Mine let go at 55psi

 

sealing area of the mls is not round like the old ones. o-rings are round, dont work. i have customers runing way over 65lbs of boost with just studs, doing fine.

ted

 

The same setup as im installing made 63PSI, so should i just go with headstuds? (I sledpull and race alot.)

 

i dont see how you would even o ring a 3rg gen. the mls head gasket is not cut out round around the cylinders like a 2nd gen. its kinda round then goes to a angle around the cylinder. dont think o rings would even work. you could o ring it and then put a second gen hg on it and cut out the added coolent passeges the 3rd gen head has but why do all that. i burried the boost needle at 60 psi all the time with my truck and it holds like a champ. just 12mm arp studs tourqued to 125 ft lbs. i think the key is to tourque the studs right and keep them tourqued. i just retourqued mine and some were pretty loose. i also shoot a pretty big shot of nos. the mls with the arp studs is the ticket

 

Ive heard that the 03-04.5 are fine with studs but the 05's will go with studs at only 50PSI, and ive not heard anything on the 06's? I'm just lookin for the right way to go here?

 

I wouldn't worry about o-rings but the head studs should be considered a must for anything over 50 psi boost. The most important thing with studs is torquing them correctly as it has already been said. The torque will be lower than the stock head bolts, and it's important to retorque them after a short run in. You have to lube them correctly and re-torque a couple of times in the first 1000 miles or so to get the full benefit from studs. I wouldn't spend a dime on any other brand than ARP. Their manufacturing process is second to none along with their quality control. Most companies will do their tooling before heat treating because it's much less destructive to their machinery. ARP heat treats them first, then tools them which makes for an extremely predictable finished product. they are expensive, but worth every penny in my opinion. Maybe it's not as important to be so **** with the big cast iron smoker head, but I come from a lot of high horsepower high compression gassers with aluminum heads that pretty much spell out ARP or don't waste your time/money.

When I torque a head down, I do it in four stages, then back off 1/8 of a turn and twist them all down again.

 

whats the average psi you can get outa stock head?

 

Do I Have To Take The Head Off To Put In The Studs?

 

If all is well with the head and gasket, you can swap them out one for one starting in the middle and then running the pattern out to the ends.

 

Guys its not just boost that takes out headgaskets.
Alot of it has to do with EGT's and back pressure.

Running around with boxes set on kill and a stock turbo is a good way to pop a gasket.

Its not all boost numbers.

By the way a properly running 3rd gen can take 50psi on a regular basis with just factory parts.

I sled pulled all last year with 50psi and never popped it on stock bolts.

 

I dont understand why someone would not pay $600 or so bucks and go ahead and do studs, rather than driving around and praying that it doesnt go out.

just my opinion

 

I will stud...one of these days, but I do have 100k with daily episodes of 60 psi boost...OEM still holding fine!

 

does anyone have an 06 with over 60PSI and just head studs? If so id really like to know, times running out for me to make a decision.

 

You should be fine with a set of studs and a bottom tapped block.

 

MLS gaskets are designed to be used without o-rings