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Head Stud Kits
Pontiac V8 Head Stud Kits
Clamp It and Keep It — Head Stud Kits for Pontiac V8s
Head stud kits thread into the block once and stay there, so the nut does the clamping and the block threads are not pulled through every time a head comes off. On a Pontiac V8 that is worth having on an engine you expect to service again, on aluminum heads, and anywhere cylinder pressure is above stock.
Butler stocks ARP head stud kits for 1967-and-newer D-port, RA II / RA IV / HO / Super Duty round port, Ram Air V, Edelbrock RPM heads split by manufacturing date, KRE D-ports and aluminum-block combinations, with 6-point or 12-point nuts depending on the kit.
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1. Iron Head Applications
The factory-pattern stud kits follow the same year and port split the bolt kits do, so the casting number still decides.
| D-port, 1967 and newer | ARP-190-4002 is the stud kit for '67-and-later D-port heads — the common ground for 400 and 455 street and strip builds. |
| Round port iron | ARP-190-4003 covers RA II, RA IV, HO and Super Duty round port heads and comes with 6-point nuts. |
| Ram Air V | ARP-190-4005 is the Ram Air V stud kit, 8740 chromoly in black oxide with 6-point nuts and washers included. ARP lists it as the Ram Air V 303 cubic inch SCCA Trans-Am series part. |
2. Edelbrock, KRE and Aluminum Blocks
Aluminum heads are the main reason people move to studs in the first place, and they have the most specific fitment in the group.
| Edelbrock D-port | ARP-190-4306 is the D-port stud kit for Edelbrock cylinder heads. |
| Edelbrock RPM round port, made before 3-15-02 | ARP-190-4304, supplied with 12-point nuts for the early-style casting. |
| Edelbrock RPM round port, made after 3-15-02 | ARP-190-4305, also with 12-point nuts, and the same kit fits KRE D-port heads. |
| Aluminum block combinations | ARP-ALB-EDL is a bull-nose stud kit for an aluminum block running RPM / round port style Edelbrock heads made after 2002 or KRE D-port heads. |
3. Nut Style, Clearance and Install
The stud is only half the kit. The nut on top is what you have to live with under the valve covers.
| 6-point versus 12-point | the round port and Ram Air V kits come with 6-point nuts; the Edelbrock RPM kits use 12-point. The 12-point is smaller across the flats and easier to get a socket on in tight rocker areas. |
| Thread the studs in clean | run a thread chaser through the block holes first. A stud pulled down into debris will read torque it has not actually made. |
| Torque spec | Butler's Pontiac chart lists cylinder heads at 95 ft-lbs with engine oil for factory-style hardware, but ARP studs are torqued to ARP's own specification with their lube. Use the sheet in the box. |
4. Step Washers for Repeatedly Torqued Aluminum Heads
On aluminum heads that have seen several torque cycles plus years of exhaust heat, the material around the top of the stud hole starts to sink. Step washers stop it.
| The fix | a .500" I.D. chromoly step washer presses permanently into the top of the hole so the aluminum has something solid to load against. They are sold as a single, a set of six or a set of 20. |
| Machining first | the stud hole has to be reamed and spot faced with a step reamer tool, sold separately, before the washers go in. |
| Then the torque sequence | with the washers installed, the studs go into the block at 30 ft-lbs, and the heads get re-torqued to 120 ft-lbs after the first heat cycle and again after some miles or drag passes. For boosted or high cylinder pressure engines, Cometic MLS five-layer gaskets are the gasket recommendation. |
If you are undecided between bolts and studs, the practical question is how many times the heads are coming off. An engine that gets checked, re-gasketed or cam-swapped is happier on studs; a one-and-done stock rebuild is fine on the correct bolt kit.
Not sure what your Pontiac needs?
Email our tech team at tech@butlerperformance.com. Tell us your engine, heads, car, and power goal, and we will put the parts together as one combination that works.