In another topic it was brought up that I could pull the pressed in rocker studs by myself and tap the holes for screw in ones.

What do I need to do to make sure I have the studs tapped in correctly (straight)? I've taken machining classes, included in these classes was a section on drilling and tapping. But it was the section I did the worst in.

Should I drill the holes out for the larger studs?

The whole thing about this is I'm running a set of DZ302 aluminum valve covers, and I don't want a rocker pulling out and punching a hole in one of my valve covers.

This is a high horse motor that I made look like an old school LT1.

If you have never done this before and have no Bridgeport or the equivilent of you may want to send that out or you could end up with a pile of junk. With the right equipment its not a bad job to do.

We have had to repair some heads before that the studs wher not put in correctly as we had to heli coil every hole to get them in correctly.

[This message has been edited by CNC BLOCKS (edited June 05, 2005).]

look in the dirt track catalogs - they sell a tool to help you with this.
First, it works as a deep spacer so you don't need $50 in washers to pull the old studs.
Then, it has a pin that goes into one stud hole and a threaded guide for the tap to thread the one next to it.
The tool is pretty cheap, and worked well on my heads.

------------------
-'77 Camaro 'Original' - 357, home-ported heads and intake, Q-jet, headers, hyper flattops, ~8.5:1, 3.42 gears, 214/224-112LSA cam, 1LE rotors, D61 pads, 5642 springs
-'92 LeBaron LX sedan - all family owned, great daily driver and highway cruiser. 52mm TB, rear discs swapped.
-'70 Camaro - 350, 4-sp, nothing power, needs work, lotsa fun
-'65 Nova - 230 I6, 3 on the tree, nothing power. HEI swap.
-'70 Cadillac Sedan Deville. 10:1 472ci, TH400 - stock.

Pulling out the old studs is easy- just stack up some of the old/stock rocker arm fulcrum balls on the stud, a thick washer on top coated with grease, thread on an old rocker arm nut and start turing- out she comes! You will have to stop when the nut bottoms on the rocker stud threads, back it off, put another fulcrum ball on the stack and then do another round of pulling, etc, etc.

I HIGHLY recommend the use of an impact gun- doing this with a breaker bar x16 studs is only for the young and strong.

I can't find that tool anywhere. Can you post a link to it?
Thanks!

I suggest you find a headshop or equivalent like cncblocks suggested. Although I have seen somewhere that has a tap with a pilot on it. But then again factory studs aren't always the straightest things out there. ANd yes it gets more expensuve to fix if you don't get them straight the first time. Jeff

The whole thing is that I've already gotten the heads on the motor, torqued down and all. Never been run with these new head gaskets, only run time on the motor at all was on the dyno.
The whole thing is, I might go to the 1.6 rockers later, and want to be able to change them without pulling the motor. But I don't know, I might. 'Sigh' I wish I would have had the studs worked on in the first place and had it over with.
The dyno shop had it over 6500 already and I about had a cow!

<font face="Arial,Verdana" size="2">Originally posted by Eliminator SS:
The whole thing is that I've already gotten the heads on the motor, torqued down and all. Never been run with these new head gaskets, only run time on the motor at all was on the dyno.
The whole thing is, I might go to the 1.6 rockers later, and want to be able to change them without pulling the motor. But I don't know, I might. 'Sigh' I wish I would have had the studs worked on in the first place and had it over with.
The dyno shop had it over 6500 already and I about had a cow!</font>

What about pinning the studs rather than putting in screw-in studs? It is less work.

Has anyone actually had any luck with pinning the studs?
I've seen 4 cars completely screw over a set of heads because of pinned studs breaking and cracking the head.
I don't know, I've always been told to stay away from them.

I had some studs pinned at a machine shop, bolted them on the motor and when I was tightening down the rocker arms the studs started pulling out. I guess they cracked where the pin was installed.
I had to take the heads off and back to the machine shop for screw in studs, then buy another set of head gaskets and fight with the head studs some more. Pain in the ass.

head studs must be put in off of the engine if the holes have no bottom otherwise the shavings go down into water and oil pasages,proform makes the tool its part number 66783 can be bought from summit or jegs. its easy to do them yourself you need a starting tap and a plug tap if theres no bottom to the hole if their is a bottom to the hole you need a starting and bottoming tap 7/16-14. Mr gasket makes a screw in stud to be used without guidplates. if you want to upgrade the rocker you need to get it cut down and use guid plates.