ARP2000 ALH Head Stud Install (trying to stop a coolant leak)

Update:



Haha.....found a broken flywheel tooth that was pinned between the bell-housing and flywheel. Got a new flywheel and new head gasket. Took some time to spit shine the thing and now waiting on my ARP bolt goo that should be here today. Cyls looked good and head, cam looked flawless. The head gasket that came out didnt look bad at all. Seemed that the outer 2 cyl's were the ones filling with coolant. Going to go back with ARP's torque recommendations.....but might take it to 130 ft/lbs....i see some have done on here with good success.

Oh yeah....also bought a spare engine and trans:

Where can these arp bolts be purchased? Ive got coolant loss and over pressuring issues also worse when I push it hard, running uprated power so may be the bolts arnt strong enough!

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I bought mine from Kerma.

A.m.C said:

Where can these arp bolts be purchased? Ive got coolant loss and over pressuring issues also worse when I push it hard, running uprated power so may be the bolts arnt strong enough!

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Click to expand...

Got mine from Nicktane. Fast shipping and its free.

I would also get this as well to have on hand for any re-do's down the road

Huh....were did my pics go?

I got mine from Nicktane as well.

Update on the car (If anyone cares):

Got the engine and tranny back in last week. Finally got to start putting stuff back on today: Power steering pump and pulley, harnesses, and coolant lines. But due to feeling blah today....gonna save the intake, turbo, and other stuff for tomorrow. Should have about 2 hrs of work left. Then ill see if this new gasket works or not. I have a Snap-On coolant vacuum filler that i can pull a vacuum on the system and check for any leak downs before suck the coolant in. Little handy tool let me tell ya! Anyway....crossing fingers....

Slightly off topic but could PD engine head bolts be used? They are stronger than the non pd ones!

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Wonder if these would be any good! http://www.darksidedevelopments.co....d-bolt-set-for-1-9-2-0-8v-tdi-pd-engines.html

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Just had my arp studs delivered, instructions say to toraue down to 145 nm in three stages, how did everyone do theirs!?

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I did mine the second time 25, 75, 135 ft/lbs. All is good!

30-60-90-125.

I know, it's 4 stages, but I wanted it torqued evenly.

Instructions are a little vauge! I will be swapping without pulling the head, shall I remove bolt one then torque to 30 for example, do this to all 10 then do stage 2 to all 10 then 3 ect ect.!? Also sure mine said 145nm!?

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No, when you install a new one go to 90 immediately since that's what the stock ones are torqued to. Then go to the max (mine said 125 ft-lbs) in two stages. I did 90-110-125 when I replaced mine.

Ah ok cheers, mine may have said 125 maybe I misread!

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Abacus said:

No, when you install a new one go to 90 immediately since that's what the stock ones are torqued to. Then go to the max (mine said 125 ft-lbs) in two stages. I did 90-110-125 when I replaced mine.

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just a question, i say that the stock one are torque to 90ft-lbs?

i'm asking this because i've just done a head gasket service, and the in here, the specified torque for the head that comes with the head gasket is:
1stage- 30NM,
2- 60NM,
3- 90º(degress),
4- 90º.
So i can't know how many nm or ft-lbs are in total, but in the 4 stage, i've setted 210NM in the torque wrench just to have a clue, and the torque was over that, because the wrench have fired, finish the 90º it was necessary a bit more

from what i've seen 210nm is something like 154 ft-lbs

I have a 1997 AHU, not sure about your car. I would look up the torque specs and use them.

this is the spec torque for an asv 2001.

Whats the ahu specs?! Ive seen the above but also 90nm as final torque

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Done the install, bit of an odd one but did anyone notice an increased mpg? Mine seems to have gone up significantly! Also no coolant loss or system pressure

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I did notice that the increased clamping force on the head altered my injection timing. I installed them for good measure not because there was an issue with leakage.

Havnt looked at the timing but she does run sweet lol! No leak issues now hA

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Just to provide another data point: I had the same issue and it didn't seem too extreme, so I tried the ARP studs on my '01 Jetta TDI ALH. It didn't solve my coolant pressurization issue, but of course I reused them when I did my recent headgasket swap. There's nothing to lose by trying this!

Thanks!
Mark

Well this thread inspired me to give swapping the bolts for studs a try.

This is an AHU engine in my 1978 VW Bus. I had a very minor-seeming head gasket leak that was pushing exhaust into the coolant under heavy loads. It was causing coolant to push out of the reservoir at times, and there were bubbles in the return line. (I swapped the factory rubber hose with a reinforced clear vinyl hose to be able to more readily see bubbles.)

So I went ahead last week and swapped them out one at a time, as described in this thread. I did it 1-10 as numbered in the instructions.

I started with about 100 ft/lbs upon swapping each one, then went to 112 and then up to 125.

While this was only a little more than a week ago, I'm happy to say that so far, this has been successful! Once the air worked out of the system (I had actually drained it to begin to pull the head) I have not lost any coolant. I've taken it on three trips an hour away and back, and one that was a little under two hours, purposefully driving it harder.

I want to say I'm at this point cautiously optimistic, but I can say for sure, So far, so good!

Ganoid said:

I did notice that the increased clamping force on the head altered my injection timing. I installed them for good measure not because there was an issue with leakage.

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Which way did it alter the timing? Is this something that can be observed with the Ross-Tech tool?

I have noticed it takes a little more work to get started in the morning.

Another win for the studs! Stock turbo, rocket ship stage 3+ tune with nozzles. Noticed heat coming and going under high boost conditions and coolant coming out of recovery tank. Installed studs today and problem solved!!

redcorradoguy said:

Well this thread inspired me to give swapping the bolts for studs a try.

This is an AHU engine in my 1978 VW Bus. I had a very minor-seeming head gasket leak that was pushing exhaust into the coolant under heavy loads. It was causing coolant to push out of the reservoir at times, and there were bubbles in the return line. (I swapped the factory rubber hose with a reinforced clear vinyl hose to be able to more readily see bubbles.)

So I went ahead last week and swapped them out one at a time, as described in this thread. I did it 1-10 as numbered in the instructions.

I started with about 100 ft/lbs upon swapping each one, then went to 112 and then up to 125.

While this was only a little more than a week ago, I'm happy to say that so far, this has been successful! Once the air worked out of the system (I had actually drained it to begin to pull the head) I have not lost any coolant. I've taken it on three trips an hour away and back, and one that was a little under two hours, purposefully driving it harder.

I want to say I'm at this point cautiously optimistic, but I can say for sure, So far, so good!

Click to expand...

Since the thread popped back up again, I just thought I'd say that since I installed those studs, I still have not had any problems with the head gasket.

I have, since then, driven the bus from Kansas to Colorado three times, as well as up to Nebraska towing my Thing plus lots of nearby driving. All so far without issues.

...Well... Issues with the head gasket or studs... The transmission did self-grenade a few weeks ago...

Great thread, I went the cap screw route as it was considerably cheaper. Seems to have stopped my leak. M12 x 120mm grade 12.9 socket head cap screws and hard washers from McMaster Carr was about 25 bucks shipped to my door. Replaced in a standard order(from bently manual 1 thru 10) one at a time, 100,112 then went thru 2 heat cycles and went to 125 ft/lbs. Only been a few days but so far holding good.

Update: My head started leaking again after another 14k. I am going to try a new gasket this time with the non-stretch cap screws.

Update #2: It turned out that the #9 cap screw had broke. I temporarily replaced it with an old stretch bolt and no more leak.

Update #3: After about another 12k miles (27k total) the leak got really bad again. I got another gasket on sale at Rockauto so one more swap with non-stretch cap screws torqued to 115 Ft.Lbs. Also added 3 coats of copper coat to the gasket before install. So far so good. This is obviously not the correct way to fix the problem but this car is reaching the end of its useful life to me so keeping it going for another $45 dollars worth of parts and day of my labor is worth it to me.

I'm going to be trying this soon. Don't have any coolant loss issues. More of a precaution for mods I'm going to run I'll follow up when it's all said and done.

Nero, what mods are you going to run?
So one of the reasons MY gasket leaks is because im running too much power. The block flexes enough durring high boost due to high RPMs and the torque load.
The #1 best supporting mod to keep this from happening under heavy mods is a girdle plate at the crank.

Mongler98 said:

Nero, what mods are you going to run?
So one of the reasons MY gasket leaks is because im running too much power. The block flexes enough durring high boost due to high RPMs and the torque load.
The #1 best supporting mod to keep this from happening under heavy mods is a girdle plate at the crank.

Click to expand...

Too much power, lol. I don't have girdle in my Caddy and after last rebuild no issues with head gasket @ 3.8 bar boost and over 6000rpm.