How can you not love summer? Sure, it gets hot, but it definitely beats the cold and you need a lot of time. At Engine Builder, our team was busy visiting race events, shows, visiting engine manufacturers and shops, and our usual content work.
When there is no locating pin in the timing cover or timing case, or when the locating pin hole does not fit snugly on the pin. Take the old damper and sand the center so that it can now slide over the crank nose. Use it to secure the cover by tightening the bolts.
Whether you’re a professional engine builder, mechanic or manufacturer, or a car enthusiast who loves engines, race cars and fast cars, Engine Builder has something for you. Our print magazines provide technical details on everything you need to know about the engine industry and its various markets, while our newsletter options keep you up to date with the latest news and products, technical information and industry insiders. However, you can get all this only by subscription. Subscribe now to receive monthly print and/or electronic editions of Engine Builders Magazine, as well as our Weekly Engine Builders Newsletter, Weekly Engine Newsletter or Weekly Diesel Newsletter, straight to your inbox. You’ll be covered in horsepower in no time!
Whether you’re a professional engine builder, mechanic or manufacturer, or a car enthusiast who loves engines, race cars and fast cars, Engine Builder has something for you. Our print magazines provide technical details on everything you need to know about the engine industry and its various markets, while our newsletter options keep you up to date with the latest news and products, technical information and industry insiders. However, you can get all this only by subscription. Subscribe now to receive monthly print and/or electronic editions of Engine Builders Magazine, as well as our Weekly Engine Builders Newsletter, Weekly Engine Newsletter or Weekly Diesel Newsletter, straight to your inbox. You’ll be covered in horsepower in no time!
It’s no secret that at higher combustion pressures, it is absolutely essential that the cylinder head rests snugly against the surface of the cylinder block. So it’s just as important to choose a brand of headwear that you trust to get the job done.
Whether you have a work truck that runs all day, a truck built for versatile work, or something in between, there is no doubt that all trucks will benefit from a new set of cylinder head bolts.
When it comes to buying engine fasteners like studs, they have long been at the top of the list – ARP. ARP has been around for over 50 years and, to its credit, it continues to strive to produce higher performance fasteners for demanding applications. However, competition in this area has been increasing recently and one of the companies vying for market share is Gator Fasteners, a KT Performance brand from Groveland, Florida.
It’s no secret that at higher combustion pressures, it is absolutely essential that the cylinder head rests snugly against the surface of the cylinder block. So it’s just as important to choose a brand of headwear that you trust to get the job done. We recently spoke with ARP about their head stud products and also spoke with Zeigler Diesel Performance in Canton, Ohio about Gator fasteners for the latest on each company’s stud specs and technology, as well as some similarities. and differences associated with them. to the diesel crowd.
Typically, a factory fastener today is a disposable yield strength fastener. This means that over time there is a very high chance that you will lift the cylinder head off the block and damage the cylinder head gasket. Aftermarket bolts from ARP or Gator Fasteners don’t stretch like factory bolts because they don’t have a torque yield strength.
“In terms of diesel performance, we typically outperform factory equipment by 20 percent,” said ARP’s Chris Raschke. “That was the focus and the goal. We also wanted something reusable. A lot of the people we talked to used ARP2000 and 625 nails.”
ARP offers head bolt kits for a variety of gas and diesel engines, and Gator fasteners also fit major diesel engine platforms. However, the Gator does not appear to be in the gas side of the market, but comes with an LS head bolt option.
For diesel engines, Gator bolts are designed for 2001 Duramax engines up to and including the updated 2020 L5P engine. Powerstroke and Cummins engines range from Rams in 1989 to Powerstroke in 1994 up until this year.
“Gator mounts look very, very nice compared to what I’ve seen,” said Justin Zeigler of Zeigler Diesel Performance. “I have seen some other very questionable studs from other manufacturers. ARP has been using them longer than anyone else. However, I think Gator fasteners are definitely a good choice and a good choice. I like the quality, price and availability. ‘saw.”
With a tensile strength of over 220,000 psi, Gator fasteners won’t stretch like factory bolts. They are manufactured with rolled threads after heat treatment for optimum fatigue strength. They are centerless ground for concentricity and each kit includes heat treated chrome steel, parallel ground 12 point nuts and washers with black oxide coating for durability.
While Gator as a new brand can naturally offer a premium product, it still lacks one of ARP’s best and biggest differentiators – the experience.
“We use a torque tensioner to check factory fasteners and a factory fitting method to check the clamping loads you get from factory fasteners,” Raschke explains. “That’s what we built from there. We also have a thermal test fixture, which is a furnace with a test chamber inside, and you can actually heat everything up to engine operating temperature to see how it affects fasteners at operating temperature. When we create fastener kits for any application, we must consider these factors. We have many tools in our toolbox to do what we need.”
Fasteners in the past have used 8740 material at 180,000-200,000 psi, which has always been more than enough to replace factory equipment. Today, brands such as ARP offer customers a choice of ARP2000, Inconel or Custom Age 625 PLUS with higher tensile strength.
“With 8740 material, you can only handle about 200,000 psi, which is about 38-42 on the Rockwell scale, and that’s where the fun begins,” Raschke said. “If you try to lift it higher, you will tire the head pins. You have to choose materials that work where they are supposed to behave.”
ARP 2000 performed very well at 220,000 psi and, according to Raschke, still had good fatigue properties and good ductility at higher clamp loads. From there, ARP offers its custom age material.
“One of the great things about Custom Age is that it’s a stainless steel material that won’t rust,” Raschke said. “It has high tensile strength (260,000+ psi) so you can shake it and still be happy. It’s stainless steel too, the problem with diesels is they have a lot of heat, moisture, exhaust – that’s it “It’s not the same for general steel equipment. Corrosion releases hydrogen, and hydrogen embrittlement can damage fasteners. If you overheat the studs to make them stronger, you’ll have corrosion-induced corrosion. The chances of hydrogen embrittlement problems are doubling.”
Of course, not only the material has an impact on the spike that best suits your needs, but also its size. Generally, 12mm head bolts can be used for most Cummins applications. However, some really high performing people may use 14mm studs, 9/16 studs, or even 5/8 studs.
“In most cases, all of your factory Cummins will be 12mm studs,” Ziegler said. “In the racing world, we’ve always used 14mm or 9/16 for higher torque. The head bolts on my race car are torqued to 250 ft.lbs. Those 12mms are 125 ft.lbs. A big difference in holding, but it’s also very , a very different application.”
Raschke said many people at Cummins started drilling larger studs simply because they didn’t have enough strong stud material in the past. Now, thanks to ARP, they’ve done it.
“While people still want to work with blocks, we provide them with higher level material,” he said. “Our solution is usually to make higher quality fasteners for factory use. If you want to change something, our specialist department goes crazy. We’ve worked on a lot of different diesel vehicles. Manufacturers do this, for example , Shade, Heisley, Wagler and others”.
While sometimes a bigger size sounds better, Raschke has warnings based on your block, head, and what you need to do to take advantage of the larger pimple.
“With these blanks, some people even use 9/16 or 5/8,” he said. “Ultimately, you can put in the biggest stud, but the cylinder wall won’t support it, or there isn’t room for the cylinder head gasket, and you’ll ruin the block. head not strong enough to handle higher clamps Heavy loads? There are a lot of things to think about instead of just putting in something stronger. You also need to have a head washer with structural properties to handle this.
“For a multi-layer gasket that is being sold today, you need to have fasteners that are more forgiving on a street vehicle than on a race car, because with a race car you are more likely to take it apart and service it more often, whereas a streetcar will need to be driven hundreds of thousands of miles. You can’t flatten a headrest, and you can’t expand and compress it.”
Zeigler responded to these comments by stating that oversized studs or heavy-duty materials are not required in most cases.
“If it’s a humble app that doesn’t have anything absurd about it, then there’s no reason to spend so much money,” Ziegler said. “If the job is done right, a good set of bolts with good washers and quality preparation won’t be a problem.”
As with most engine work, getting the job done right is 99% successful. The same applies to the fastening of the head bolt. We caught up with Justin at Zeigler Diesel Performance to watch Gator Fastener install a set of 12mm head bolts for a Cummins 24 valve engine.
Immediately, Justin praised Gator for its packaging and presentation. Gator and ARP studs come in the same size box, which includes the necessary hardware, branded decals, and installation instructions. ARP studs are usually packaged in individual plastic bushings and nuts and washers in plastic bags. With Gator clasps, the studs are housed in a beautiful plastic case, each stud has a plastic cap to protect the threads, and washers and nuts come in individual bags. One of the biggest differences is the lubrication provided. ARP supplies a small package of grease and Gator supplies a large tube of AMSOIL mounting grease.
Before installing any studs and after running the faucet into each hole, cleanliness is critical to avoid problems later on.
“The most important thing is to focus on cleanliness,” Ziegler said. “When you’ve punched out the holes, you have to blow them out with air and wipe everything down with brake cleaner to make sure everything we have is very, very clean before we put the pads on the surface.”
The Cummins Gator stud kit comes with 26 studs – 6 longer studs on the outside of the head and 20 shorter studs on the inside. Each stud is lubricated with mounting grease before installation into the head and block. Similar to the ARP2000 studs, these 12mm alligators require three sequences of torque to reach 125 ft-lbs. (40, 80 and 125). On the other hand, ARP 625 studs go up to 150 ft-lbs. (50, 100, 150). Both brands’ instructions easily describe how to screw the stud into place.
As mentioned, ARP has designed all the mounts, so it is recommended to install them only at 80% load, if you want them to be tighter for expansion, 20% cushioning is available. Neither Gator nor ARP tell you if their studs can be reused. Justin can tell you firsthand what you can.
“A few years ago, my tractor had the same ARP studs for five different engines,” he said. “I measured them and nothing stretched or changed, so I use them all the time and never had a problem.”
The stud installation can take 4-6 hours depending on the job. If you don’t have your own machine shop, the only thing you can’t equate to is sending the head off for finishing.
All in all, hairpins are not high math, nor is setting them up, but you still want to make sure you’re doing the job right, as the consequences of doing it wrong can be disastrous.
“The main thing is to choose a proven combination,” Raschke advises. “People go on the internet and choose this turbocharger, this injector, this head and this ring of fire, and they mix all these things together and it still doesn’t work. They use the ideas of four or five different people instead of choosing the combination that suits their needs. When creating anything, you always need to look at the big picture.
“You have to have the right washers, the right clamp load, and the head washers. Once you hit extreme performance, then you get into fire rings and stuff like that.”
According to Zeigler, not many people get it wrong when it comes to the spikes themselves, but rather their preparation.
“Ensuring a clean deck surface is critical, especially when using these laminated steel washers – the surface finish needs to be right,” Zeigler said. “You want the surface finish to always be the same.”
Today, almost every engine component offers buyers a variety of options. However, engine hardware may be one of the few areas where ARP is clearly the brand of choice based on quality, experience and product. That dominance is still far from certain, but more players are entering the market, like Gator Fasteners, and recent supply chain issues are giving others an edge.
“No one can influence the success of ARP,” admits Ziegler. “However, I think Gator Fasteners can be a success if they don’t get out of hand on price. The price is right and the quality is definitely on point. I think it would be a really good option, not some then ARP things, because now we are waiting for several months.”
Raschke acknowledged that ARP is facing challenges as many manufacturers struggle to keep up with demand. The company is working to reduce waiting times and increase throughput, he said.
“It’s hard to beat what ARP gives you, but Gator Fasteners seem like an equal choice.”
Post time: Aug-24-2022
