Anybody ever use Summit Racing head studs?
ARP p/n 234-4317
Summit Racing p/n 910255
The ring and pinions work great, run quiet, and setup easy, btw...
Not sure on the bolts, but there are a lot of specialt bolt manufacturers around here.
Not sure about the head studs. One thing that is noteworthy is that, while the studs are cheaper than ARP, they are not as cheap as the Chinese studs sold on eBay. This is actually reassuring.
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Sometimes "Made in China" is as clear as mud.
The steps to manufacture a bolt/stud really don't change based on quantity. The method used to produce high quality fatigue rated bolts is usually determined by the performance requirements, not the volume.
So, the time to produce EACH piece is the same regardless of "mfg. lot size". This would be considered the "total cycle time".
Where the "volume discount" comes from is the "setup time". Where each step in the process requires a machine/process to be setup and established. This "total setup time" is spread across the total number of parts produced aka. mfg. lot size.
So let's do some quick math:
"Small Lot Size" - 100 pieces
Total Cycle Time per piece - 10 minutes
Total Setup Time for ALL processes - 10 hours
Total Time PER piece - 16 minutes
"Medium Lot Size" - 500 pieces
Total Cycle Time per piece - 10 minutes
Total Setup Time for ALL processes - 10 hours
Total Time PER piece - 11.2 minutes
"Large Lot Size" - 1000 pieces
Total Cycle Time per piece - 10 minutes
Total Setup Time for ALL processes - 10 hours
Total Time PER piece - 10.6 minutes
"Extra Large Lot Size" - 5000 pieces
Total Cycle Time per piece - 10 minutes
Total Setup Time for ALL processes - 10 hours
Total Time PER piece - 10.12 minutes
So you can see as the volume grows to a point, there really isn't a significant reduction in per piece cost after a certain point.
Knowing a bit about the fastener industry, I don't believe the Summit bolts are produced or "private labeled" by ARP. They are most likely the same off-shore fasteners that other people are having made.
Cole
Last edited by Summitracing; Apr 13, 2018 at 07:51 AM.
I too have worker on engineering for their "store brand" ignition products with IMPROVEMENT in the quality/life of their "Store" brand vs a "Name" brand item.
My guess is that the Summit Brand Stud is a VERY close match in "stretch" rate compared to the GM engineered head bolt "stretch" rate, good for gasket life.
I offer to test that expansion if samples are provided.
NO ROCKET SCIENCE here, just the same method used to measure Rod Bolt life.
Thus I support the Summit Stud use.
Lance
I too have worker on engineering for their "store brand" ignition products with IMPROVEMENT in the quality/life of their "Store" brand vs a "Name" brand item.
My guess is that the Summit Brand Stud is a VERY close match in "stretch" rate compared to the GM engineered head bolt "stretch" rate, good for gasket life.
I offer to test that expansion if samples are provided.
NO ROCKET SCIENCE here, just the same method used to measure Rod Bolt life.
Thus I support the Summit Stud use.
Lance












