John, dont bring it just on account of me. I will rent one if need be. Thanks for the offer though. I am bringing lots of spare things though {vp44, ecm, etc} just in case. I have never had a problem but you never know. Studs are running fine so far and I always let the thermostat cycle prior to bringing the boost over 10 lbs. We will see, I know these mach6s fuel more than my 5s did. I have to try to drive w/o smoke and it still hazes off boost. I guess I am testing how much the stock gasket can take. Tim

John_P

Tim:

O.K., if you think you'll be alright I will leave the trailer at
home! If you change your mind let me know. I think
you have all my numbers buddy!

-------
Don:

IMO,......you are lucky too! Your right though,....it would
be nice to get on here and have EVERYBODY agree on
something! This website is still ALOT better in that
respect than TDR is though! At least nobody has
personally threatened you or me yet!! We
know what has happened "over there" don't we??
BTW Don,......if you were referring to Tim "towing me
home" that is not going to happen,....this time anyway!
I have to take it easy on this 2002 since my old 96'
is still not quite finished yet. I don't have anything
for Tim or most of the "high horespower boys" at
Muncie anyway!!

-----------
John_P

dodgeman01

I know it aint much but my stock head gasket just held 40+ PSI from a cold start. peged the 40 psi guage in 3rd and again in 4th and 5th. every time one guage was beged the other was too (EGT) I really like these new DV's so far as I can tell the HG is not blown. I will be another ticking time bomb at Muncie.
I was thinking about re TQin my head bolts. what should I TQ them too Don? thanks
DM01

Don M

12 valvers are a tough cookie because of the different length fasteners. I take them lose one at a time and crank them back to 30, 66, 85 and finally 118 with ( 30 wt ) If you have some cam break in lube or Molysulfide go no more than 108 ft lbs. Starting from the center and working your way out to the ends. Like in a circular motion.

Cummins has a cheapo stretch gage or you can mike them to:

Short: 2.815"
Med: 4.807"
Long: 7.201"

This is free length and MAX values. Any longer than this....chunk 'em and get a new one/ones

The bad thing about the shorties is the dern things are not gonna stretch like we would like them to, to get the max preload. There is nothing you can do, but hope for the best. Seems every single 12 valver pops out the exhaust side when they let go. Thats the side the shorties are on

Staying after the re-torques from time to time is a good idea. Always be sure they are not stretched when you do.

As out of shape as I am...when I get done doing a complete re-tq I feel like the winner of the New York marathon

Don~

dodgeman01

Thanks for the info Don. How much do headd bolts usually run in price? sure wish I could just switch out to studs as the bolts stretch
DM01

Don M

I cant remember how much they are, but I think I set is close a 100-130 bucks

dodgeman01

I do know that the lug studs on the front hubs are 4.50 a piece was told to get 16 of them. bought 1 and said the stock ones looked good enough
DM01

Don M

The sad thing about the 7" bolt is I had to get a set of 12" calipers just for that. I never use 12" calipers for anything else

David B

Thanks for all the info in this thread.

I have a 434 hp 12V leaking coolant out the exh side, no other problems except for a rough spot, kinda like it's missing, just over 1kRPM. Don't know if that is related, might be due to the fact that the exh currently dumps under the pass seat.

( I just bought it, wasn't leaking 'til I got my foot in it, I think I might have pushed it too hard cold, though I'm not sure what "cold" is...)

I noticed the 12V shortie studs are a problem...what if you were to replace the washers with bushings that were long/thick enough to make the studs all the same length? Might make the stud unstable/wobbly? You could put a shallow register/locator in the head and /tap press fit them in to help with that.

Opinions?

Side note : Any chance retorqueing what's on mine might close/slow the leak 'til I get around to studding it?