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Pro-Comp Head Studs sold on Ebay

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Old Apr 17, 2012 | 05:37 PM
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Originally Posted by SSCamaro99_3
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They could be fine. I was just stating "for me" a $200 difference for a known quantity vs. and unknown quantity if I were doing H/C/I and spending $3000 ish. You are correct, I may not have corroborating evidence, but for 6% of my build price, I would not want to find out the hard way. However, it is just my opinion.
I agree, but price doesnt always mean better. Thats why I'm checking the waters for failures. Doesnt seem to be any. I figured most of the LS online gurus are here.
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Old Apr 17, 2012 | 07:01 PM
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https://ls1tech.com/forums/generatio...e-garbage.html
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Old Apr 17, 2012 | 07:12 PM
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That's what we've all been trying to say. ^^^^^^^
I'm sure this has happened to many more as well. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. The price difference is between the fleabay studs and arp studs is roughly three tanks of gas, depending on the vehicle of course. Spend the extra coin on confidence.
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Old Apr 17, 2012 | 07:16 PM
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Who has broken a stock head bolt? Who has seen an actual failure of a stock head bolt in anything other than a boosted application where they pushed water?
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Old Apr 17, 2012 | 07:50 PM
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ive snapped a replacement bolt new. torquing it down.
if there better than a stock replacement bolt. im all for t.
i used a set in a 6.0.iput together for a friend they are holding up good so far. 500rw n/a and occasional 200 hit. going for almost year. pretty much a dd.
i soaked them in oil overnite before installing em. as i was reccomended.
i hve aset waiting for my turbo motor.i think i would rather use them than a stock felpro or gm replacement bolt.
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Old Apr 17, 2012 | 09:21 PM
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^^ why would you soak the studs? They're not porus lol
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Old Apr 17, 2012 | 10:51 PM
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Honestly I think this one is BS, You are not going to convince me a metal stud broke before ripping the thread out of an aluminum block. Even the cheapest grade fastener is stronger than those aluminum threads. If anything the stud it self would strip on the nut.
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Old Apr 17, 2012 | 11:16 PM
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^^ Thus my confusion with the whole topic, and the bump for other opinions. I think I'll just get the ARP bolts to start, and get the studs later on. Even selling the bolts used, it's not like you lose much at all. Certainly well worth the cost when you consider buying GM bolts 2 or 3 times.....
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Old Apr 17, 2012 | 11:19 PM
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Ditto. Sounds like improper installation. From what I gathered he torqued the studs in the block. No wonder it broke. I'm not defending the eBay studs at all but I have see arp failures as well. But it dosent bother me one bit. At some point I'm putting arp studs on my motor but I'm also boosted and don't want to take the risk
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Old Apr 17, 2012 | 11:42 PM
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Its just good conversation. I have the ARPs too.
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Old Apr 19, 2012 | 01:19 PM
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Originally Posted by 89ROC-Z
^^ why would you soak the studs? They're not porus lol
Didnt/couldnt hurt. Car runs with em and very well i might add. On/off the bottle.
I know it prolly did nothing to improve them. But eh. I was bored anyway. Just soaked em overnite,all the hardware. They installed and tq'd no different than the arps ive used. Perhaps not same quality or strength as arp. But they work if correctly installed? Sure, gonna throw a set on a jy 5.3. Better than the stock bolts imo.
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Old Apr 21, 2012 | 02:34 AM
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^^ Sounds good. I'm going to post up my ARP head bolts for sale since I have the studs already, it sounds like they're just fine. This is for my TA, the camaro has ARP's on it; guess i'll have experience with both ARP bolts and the ProComp studs
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Old Apr 22, 2012 | 06:06 PM
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Im on my 3rd year with the "abad71camaro" head studs. I was very happy with the quality of the harware when i compared it to the other arp bolts that were used at the same time.
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Old Apr 23, 2012 | 04:36 AM
  #34  
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Originally Posted by badazz81z28
Honestly I think this one is BS, You are not going to convince me a metal stud broke before ripping the thread out of an aluminum block. Even the cheapest grade fastener is stronger than those aluminum threads. If anything the stud it self would strip on the nut.
For the male and female threads, there are 2 factors to determining which will break first - the strength of the material, and the area that the force is applied over. Each has equal weighting.

When a head bolt or stud is fully threaded into the block, the aluminum threads will be stronger because the force is spread out over a much larger area than the bolt cross section. That difference will make up for the discrepancy in material strength, and then some.
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Old Apr 24, 2012 | 09:43 AM
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I have the abad71camaro studs on my FI LQ motor which will be making 800-900 RWHP. No install problems to report and I torqued them to 80# which is the updated ARP spec. I even over-torqued the small studs as the called for ARP torque spec (don't remember what is is) seemed like they were just snugged up. I only have a few hundred miles on the motor so far so I suppose they could still fail. I've heard it said like this: If an ebay stud fails everyone says I told you so, if an ARP stud fails you must have gotten a bad one.
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Old Apr 24, 2012 | 11:46 AM
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Originally Posted by 5 Liter Eater
I've heard it said like this: If an ebay stud fails everyone says I told you so, if an ARP stud fails you must have gotten a bad one.

This is probably the most true statement I have seen in a while.

Hell I'd almost be willing to bet if you did a search across multiple forums you would probably find just as many ARP failures as these ebay studs. Bad thing about goin off this is that 90% of success stories never get posted, but that 10% of bad experiences always get posted.

For the cost difference I'd like to see testing that proves the ARP's are that much better of a stud, not just people telling you to spend the extra for a name. People have broke stock bolts, ARP's & the ebay studs, so none are without failures completely. If ARP's quality really is that far above the ebay studs it warrants the price, if not they are getting sales through advertisement & brand loyality for their products.
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Old Apr 24, 2012 | 01:22 PM
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Just to add into the mix. Had a set of those studs that a customer bought after complaining about the price of ARP's a while back. He later on bought the ARP's after having our machine shop drill out the snapped remains of one of them from his block.
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Old Apr 24, 2012 | 02:43 PM
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There is another vendor on eBay - KJM Performance - with head studs and they're even cheaper than the ones from the badcamaro guy. I wonder if they are made by the same manufacturer?

Edit - my bad, they are both Pro Comp.
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Old Apr 24, 2012 | 10:42 PM
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Originally Posted by BIG_MIKE2005
This is probably the most true statement I have seen in a while.
I'd disagree. This is the classic 918 scenario. Everybody is scared to death of them breaking but when production numbers and percentages come into play it tells a different story. As soon as PAC started getting popular here, failures were reported with their beehives. Nobody in their right mind would put a bolt or stud on the same level as an engineered/tested product, which is what ARP sells. There will always be material discrepancies, unforeseen/unpredictable manufacturing issues and installer error, but ARP is tops in the fastener game. And yes I do think they are overpriced for what they are, but anyone has to know R+D isn't cheap and neither is advertising, both of which ARP elects to engage in.
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Old Apr 24, 2012 | 11:14 PM
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What if ARP did the research on the ebay knock offs and found they were just as good so they left them alone and arnt saying anything?
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