I have been reading up on rebuilding the 4.0 and 4.6 engine. There are a lot of differing opinions on using stretch bolts or spending the extra dollars on an ARP stud kit. Before I started researching the ARP stud kits, I read up on top hat liner options. One of the well known builders, Turner, RPi, or maybe D&D (wish I could remember which one) reported they had recently seen a handful of their builds with top hat liners installed develop head gasket compression leaks after only 40,000 ish miles. One of the suspected reasons for failure was uneven quality of the stretch bolts, even the OE supplied bolts. They stated they would now be using ARP studs.
Until I read that I had decided to simply get the better quality stretch bolts. Now, I expect I will go with the ARP stud kit.
I am curious, anyone here experienced a failed head gasket after a relatively short time period not related to overheating or other obvious cause?
Until I read that I had decided to simply get the better quality stretch bolts. Now, I expect I will go with the ARP stud kit.
I am curious, anyone here experienced a failed head gasket after a relatively short time period not related to overheating or other obvious cause?